Useful Jars/Bottles

[NARSES2]

was in Sainsbury's this morning and they have small "square" glass spice jars on sale at 90p down from £1.50. They have those old style "clip down" lids and I got a couple for storing thinner, Brush Magic in etc. More useful size then either the old Tamiya jars I was using (to small) or the pickle jars I use for water (to large). Probably have a fair few uses and could probably even hold ground or whole spices at a pinch 

[zenrat]

...Probably have a fair few uses and could probably even hold ground or whole spices at a pinch 

That'd be a bit of a waste though...

[strobez]

Recently I had the bright idea to use squeezable plastic dropper bottles for premixed (Tamiya acrylic) paint. Here in Korea, they're a staple in every pharmacy. There's no such thing as "2 teaspoons" for liquid meds.  They tell you precisely how many CC's you're supposed to take, and they send you home with a little plastic squeeze bottle with a built in measuring chart.

They're dirt cheap as pharmacies buy them in the tens of thousands here, but they were a little tricky to get since they are a resource and not a saleable product for the pharmacy.  After a few sketchy trips to various local pharmacies, leaving with a small handful of bottles for a $1 or so and some puzzled and slightly suspicious looks, I hit upon a source.  A friend of a friend who works at the pharmacy got me a bag of 100 for $10. They work like a charm too.

Since they're used for meds, the plastic is very stable and can be used for several products. Also, the 20ml size and the built in chart make mixing ratios a breeze - 5ml of paint... add enough thinner to top it at 7.5ml.. done!

Also, the fact that they can dole out a single drop at a time, make them perfect for loading an airbrush efficiently.  Oh, and I added a couple of glass beads to each and shake up mixing is easy peasy.

Heh, and the best part is that because the little pink caps are plastic, they're easy to spray with the contents of the bottle... so you have an on-plastic colour reference at hand, and it makes spotting the ones you want super easy too!

A quick online search for squeezable plastic dropper bottles will bring up several options.  If I run across a good online source I'll post it up.

[Steel Penguin]

Strobez,  clever idea that, so thank you for the mention, ill have to remember it for future use.

[Dork the kit slayer]

When you stay in a hotel ask your waitress for the old individual marmalade/jam jars. I usually get half a dozen every time Telford comes around.  Hotels dont recycle these so are happy to let you have them.

[PR19_Kit]

When you stay in a hotel ask your waitress for the old individual marmalade/jam jars. I usually get half a dozen every time Telford comes around.  Hotels dont recycle these so are happy to let you have them.

When I lived in hotels when I was working I used to do that too.

Most of them have twist off lids and I screwed the lids onto the underside of a shelf in my model room and then could just twist the bottles onto them from below.

OK for hardware and small parts, but maybe not so clever for paint or other 'wet stuff'.......

[Dork the kit slayer]

I use them for paint mixes and decanted Klear that have been thinned for my airbrush. Twist cap does the job for the time of the build.

Also good for thinner to clean brushes.

[NARSES2]

Yup they are the right size to keep paint mixes in, in particular.

If you don't frequent hotels that often then the chain coffee stores (Nero, Costa etc) have them as well although not in such large numbers. The girls in my local branches have saved a few for me when I've asked