The advantage of these over something like pop bottle lids is they stack really well.
Throw them away when done or reuse.
Walmart sells a white plastic 3-tier spice rack (looks like stair steps). $5 ish
The middle and bottom tier slide under to make 1 or 2 tiers.
Great for all kinds of stuff we use that come in bottles of some kind.
I use small plastic squeeze bottles sold in the art dept at Hobby Lobby and Michaels. I use them for small quantities of acetone, thinners, cleaners, windex, water, etc. and use the above rack to store them on. Gets the large containers off my work bench plus they are easer to dispense.
I want to add another use for those earplugs .When I am building a large ship model ( The 1/350 Bismark ) I use them to set the ship on instead of scratching up the bottom paint .
The way I keep hulls from scratching, is I have an old miter box. Cover it with a small towel, and the hull will sit right in there perfectly. Not only is the hull protected, it’s also sitting in a solid place, so there’s no wobble.The beauty part is, if it’s a smaller scale, just put another small towel, or fold the one already in there, and it’s still a perfect fit.
Another thing I forgot to mention, (this is probably not news to any one) I bought a small el cheapo dremel for 5 bucks. Almost no power at all. Just enough to mix the paint in the small jars.
I have a big craftsman compressor in the garage. I do my painting in the basement of the house. Rather than buy a small compressor for the house I bought a small air tank, some call it an air bubble, at Harbor Freight and fill it from the big compressor and take it downstairs to run my air brush.
Actually he does know. This may sound gross but I asked him if I could have the discarded cups. I sprayed Lysol disinfectant into the sealed trash bag they were in. I then placed them in a pot of water brought to a boil. Finally I soaked them in a container of straight bleach for a week. I also wore a pair of surgical gloves the entire time I was handling them.
I once worked for a great guy who happened to be Catholic. We were talking religion one day and he asked if I knew how "Holy water was made? I admitted that I did not. He said, “they boil the hell out of it”! [:D]
member no religious or political stuff ! But on that vein didja know that altar boy surplices (I won’t go tech here ) (the robes they wear) . When old, make about a good one hundred forty six- x- six polishing cloths .
I have a couple of things that I don’t see listed yet.
One is the foam noodles that are intended for kids to play with at water parks, etc. Cut them off into short sections and wrap tape around seven of them and you have a non-spill holder for paint jars.
Attach one around the circumference of a Sit-n-Spin, slice the noodle all the way around the facing edge, and you have a paint stirrer than can stir dozens of bottles at the same time,put a bead in each bottle, open the slice, and pop the bottle in there. Turn it very slowly while reading or something, and it will just go “shush, shush” as the beads drop, mixing all the paints you need for the next project. If you need them “right now”, just put the bottles in the two positions opposite your handle, and move your hand back and forth, fairly rapidly, the beads jump up and down.
To clean threads before chap-sticking them so caps never stick again, buy a bag of the proper sized wine tasting corks from your local home brewing store, they have a cap on them that looks almost like the paint caps. When you pop one of those corks into your paint bottle, you can lay the bottle on the side as you clean the threads.
Oh, and for the quick paint stir before you use each color, put a finishing nail into a cheap plastic WalMart fingernail sander, it goes slow enough to not make the paint rise, but, fast enough to knock down any bubble from shaking. With the bead in the paint, it takes less than a minute to mix any paint you have already prepped for use.
I reuse the small ‘condiment’ cups you get from take out restaurants for such things. I have one I’ve been using to mix epoxy in for several months. It’s almost full of the unused, set epoxy. About time to replace it.
My wife works in an OR, so I get discarded surgical equipment (all sorts of cool forceps and pickups, my favs are the titanium ‘lolipops’ and long stainless ‘DeBakeys’ (named after the good doctor himself), and all sorts of scissors and cutters). No scalpels, though, those don’t seem to get thrown out much. the handles, at least.
My wife is also into scrapbook making and card making, so I raid her stash often.
Speaking of syringes, they are extemly sharp ! I burned the plastic screw end off , wrapped blue painter’s tape around it to fit in my pin vise and use it for micro scraping in joints and in corners.
I also use them for scale gun barrels (they’re tubes after alll ) and you can get them on Ebay in any size diameter for proper scale. I just cut then to length with a cut-off wheel in my Dremel.
I 'll stick the sharp end in the tip of my Crazy Glue bottle when the tip gets encrusted and use it for a micro drop dispenser as well.
I have a siphon-feed air brush and needed a holder as I frequently need to set it down to turn the part I’m painting. I use the 32mm size paint jars. I’ve found that a 36mm or 1.25" standard well socket works/fits perfectly.
I find lots of supplies at our Dollar Store(make-up brushes/sponges,super glue tubes)and Good Will(self-healing mats,washi tape, and Keurig coffee pod racks for storing paint jars)
Before I posted, I had to go back and see if I already hadn’t back in 2013. Because I remember a post like this. But I didn’t. So here is a list of non-hobby things I use for the hobby (casting and painting figures, as well as scale modeling):
wooden coffee stirring sticks. They make good lumber in scales from 1/72 to 1/32, and probably in others. US carrier flight deck planking, Luftwaffe hardstand planks, tables and benches, timber frames on European buildings, and things I haven’t thought of yet
plastic takeout containers. The oblong ones the Chinese takeout places use are my favorite. Clear lids, so you can see what’s inside ("Firefly reference!), and they stack well on shelves. I used a takeout container to make a wet palette, too, when I wanted to try one out. Used a kitchen sponge and brown packaging paper to complete the palette
clear plastic jars, like those peanut butter comes in. Again, good for storage, because you can see what’s in them. I use them for spare parts and bits for scratchbuilding, and for diorama materials
Tamiya paint jars. I use these for other liquids on the bench and in my travel kit, especially for solvents. The inner lid doesn’t dissolve with lacquer fluid, for example. I originally used little jam/jelly jars, but I found that the lids could rust.
old dental tool trays. This is pretty specialized. I have a friend who is a dentist, and he had a bunch of the old trays, which are milk glass. There are different styles, some for holding tools with long handles, others with compartments. The tool trays are good for holding my paint brushes
plastic drinking straws. Good for protecting paint brushes when packed in a tool box or carrying case
Wire handles from Chinese takeout boxes. Good source of wire stock for pinning figures. Paper clips are good for this, too
Bobby pins. Good source of flat stock for scratching things. I use the flat arm to make sword blades for figures.
Odd plastic bits. Good for scratchbuilding. Toothpaste tube caps. The little flat tabs used to close bread bags. The inner seal on orange juice cartons. The caps from orange juice cartons
Ball point pens. Again, good for scratching building. You get the plunger bits, the body, a plastic or brass tub, the nub (looks like a projectile war head in various scales), a spring
Popsicle sticks. You can eat popsicles and save them or buy them in bags at arts & craft stores. Good for planking in various scales, or building details.
Little metal disks from mailing tubes. These make good disposable palettes, though I clean them and re-use them. I’ve found them in other packaging, too.
That’s all I have off the top of my head for now. I’ll add more when I think of them.
Best regards,
Brad
I pick up cribbage boards at thrift shops for a couple of bucks and use them as paint stands. I get some wooden meat skewers and attach those alligator clips to them and then use the cribbage board to hold the skewers vertically as the paint dries.
