I got this idea while walking though a kitchen area with the girl one day shopping for new kitchen stuff. I ended up getting them (2 of them in a set) for a a couple of bucks at the local drugstore.
I found theese icecube trays were perfect for useing to mix my paints and stains in. Lots of spaces to use for water, paints, acohol, stains, etc. Plus, other sections for water to rinse. Also, depending on the type you get, they usually have a good lip around it to hold your brush. Which can be handy when going back and forth from the bench back to layout, via a duck under[:D]. I have found they rinse out easy (I use arcylic paints ) and can also make great trays for small parts such as wheel sets, couplers, screws, etc. Also, they stack nicely.
Now why didn’t I think of that!
Those plastic ice trays are also ideal for holding the tiny parts needed for a superdetailing project, whether locomotive, scenery or anything between. The round edges are gentle on scenery, and the ‘hollows’ are big enough to hold fairly sizeable objects.
Thanks for the tip, John!
Chuck
Hey great tip - Tks
Terry[8D]
good evening
another thing that you might want to consider is valu brand drink mix that you can buy at wally world in the aisle where they keep the kool ade type mixes.they are little plastic cups of drink mix that come in a plastic tube.when you are done with the drink mix you will have the cups to use for paint or glue then you can throw them out instead of taking the time to wa***hem,also they can be stored in in the tubes that they came in.the tubes themselves might be used in a modeling project.
Big john,
What an excellent idea. I never gave ice trays a second thought… now I am thinking of several ways
they can be used. I always need somewhere to store my Kadees after I open the bulk packs. I can
use the individual “cubes” for the couplers, the centering springs, the extra knuckle springs and for
all the other little parts that I can never find when I need them.
They will also be good for track nails… it will be easier to grab them from the trays than from the little
paper envelope that they come in. I am sure I will come up with many other uses. Thanks for the idea.
Good luck, Dave
You got it Dave! I oriniannly bought them for painting but figured fast when I got home as great part organizers. And the best part, cheap, cheap. I have even foudn pairs for sale in 1 Dollar store. I think the nicest thing about them is most of them are designed to be stacked. Which really helps if you the “parts route”.
Great idea thanks for the tip.
Dave
WOW!!! A couple of great why-didn’t-I-think-of-that ideas here. I’ve got a plethora of old ice-cube trays gathering dust around here - being a packrat I could never bring myself to throw them out. They make a tray called “Giant Cubes” - 12 cube divisions as opposed to 14 (or 16, I guess, based on the photos accompanying the author’s posting) and about 50% deeper than the average - if you encounter these and are interested I suggest you buy them immediately because, for some reason beknownst only to the gods, they tend to disappear from (grocery) store shelves for long periods of time.
I’ve always used mini-muffin tins for small parts storage but never gave ice-cube trays a thought.
Sometimes the simplest Ideas are the best ones of all!
Thanks for the tip.
Bob…