What's more enjoyable than plein air painting?... Of course! making your own gear for plein air painting! This is my newest home made pochade box. It measures 9.25x11.5" and the palette area is 1.5" deep. I went with a smaller box because I needed a box that catered to my smaller plein air pieces and takes up less space in a backpack. This box will hold, at the largest, an 8x10" horizontally, and probably a 9x12" vertically. The new feature is my hinged flip-out brush holder (the little rectangular piece of wood with holes on the left). Now, instead of having to insert my brush holder, while carrying it as a separate piece, I just open the box and flip it out.
Here is the hinged brush holder in its closed position. The lid of the box closes down while leaving a little space in case you want to keep your canvas panel attached to the pochade box lid. Because of the deepness of the box (1.5"), your wet paint remains untouched on the bottom.
In the side view, you can see what keeps the box locked in the open painting position...just a friction lid support with a threaded knob instead of the tightening screw. You can purchase these at your local hardware store for just a few dollars. The hanger that will hold my portable brush cleaner/water is a wire hanger loop that holds the wire on the back of picture frames.
Here you can see my glass palette in place. I paint on glass because it's just easier to work and clean my acrylic paints. You'll notice 2 brass shelf pins inserted in 5 mil. holes that are holding the palette down. With the deepness of the tray, I can now leave my canvas panel attached to the lid, close it, and use it as its own wet panel carrier and not be worried about the glass palette hitting my wet painting. When I'm done painting, I just remove the shelf pins, then remove the glass and wash it.
closed and locked position...ready to stuff into a backpack.
Several people have asked me about how I mount the box to my tripod. This is it. It's a wood insert nut (this one is brass which is a softer metal...I broke the first one attempting to screw it into the hard wood. I think I used a different metal on my last pochade box which has given me no trouble for the past year of use). You simply drill a hole smaller than the threads of the insert, and screw it into a .5" block of oak. This block measures 3.5x4". After you drill your hole and screw in your insert (making sure to screw it into the wood from the opposite side that you'll attach your tripod), attach the block on the underside of your box about 1" from the back and in the center of the box using wood glue, and some brads or screws, nailed or screwed from the inside of the box. It's very important that you get a good bond here.
To see more details on how to build a box like this, visit Jim Serrett's site (this box is an alteration of Jim's unique and easy to build design) or my other blogs concerning pochade boxes: Homemade Pochade Box and Pochade Box Updates.
Happy building and happy painting!
Where do you get the "wood insert nut" used to make the tripod attachment?
ReplyDeleteKatherine, thanks for visiting my blog!
ReplyDeleteYou can get wood inserts at places like Lowe's or Home Depot...or probably your local hardware store. Just go to the "hardware" section with all those little drawers where they have the specialty nuts, bolts, screws, etc... (at least that's where Lowe's had them)
Be sure to post your completed product when you're done, I'd love to see it. Have fun building and painting...and God bless!
The brass threaded insert that you will need has a female 1/4-20 thread that mates with a standard tripod bolt. (They also make a similar 3/8" threaded insert that the actual tripod ball or panoramic head mates to. I plan to incorporate both into my pochade box since I have some antique wooden tripods that only have a 3/8" platform.)
ReplyDeleteThe easiest way to insert the threaded insert into the wood is to take a regular 1/4-20 hex bolt that is a few inches long, screw a couple of mating nuts about an inch up so they lock together, thread the insert onto the bolt so it touches the the nuts, and put the bolt into a drill press where you will manually turn the chuck while slowly lowering the threaded insert into the slightly undersized hole drilled into the wood. This method helps keep the insert parallel to the drill press axis and thus perpendicular to the box when it is placed on the press table. This is actually a lot harder to explain than to do.
I suppose you could also just use wrench to turn the hex bolt freehand, but the use of the drill press helps maintain a perpendicular insertion and is a lot easier to turn.
When finished, simply turn the bolt in the opposite direction and the insert should separate and remain in the box. If it starts to come out, move the two nuts away from it on the bolt and the bolt should then easily separate from the insert.