Work in Phoenix

How do you guys hang your stencils in your trailers? Thanks

I have two screws in the wall for my HC stencils and each stencil has two holes for hanging them in place, I think there is 6 or 8 stencils there alone. I also use binder clips to hang stencils from the top of the plywood that extends above the framing near the ceiling. And misc word stencils go between my paint rack and the wall, it is 3" wide between the rack and the wall and the length between the side door and rear ramp door.

I have 2x4 offset tacked to the trailer wall with firring strips tacked on horizontaly. You can pace the 2x4s whatever width of you stencils. I have a 5x8 trailer and can fit almost all my stencils. Some I pace a bungy around to keep them from slopping around.

I mounted a "L" shaped piece of steel strip (with holes about every 1" and ~6' long) on the top wall on both sides of the trailor. I then drill a hole in the edges of all my stencils. I hang a bungee cord in the holes on the stencil and the other end is hung in the holes of the "L". When I hang the stencils up if there is any wet paint on them, I turn the wet paint side on each stencil towards the wet side of the other.

I put 1/4 inch bolts with fender washers threw the plywood sides, tightened with nylon lock nuts and cut off the heads. I have to bolts sticking out a good 2 inches. I then at Lowes bought some 2 inch spring clamps to keep them on the bolts by sticking the spring clamps down from the top. I used to use wing nuts, but that was too slow. I have 2 sets of bolts one for handicaps, arrows etc. and the other farther apart for visitor, fire lane, no parking and the like. The long ones I have 4 clamps on the short ones have 2 clamps. I have an extra clamp to hang my safety vest on with the flourescent stripes.

We installed E Trac on the walls of the trailer and welded 3/8 rod to the clips. All of our stencils hang on the walls, nothing on the floor. It works good because the weight of the stencils in divided up to all the wall beams. Plus the E trac makes it easy to rearrange the stencils. JIm

I have four horse shoes welded on the walls. No kidding.

We Have a Metal Strip 2" wide with round stock welded to them on an angle along our side walls and they hold most of out stencils. Also we have a metal brace we made that is the width of the fender and sits on top of the wheels. It is about 3' High This holds all the big stuff.

Ken...... About the 4 horse shoes welded to the wall of your trailer.........has the horse complained yet? ...I bet he's getting tired!!

Nah, didn't seem to mind until we started looking for a place to store the broom

I like jpanz's idea with the E track. Then you always have different options if you want to move things around.

We have unistrut bolted to the walls vertically on about six foot centers, we are then able to use unistrut horizontally at whatever height we need for the different size stencils with 5" X 3/8" bolts on 2' centers out from the strut and stencils have coresponding holes in them to the bolts. Nothing on the floor and they won't fall off the bolts. Works great.

We use hooks, and run bungee cords across to keep the stencils against the wall, but I think I'm going to try the etrack thing this year. We put single letters and numbers in a milk crate, it makes it real easy to find what you need.

Does anybody here get their paint by the drum? Right now I using buckets (SW latex) I have noticed that (i believe) transcor inc deal is about $7 and some change for the paint if you buy it by the drum. I would not go threw the drum in for at least a week or two. For it being stored for that amount of time. Would I still get the paint chunks in the bottom of it? For the cost i believe it would be good. But don't you think it would a pain? or am I just thinking to deep into the material? thanks ya'll -Dean

I would not buy it by the drum, every time paint is opened or has access to air, you get skins on top which can be a pain and I could see this happening allot in a drum, also you have to add in your time to transfer the paint to pails to spray in your machine. We use 3,000+ gals a year and buy all of ours in pails, we just buy by the pallet, it's actually very convenient, you can grab what you need throw it in the trailer, and off you go, it also makes it real easy to shake. The only reason to buy in larger quantity's is if you paint long lines (roads) with a truck, then you would likely buy in 250 gal totes, because it would be very time consuming to open pails to paint 10 miles of roadway...

S.A.M., If you decide to buy by drum transfer into 5's (11) as soon as you open the drum. However, you must despose of the drums and most dumps will not accept them unless they are rinsed out clean. I wouldn't go that route myself.

I would stick with the 5's also. How would you go about mixing it when it settles and would you pump it out of the drum or lay it on its side with a spout on it?

Well see I am looking at a road lazer and they have a aggition for the drums while they are on the truck And they have a husky pump that can pump from another drum onto the truck for you. -Dean

Now for a Road Lazer, thats a different story, you should be OK then, just keep in mind to let as little air as possible touch the paint. Check with your supplier, you still might want to look at totes, I think shipping would be cheaper too, when we have looked at paint in totes, it has always been cheaper than drums, and then you can draw from just one tote rather than several drums.

See we got a forklift and we can just put them on the flat bed and just pump them on the rtruck while on the road. Because I know you can get 4 drums to pallet and lord knows how many buckets. -Dean