The paint may be especially formulated for grass, but where it really has staying power is on fabric and leather. Be very careful or wear old clothes and shoes that don't matter. Remember to remove spray can from machine before putting it into a car. Each team will have a jar of wipes to clean hands.
Early in the morning, fields are often very wet with dew or from waterering: sneakers will get sopping wet. You might want to wear leather shoes, overshoes or rubber boots. (Fields paint will also hold well on rubber.)

Paint Machines

The black 'machines' fold up for easy transport. Don't stack them, it may damage the rubber 'windshield' on the bottom; put them on their sides if you're transporting more than one. Please be careful with the cable when folding and unfolding. Tighten all wing nuts before use. (That may take a few seconds, but believe me, a loose handle wastes time.)
There is a spare wing nut attached to each machine. (1/4 - 20 wing nut.)

Painting The Lines

• Shake paint spray can vigorously for about a minute. You could hold one can in each hand. Take off cap (if the nozzle comes off just put it back on) and put spray can in machine. Please pay a little attention to positioning the nozzle (by rotating the can) so that it slides into the slot, and always pull the lever gently. The drawing shows what happens when the nozzle goes in wrong; it may break the cable and make the machine useless for the day.

• Walk the machine very slowly, toddler-speed, with the spray can nozzle right on top of the string, pull lever gently to apply paint, walk slowly to apply a thick layer of paint. Your walking speed determines how thick the paint is laid on. One thick layer of paint will dry slowly and allow some of the paint to drip to the roots of the grass, that is much better than two thin layers of paint that just lay at the surface.
  A can of paint should last about 50 to 70 yards. When your can is almost empty you may notice clouds of white vapor and a change in the sound from the can. Put empty cans upside-down in box, so you know which ones are empty.
• The machines cannot go right up to the pins. Leave space open. DO NOT take can from machine to paint by hand. It takes too much time, you get too close to the vapors, and we don't want paint on the metal stakes. Also, DO NOT remove the pins before the string has been rolled up.
• Resist the temptation to "oversteer" the machine when going in a straight line. The four wheels do a very good job of keeping you going straight. If you try to "micro manage" the steering (making little course corrections), you will invariably end up with a squiggly line.
• Slightly lifting the machine off of the rear wheels makes it much easier to paint the tight curves in the corner arcs and for following the center circle and penalty arcs lines.
• Don't worry about using too much paint. Better too much than too little! But don't spend extra paint on dirt. It will scatter with the sand when the kids run over it.
• If you do make an error in painting that you want to correct, the bottom of your shoe makes a wonderful eraser while the paint is still fresh!
• Ideally, at the end of first lining a field a team of 3 finishes up the job:
  • One person to roll up the string. Do not remove metal stakes before string is rolled up. It's very hard to wind loose string on the spool, when there's no tension.
  • One person with a bucket collects the metal stakes after the string is wound up.
  • One person with a paint machine fills in the gaps in the lines where the stakes were.