#apparatus

The black strap is adjustable for how high it sits, and the support chains are adjustable to change the angle of the board. The pallet swivels (maybe going to replace the binder-clip/twist-tie situation with a screw/disc/wing nut that fits in the thumb-hole, or maybe try to drill through the palette, but not sure yet) to make it easier to reach or to give you more space. The brush-holder was originally attached to the strap, but I put it on a cord on the side of the board for a bit more stability. The buckets hold 2 bottles of water for Dirty Rinse and Clean Rinse, but...I'm not completely happy with their stability. They flopped around a bit during use, but then again, they didn't tip or spill so i might accept that flaw.

The only things that don't attach are the plastic container I use to hold paper towels for cleaning/drying my brush, the spray bottle for keeping the paints moist, and the two jugs I need for clean water/holding dirty water when I change out my rinse water bottles. That's mostly by choice. I wouldn't want a gallon of water attached. It would be nice to have the plastic container attached, but it sits very nicely between the palette and me, so thats fine. I could also use one of the buckets for the spray bottle if I only wanted one rinse bottle but I like having two.

It's really useful! It held everything really steady during the test-run, even when I needed to stand up to grab something, or move around to get different lighting, or relocate ants that kept falling onto me lol. I like how it folds really well for storage. It also really helps me with the setting-up process, since so many of the things I need are all in one place!

I *do* wish I'd been able to incorporate more of my original design ideas, like a compartment for canvas/paint/brushes, and swiveling bottle-holders instead of buckets-attached-with-miscellaneous-methods, but this took me long enough as is, especially since I had never used a drill or sawed wood or anything before 🤭 I also had the idea to make the board hinged in the middle so it could fold in half, which would increase the maximum size without reducing portability, buuuuuuut that was too intimidating and would have taken me even longer to figure out.

I'm really happy with it, and happy I actually finished a Making-A-Contraption project! Normally I give up after realizing my project requires thousands of dollars and metalworking and programming lol. It was really fun to come up with something I could actually make for like $30, which is cheaper than buying the equivalent! And it's tailored to me 🤭 the curve at the front is perfectly shaped to my belly, so it sits steady and comfortable.

^w^ I'll try to remember to post another picture if I end up adding the finishing touches! If not I'll just use it as-is ^w^

Edit: apparently Tumblr is making its own decisions about where the photos go and whether or not the read-more exists??? Idk.