PVC Storage for Craft paints

[Ludo]

While fixing up the hobby room for the fiancee we came across the age old problem of Not Enough Places to Put Things. She likes to do acrylic canvas painting and I like to use the craft paints for terrain so we have a bit. We both like seeing what colors we have available as we work on a project and I wanted something that wouldn't clutter the work table or take up valuable shelf space. We've got several big windows in the room and while the natural light is great, the limit the amount of shelves we can have. I opped to try and make use of some of the dead space created by the window frames.

 

 

1-1/2" standard Schedule 40 PVC pipe fits the standard 2oz bottles well. 

 

 

I used a band saw to cut the pieces quickly. I used a fence to make sure all the pieces came out the same length. (marking it out >150 times would have been a pain)

 

 

While quick, my saw left some debris. A quick twist with some 60 grit sandpaper took it right off and put a very slight bevel on the edge. 

 

 

All sanded and ready to go. Did a quick test fit with a bottle of paint and tried a few layout options. 

 

 

My goal was to fill the trim board on either side of the windows with storage tubes. Since we may sell the house some day I didn't want to mount the tubes direct to the trim. I opted to attach the tubes together, letting most of the weight sit on the table and then use a small metal bracket in the top side of the window trim which is often unpainted because nobody looks up there.

 

 

I wanted something that I could pop off easily if I got sloppy with with the glue so I laid everything out on a piece of concrete board siding. It had the added featured of it was flat, had a straight edge I could line the pieces up on and I could draw out my trim dimensions so I knew what area I had to fill.

 

 

I used the same glue that is used to glue the pipe together for plumbing. The stuff I get for work happens to be grey. You get what you pay for when it comes to glue so don't scrimp.Just don't get the stuff that is for wet or submerged pipe. It will literally push your parts around. Since I knew we were going to paint the whole thing I didn't care what color I had or if the printing on the pipe was visible.

 

 

I made marks with a sharpie to show where the pieces touched so I'd know where to apply the glue once I picked it up. It also made sure I had the glue covered portion in the right spot when I put it in place. 

 

 

 

Got all my ducks lined up, Just gotta let it dry over night. I could actually pick it up after an hour but I wanted to give it plenty of time to fully set up.

 

 

 

I ended up adding one more row after this picture to get it close to the top of the window trim. After everything was painted I screwed a small strip of metal to the top to let me screw it to the trim.

 

 

 

If you look at the top of the center organizer, you can see the metal bracket. It is bent in an L shape so the screw is in the top of the trim, not the front. The larger units are done with 4" drain pipe (Thinner wall=cheaper per foot) One coat of glue made them stick together but I had to do several more coats to get some structural rigidity. I just used standard pray paint to cover them. 

 

[Talae]

Great idea!

 

How big of diameter do these come in and still have a reasonable price? I could see using these for organization of toys in the kids' room.

[Ludo]

Doubt you'll find anything larger than 4 inch diameter at the big box hardware stores. If you have a utility supply place you could get very large, don't know about price though. Price is proportional to wall thickness. so the thinner the wall the cheaper the pipe. If you say you're looking for thin wall drain pipe they will be able to find you something most likely. 

[RouterMike]

This is awesome! I can see building a new paint rack with smaller diameter pipe for all the Reaper and Scalecolor dropper bottles. Thanks for the new ideas!

[Gadgetman!]

For large diameter, try looking at thick cardboard tubes used for casting concrete columns.

[Chris Palmer]

Very cool idea!

[canuckotter]

Very cool! Thanks for writing it all up.  

[fectin]

Good idea and solid execution!

[Thes Hunter]

I am left wondering how dropper bottles would fit in 1/2" tubing.....

[Gadgetman!]

Pretty poorly, unless you use a hammer...

Droppers are about 1" in diameter.

[Ludo]

This is awesome! I can see building a new paint rack with smaller diameter pipe for all the Reaper and Scalecolor dropper bottles. Thanks for the new ideas!

 

 

I am left wondering how dropper bottles would fit in 1/2" tubing.....

 

1" SCH 40 PVC works, but there is a lot of extra space. 

 

I have yet to find something that fits well and is readily available. 

[RouterMike]

 

This is awesome! I can see building a new paint rack with smaller diameter pipe for all the Reaper and Scalecolor dropper bottles. Thanks for the new ideas!

 

 

I am left wondering how dropper bottles would fit in 1/2" tubing.....

 

1" SCH 40 PVC works, but there is a lot of extra space. 

 

I have yet to find something that fits well and is readily available. 

 

 

So I stopped by the hardware store last night. They have 1" Schedule 40 PVC tubing for about $5 for a 10 foot section. While looking at all the other goodies, I ran into 3/4" pipe connectors. These connect the 3/4" pipe sections to each other. They are approx 2 1/4" long and have a 1" inside diameter to match the outside diameter of the 3/4" pipe. Perfect for our dropper bottle. In addition, there is a small ridge midway down that each end of the pipe is supposed to butt up against. When you slide a Reaper dropper bottle cap first into one of these, it stops with about 5/8" of the bottle sticking out the end and 1/4" of cap hanging out the of the other end. They have these in bags of 15 for about $2.50.

 

I picked up a bag of 15 and a bottle of PVC glue to try gluing a stack of these together. I figure I can put together a rack for about 200 bottles for around $35. And it's ridiculously easy to add more rows

 

Below is a picture of a bottle in the connector. I don't yet have a picture of the small stack of 15 pieces, but it's enough to convince me to go buy several more bags of these things. I figure I could make this for half the cost if I had access to a table saw or a band saw. Without any tools needed, this is still cheaper than any other consumer paint rack I've seen.

[Colonel Kane]

I am no longer allowed to buy PVC pipe. You can only build so many cannons before they put you on a watch list, and then a ban list. 

[Gadgetman!]

It might be an idea to cut the pieces at a slightly 'off' angle so that the pipes ends up pointing a few degrees up when assembled and mounted on the wall. Then the bottles will stay in place even if something rattles the stand... 

[RouterMike]

I was thinking about adding rubber feet to the final stack. That's where I would give it a slight back tilt. Since I'm not cutting any parts, that's about my main option there. I'm also considering adding a backing board, since the Scalecolor bottles seem to be a bit thinner and can pass through the stopping ring inside the connectors.