Last night, I was painting some prop tips with Rust-O-Leum. The nozzle clogged when I turned the can upside down to clean it. The rattle can nozzle looked the same (the can end) as the nozzle on a can of carburetor cleaner (pic below).
   Sticking the paint nozzle on the carb cleaner can cleared the clog in a hurry, and cleaned the nozzle far better than just the air from an upside down can.

This is almost certainly not an original idea, but I’ve never seen it published, so decided to post it.

Larry Fulwider

   Wow!  Those APC 12.25X3.75 props dyed black with white tips look very cool.  That's a great idea and would give my aircraft a better look, I think I may copy that.

Larry,

I just pull the nozzle off and dunk it in a 1/2 oz. cup of acetone for a bit, then attach a short piece of fuel line and blow it clear for next use.  No propellent is wasted.........

Jim

Yeah, in general, I usually "dunk and blow" rattle can nozzles, like you describe -- lacquer thinner or acetone, whatever is handy. This was so quick, even with such a total blockage clog, I think I'll keep a can of the carb cleaner handy. That is, I couldn't blow this one clear with fuel line (old lungs, I guess )

Larry Fulwider

Hi Larry,

Thank you for the good idea. Good timing, I will be "can" painting my plane next week. :-)

I don't want to get this thread off topic, but how did you dye the APC props? Did you use Ritz dye and do it like we dye our canopies but a little longer? Or......? ..... TIA for your ans.

. . .  how did you dye the APC props? Did you use Ritz dye and do it like we dye our canopies but a little longer? Or......? ..... TIA for your ans.

Rudy --

I stole the prop dying idea from Jimmy Welch, who is a darned innovative guy! Jimmy had been playing around with making 3 blade CF props, but I was surprised to see what appeared to be a CF two blade, a clone of the APC 12.25 x 3.25, on one of his planes. Turns out, it was no clone, but a dyed APC! Jimmy proceeded to tell me about dying APCs.
   It is pretty simple, actually. Buy Rit (not Ritz, those are crackers ) liquid dye, and follow the directions! Jimmy says the salt is the key to permanence.
   The Rit directions are for people dying pounds and washer loads of things. I found about 3 quarts of water covers a batch of props in a big skillet, so figured out these proportions – scaled down from Rit large batch directions:
   1 oz dye
   2 tbsp salt
   3 quarts of water

I kept the skillet on the burner for ½ hour after it started to simmer, and stirred the whole time. This was my first try, so I can’t say what I did was right. The dye seems deep enough scratching the color off doesn’t seem a problem. The dye penetrates pretty well, so somebody (like John Rakes) should try purple.
   There was some rice in the salt. I now have some of the blackest, weirdest looking rice ever seen.

   Larry Fulwider

Edit: PS: Thanks, all, for the related tips on nozzles. I didn't know about the fan shaped nozzles, for example.

Hi Larry,

Thank you for the "how to". Your friend is right, the salt is key. We found this out when we started dyeing our large canopies. I dyed them in a metal garbage can on our outdoor grill. Without the salt it worked poorly, with salt they were perfect and lasted for decades.

Do you (or anyone out there?) know if the long hot water bath has any negative impact on the APC props?

BTW: I did mean "Ritz" dye, I was going for the Ritz cracker "Safety Orange" color!      

Thanks again for your help.

Regards,