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DIY Palette Saver
What do you do with your oil paint when you’re done painting whether in the studio, or Plein Air? If you’re anything like me, it breaks your heart to let all that beautiful paint go to waste!
Here in this short blog entry, I want to show you a simple idea that you can make yourself, to save the paint, and cut the waste. So, with that in mind, let’s make a “Palette Saver”!
I’ve seen this idea around and thought “hey it can’t be that hard”. It’s just a few bits of plumbing pieces, so I’ve put together this handy guide on how to make your own paint saver. Enjoy!
All the materials you need to build your own palette saver can be found at the local hardware store in the plumbing section.
As I stood there, I thought to myself, this is what the dream looks like, one day, I’ll have a studio just like this…
Well, I’m sorry to say, I haven’t quite got the Fechin studio, yet, but I do have a pretty nice space, nonetheless. In this blog I want to share with you my approach to lighting in the hopes you can enjoy working under the consistency, and quality of the lights I work under, without breaking the bank, or trying to build a Fechin studio replica.
Materials Overview:
Here’s what you’ll need.
- PVC Pipe – 50mm
- Aluminum L Channel (to fit inside pipe)
- PVC cement
- Screw Cap with collar
- End Cap (to glue on)
Tools:
- Tape Measure
- Hacksaw
- Sand Paper
Here I’ve measured and cut a piece of aluminum “L” channel. I want this to fit inside the pochade box, snuggly. The idea is, I can rest that “L” channel inside the box… This is what we will use to place our oil paints on.
When cutting aluminum, there are much easier ways to cut this than I have done here. If you have access to a vice or clamps, I would highly recommend it – It will make your life much easier.
I make the pipe slightly longer than the L channel, and the end caps will add a bit of dimension as well.
A hacksaw makes quick work of PVC pipe, although it can leave the edge a bit rough. Give the ends of the PVC pipe quick sand to take off the roughness, this will also give the glue something to bind too.
Now we need to fit our collar (for the screw cap one end) and our end cap.
Preparation is key here. Acetone has a chemical reaction with the PVC and will dissolve the outer layer, giving the plumbing glue better adhesion. This can give off some fumes, so if you can do this outside or wear a ventilation mask.
When gluing PVC together, I use PVC solvent cement. I’m no plumber, but I’m sure they would suggest the same.
Now the brand I’m using here doesn’t matter, whatever you can get your hands on will work. Make sure you get a good coverage on the ends you’ll be gluing together.
Once you have pieced it all together, give it 30 mins to dry. But to be 100% sure it’s cured, give it 12 hours.
All you have to do next is deposit your paint and place your aluminum L channel in the tube.
Here’s the best part. For a result that will last ages – fill the tube with water! Oil and water don’t mix, right? So with that in mind, this will prevent the air touching your paint.
Now, I’m no expert here, I’m sure there’s adjustments you could make to improve on my methods. I’ve seen one where the tube is polycarbonate and clear. That’s cool!
I hope this tip helps!
Enjoy!
Tisch
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3 responses
Yahoooo… now I will be able to go en plein air with less mess. Great idea, but (there is always a but, hahaha) did you also make your 2 pochades? If so, could you also share the plans for them? They are a great size.
I admitted that I thought of doing the submersion in water, but on discussing it with a paint vendor (Natural Pigments), there were potential issues:
Water can introduce impurities such as dust, microorganisms, or dissolved minerals, which may affect the paint’s consistency, adhesion, and overall durability., and that can cause interference with the drying process, possibly leading to unexpected textural changes or weakened paint film stability.
Maintaining clean water is essential to minimize this risk.
Palette Material Suitability: Not all palettes are suitable for water submersion. This isn’t an issue in your case.
The biggest potential issue (for me, at least) was water absorption is actually possible. Although oil paint repels water, prolonged submersion can lead to water intrusion at the paint’s surface, which can alter the paint’s drying characteristics and consistency, potentially leading to adhesion issues once applied to a surface.
They recommended the cotton ball with clove oil, but I won’t do that either after it was reported that it had spoiled someone’s painting. They might not have used a cotton ball (they might have just used a lot in a cup or something), but it was enough for me to avoid it.
I personally tried freezing, but I don’t think it worked well, or even at all, and there was condensation as it warmed to room temperature.
Currently, not that it it lasts for long, but I think it lasts a bit longer, I use a sealed pallets which is plastic, and has an O-ring (not Masterson, a cheaper but better manufacturing design for tightness), and I add a few oxygen absorber packages (bought in quantity) on Temu, since it was cheaper than local suppliers and exactly the same maker.
It’s not perfect, because there’s a lot of air to draw in, but zim not going over the top and buying a vacuum pump for the sealed pallet; although, I did consider various manual valve and hsbd pump ideas. I just thought I try the O2 absorbers first.
Now, I realize this is impractical for your purpose since you can’t lug around a sealed pallet, but your idea of a sealed tube coil pled with a check valve and a brake fluid style of pump stored in your car, could be used to pump air out of your PVC tube if it was sealed well.
Anyway, just a thought to consider, if the water causes problems.
Sorry, mechanical engineer thinking about this, love the idea of the paint saver tube I will make one!! I wonder if you drilled a hole in the top of the cap or the capped end and glued in a one way vacuum check valve (some are pretty cheap on Amazon, https://a.co/d/aq782tH) and just used your mouth to suck out the air if it would extend the life of the paint. A human can generate a max sucking pressure of about -6 to -8psi and if you are starting from sea level at 14.7psi that could get you maybe to 7psi and the partial pressure (concentration) of oxygen is 2 times less than at sea level, so maybe that makes paint last twice as long (plus the air volume in a sealed tube is much less than sitting out in free air and after a while the number of oxygen molecules left in the tube would react with the paint and do some oxidation (that’s how the oil paint “drys”, the alkyds oxidize and causes the molecules of the paint to cross link into a rigid web). If you are at higher elevation say at 4500ft the pressure starts near 12 psi and if you could remove 7psi from the tube it gets you near to three times less oxygen in the tube to react. If you used one of those hand pump vacuum pumps like those for bleeding brakes, they can generate a negative pressure of about 14.5psi so if you used that on the tube after your session it would be removing most all of the oxygen from the tube (those one way valves can hold up to 43psi of vacuum, so the pump cant break the valve). The paint should last a really long time theoretically, and then you don’t have to worry about water interactions with the paint.