I have had numerous occasions to use small amounts of spray paint in my never-ending cabin building endeavor.  I hate to spray a little and then have the can go bad from having the nozzle plugged.  First I pulled the nozzles off and dropped them into a tub of paint thinner (the plastic tubs chicken livers come in).  This worked well when I was only using Rust-Oleum paint.  Now I have added the new Krylon "Special Purpose Camouflage" paints in various colors.  It turns out the nozzles are not interchangeable.  I learned this the hard way--paint all over.  I needed a way to clean the nozzle and immediately put it back on the can.  Here's what I do now--

When finished, hold the can inverted and spray to clear the pickup tube of paint.  This only takes a few seconds.  Next remove the nozzle and use brake cleaner (I starting using it for gun cleaning in place of Gun Scrubber years ago due to price) to clean the nozzle.  The red spray tube will just fit in the bottom of the nozzle (be careful not to let it backspray into your eyes though!) and the brake cleaner acts the same as paint thinner.  I then clean the last bit of residual paint from the spray hole by daubing it with a McDonald's/Arby's/Hardee's napkin.  

If you do this you can use a small amount of paint and have the can act like new weeks or months later.  Oh, I do invert the cans every couple of weeks or so in order to cut down on shaking time.  

Hopefully, if you occasionally use spray paint this tip will make your time here today pay for itself.  

Quoted: You can also get really high from...err....no no, never mind.......

I did a bunch of spraying in the house last night.  If "nauseous" equals "really high" then I was there.  Blech!  

Quoted: So what you're saying is you decided to read the back of the can of spray paint to get tips on how to clean it.   Been doing this for years.

You read directions?  

Quoted: (be careful not to let it backspray into your eyes though!) .

Oh my Gawd!! I was cleaning the firing pin channel on a 1911 using gunscrubber one time and I wasn't prepared for the velocity. Some came straight back out of the channel and went into my eye. It burned like a mother........ I dropped everything and ran to the kitchen and started flushing my eye like crazy for 10 minutes. It felt like my eye was dissolving right there in my head. So after I could sorta see after awhile I went back determined to be more careful. I held the slide at a different angle and pushed the button on the gunscrubber...........yeowwwww, drop everything and run back to the kitchen with both eyes clamped shut and dissolving in my head and spend the next 10 minutes flushing both eyes. I felt and still feel like an idiot.

Quoted: Quoted: (be careful not to let it backspray into your eyes though!) .   Oh my Gawd!! I was cleaning the firing pin channel on a 1911 using gunscrubber one time and I wasn't prepared for the velocity. Some came straight back out of the channel and went into my eye. It burned like a mother........ I dropped everything and ran to the kitchen and started flushing my eye like crazy for 10 minutes. It felt like my eye was dissolving right there in my head. So after I could sorta see after awhile I went back determined to be more careful. I held the slide at a different angle and pushed the button on the gunscrubber...........yeowwwww, drop everything and run back to the kitchen with both eyes clamped shut and dissolving in my head and spend the next 10 minutes flushing both eyes. I felt and still feel like an idiot.

[Bill Clinton]  I feel your pain!  [/Bill Clinton]

I have done that many times when cleaning guns--hence the warning.  

I have no idea why the <insert expletive here> thing could shoot in ANY OTHER DIRECTION but it heads for one's eyes like a laser beam.  

Quoted: Quoted: ...(the plastic tubs chicken livers come in)... Admit it, its really the chicken livers that turn you on. Painting is just and excuse.

Catfish bait.