Entry posted by SouthernRegionSteam in Practical
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I've happily spent some of lockdown converting part of our garage into a studio so that I have more space both for modelmaking and music production. Now that most of the hard work has been done and I've been working in the studio for a couple of weeks, I'm working out exactly what I need with regards to storage/shelving, and how to make the most of the space. Railway modelling is a hobby that seems to bring with it a lot of stuff. Too much stuff, in fact (hence the need for a dedicated room)! Something that always annoyed me about my "workflow", if you can call it that, is that I've never had a proper storage rack for paints. Now that I had a studio, and have already put up some shelving, I had a spare nook to fill; a perfect time to make that paint rack at last.
Above: Unlike seemingly every other design I come up with, this one was not done on the computer. Shocking, I know! In fact, all I did was measure the nook, and come up with a design based on the paints I commonly used. Originally, I wanted a rack with a right angled triangle so that everything was accessible from one side, but I soon realised that it makes much more sense to have a more symmetrical design to keep the weight in the centre whilst moving it around. The basic design is a central drawer with room for a bunch of tinlets of enamel paint (the drawer means not only do I make better use of the space needed for tiered paint racks, but it is also a practical storage area; especially for the tinlets which are small and something I rarely use). Looking at the top photo, 1 & 2 were originally going to be softwood battens with holes to hold Vallejo Acrylics. 3 is the upper storage area for tester pots of emulsion. Note that the design became more symmetrical in the lower photo, with the two softwood battens on either side. Having it like this also provides more strength for the whole assembly.
Above: With the design ammended, and the sizes and clearances tested, it's down to my Dad to cut out the components from 5mm ply scraps. All the ply for this project came from the control box from what was Old AGWI Rd. - that's another design/size restriction I had to work to. Anyway, the right-hand photo shows Dad using a spade bit in the pillar drill to drill the holes in the softwood for the Vallejo paints.
Above: I cut out the slot in the end pieces of the rack using a bandsaw (well, technically a scroll saw) - as this has a much finer blade than a jigsaw, it's both easier to maneouvre into tight turns, and it also reduces the amount of splinters. Speaking of which, it's a good idea to sand down any edges before we start assembling the unit.
Above: I was going to use a bit of large section dowel for a handle, but I then remembered we had an actual wooden handle from an old magazine rack that we had dissassembled. Cut to length, I then sanded it back to remove the paint splatters and varnish using a mouse sander.
Above: We can see almost all of the components cut out here. The drawer is on the left - this is formed from a base of 5mm ply, ends of 18mm ply, and sides of PSE softwood stripwood. Not shown are the two small lengths of dowel which I'll use as knobs. At the top of the photo, there's a bit of 5mm ply and more stripwood for the paint rails; this will be the drawer cover - where more paint will be stored on top of the drawer. I later realised the rails would need to be suspended in the air due to the taller paints here, so this stripwood was later replaced with single lengths of square section PSE - rather than the two shorter lengths of stripwood for each side, as shown here. Underneath this are the two softwood lengths, each with 12 holes drilled for the Vallejo paints. More 5mm ply sits betweeen these, which will be the uprights that hold up the drawer cover; these will be screwed to the sides of the softwood lengths. Finally, on the right we have the base and two ends (more 5mm ply), plus of course the pine handle.
Above: As with any project, it's a good idea to do a dry run before assembly to check that everything fits as it should. This should also help give you all an idea of what the finished rack will look like.
Above: Assembly should be pretty straightforward, in fact, I'm not even using any wood glue! All holes are pre-drilled and countersunk so that the screws sit flush, and we reduce the chances of wood splitting. Stupidly, I screwed the softwood to the base first. This meant the ply sides attached to those softwood lengths that hold up the drawer cover were now hard to access for screwing, so a 90 degree angled screwdriver bit had to be used here.
Above: Everything else was pretty simple to assemble, including the drawer, which doesn't even use drawer runners. Allowing one or two millimetres extra for the cover surrounding the drawer should enable enough lateral movement to slide the drawer in and out easily. Here we see the hole being drilled for the dowel knob, the dowel being cut to length, and then inserted into the end plate hole. Note that the fit was tight enough that no wood glue was needed here, either.
Above: The drawer ends could then be drilled and screwed onto the 5mm ply base. We're not expecting much weight on this tray (just a few tinlets of paint), so 5mm is plenty. Once again, note that every hole is pre-drilled and countersunk for reasons mentioned earlier.
Above: I don't have any photos of the drawer side assembly, but the drawer cover seen here was secured to its ply sides in exactly the same way. Both the ply and stripwood are pretty thin, and whilst I could've used wood glue, I didn't want to have to wait for it to dry; instead, some panel pins were used to hold it together. However, once again we want to avoid the thin materials splitting, and hammering nails in is a sure way to have that happen! To avoid this, the head of one of the panel pins was chopped off, and inserted into a Dremel. This is then used as a drill, and is bored into the wood to a depth of about half the length of the normal pin length. This gives enough of a pre-drilled hole to avoid splitting, whilst still being shallow enough to allow the pin to be hammered deeper into the wood for a solid joint.
Above: With the softwood battens now screwed to the 5mm ply base, the ply ends can also be screwed on. Nothing new here; countersinking, pre-drilling pilot holes into the softwood, and then simply screwing it into place. Whilst here, I also did the same with the pine handle (right photo).
Above: That just left the square section softwood rails to be screwed into position. This is the replacement for the stripwood seen on the shot of the components earlier that was too short for the job. Their purpose is to help prevent paints from falling off the shelf on top of the drawer. Once again, it's a simple case of drilling pilot holes, countersinking the ply, and screwing it on.
Above: I was going to leave it there, but I realised that it might be a little awkward moving the unit in/out of its storage nook. Luckily, I had two small fixed castor wheels. Cutting some short softwood blocks with a 45 deg angle on one end allows me to mount the castor wheels to one end of the unit; the idea being that the castors only touch the ground when the other end of the unit is lifted up. Once again, holes are marked and pre-drilled to avoid splitting the softwood.
Above: It's a similar story to screw the blocks themselves to the unit. I'll be screwing these on from the ply side (it's makes more sense that way!). Hole locations are marked, pre-drilled and countersunk, before being screwed on.
Above: All that's left to do is paint the unit - I'm just using basic quick-dry white emulsion. I spent a couple of hours putting on two coats, although a third probably wouldn't go amiss.
Above and below: And here's the finished paint rack. Note the drawer filled not only with tinlets, but also with other less-often used items like powders and watercolours. The Vallejo acrylics at the front fit snugly into their holes, with a whole range of emulsion tester pots on the top shelf; as well as my (filthy!) paint palette. As you can see, it's all a perfect fit, although I need 12 more Vallejo acrylics to fill the holes on the other side now! The photo below shows the rack in its nook - it's a pretty tight fit, but the rear wheels make it easy to slide in.
It's definitely not a fine piece of woodwork; especially with the scraps of old, rough plywood and my dodgy woodworking skills, however, it IS a practical storage unit. Let's face it, being practical is far more important than looking good (not that you can convince the fashion/cosmetics industries that!). Ultimately, you don't have to be very good at woodwork to build something useful, and since my studio has been built, I've learnt that the key to making good and fast progress is not necessarily skill, but organisation! So round up those scraps of wood from abandoned layouts and build yourself something useful to help make you more productive; wherever it is you carry out the hobby.
Now I just need something for my brushes, adhesives, and spray paints. A tray of similar dimensions and style should suffice, with just a narrow shelf mid-way up for the brushes to stand in... oh, and I have the perfect spot for it, too. Time to get planning!
If you have any questions or comments, please do leave them down below and I'll get back to you ASAP. I'd also love to see your designs/builds, and especially creative storage ideas.
In the meantime, happy modelling!
Jam
Edited by SouthernRegionSteam
Typo fixed!
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