I've noticed that some spray paint cans have a nice, fan-shaped pattern that gives good coverage without running and a slight overlap avoids striping.
Other cans have a very narrow, round pattern that is darn near impossible to get good coverage and avoid striping without getting runs.
The difference seemed to be a little raised line centered on the nozzle hole. Aligning the raised portion vertically gave me a horizontal fan and vice versa.
Painting the snowblower and the Rustoleum cans were giving me the narrow, round pattern and it looked awful. I love Rustoleum, but I certainly wasn't loving the results I was getting.
Had an almost empty can of Rusty Metal Primer and decided to try a little experiment. Took the finest hacksaw blade I had and cut a little notch horizontally across nozzle, centered as best I could on the hole.
PRESTO! Vertical fan pattern! A tad crude and the can tends to dribble paint on your hand but coverage is VERY nice. I think a little refinement, primarily a cleaner, narrower notch, would work very well indeed.
