3D printed paint rack

[frank2056]

I have my paints in three different locations and finding the right paint has been inconvenient. I mostly use AK, Vallejo and Ammo Atom acrylics, which come in 17ml bottles. Looking online, I found several vertical paint racks that could hold the bottles but nothing that could hold over 80 bottles - I already had one of those.
So I sat down and designed a 3D printed rotating paint rack that's expandable and can hold 144 bottles (plus several in the lid). This is a "minimum effort" design and print. I printed it in draft mode and yet each piece took between 2 - 4 hours to print. The rack is printed in PLA, although PETG would have been a better choice - but PLA was what I had loaded. All the parts click together and hold pretty well. If I need more storage, I can print another set, remove the current top and click the new layer on:



With all that empty interior space, I designed one side to be a door. The screw in the bottom has been replaced - it bolts a lazy susan/turntable. Each paint cell is 25mm on each side, with a wall at the back to keep the paint bottles from falling in. The smaller hole is just big enough to grab onto the Vallejo and AK 3rd Gen paint bottle caps.

You can see a couple of my old paint racks in the background:



Almost completely full. It clears up some space on my work desk and the paints are within reach:

[Rick Lowe]

Very cool!
Nice work. 

[NARSES2]

Terrific bit of work   

[Weaver]

That's a neat bit of work - well done.

By the way, there's a wierd optical illusion with the first two pics, whereby they appear to change perspective if you scroll past them quickly. Can anybody else see this or is it just me and/or my monitor?

[PR19_Kit]

Can anybody else see this or is it just me and/or my monitor?

Yes, I can. A bit anyway.

[frank2056]

I see that. From the angle I photographed this, the squares will appear to approach or recede depending on the direction you're scrolling in. Or this:

[Joe CalPo]

I do wish more paints came with the color printed on the top.
And I really wish I had a paint shaker.

As for a rack, I have one from MicroMark on a lazy susan (Is Susan supposed to be capitalized?) but this solution works well and save shipping and is guaranteed to fit your paints.

[NARSES2]

I do wish more paints came with the color printed on the top.

Totally agree  , but I can see where it would add to the cost

[Rick Lowe]

I usually blob a bit onto the top of the cap.
I should really do it with the Humbrols too, but they at least are a bit more accurate than those with plain black caps... 

[frank2056]

The AK colors have a little dimple on the cap designed to take a drop of the paint, for ID. For the other bottles, I just put a dab of paint on the lids.

I have a lazy susan paint rack, but it's hard to see the paint colors.

[NARSES2]

I should really do it with the Humbrols too, but they at least are a bit more accurate than those with plain black caps... 

The new Humbrol range, which I've heard good things about, come in "dropper bottles" rather than "pots/tins" so it's plain white tops as far as I know.

https://uk.humbrol.com/catalogue/paints/acrylic-paints-2?langPath=humbrol-uk&filters%5Bin_stock%5D=true&filters%5Bmandatory_filter_by%5D%5Bproduct_category%5D=Acrylic%20Dropper%20Bottles&page_id=87449&sort-by=8&page=1

[PR19_Kit]

Back in the day, and I'm talking about the mid 70s, my youngest Anita, (she who's now the RAF's Best Controller etc.) was about 3 or 4, dear little thing. I kept all my myriad Humbrol tinlets in the bottom drawer of an old bureau at the top of the stairs of our house, and with the lid down I used it as a modelling desk.

Of course in those days Humbrol had paper labels stuck on the tinlet lids so you could actually read what was in them, but they didn't stick on too well so I'd paint the lids with the colour inside sometimes.

I came home from work one day to find dear Anita sitting at my modelling desk busily doing something there and when I greeted her she she said 'Hello Daddy, I did paint ALL the tops of your paint tins for you!' with a big grin.

And she had too, she'd painted ALL of them RED!  

[Charlie_c67]

Well, the thought was there 

[NARSES2]

  

[Rick Lowe]

Ah, kids...
Still, points for 'helping' Daddy.