Simple alternative to Magnetic Rotating Easel

Hi Peeps,
At the same time Madbrush was making his fantastic Rotating Magnetic Easel, I'd also been thinking of ways to easily rotate my artwork while I am working. This only works if you have a magnetic backboard like my magnetic white board.

The reason being that when I use my Top Feed Micron with a few drops of paint, the paint falls away from the head when I point it upwards. So to combat this I want to turn my artwork so I can spray from the side and keep my airbrush level.

Today I tried a very, very simple method of taping magnets to the back of my Card/Board in a central position forming an axis on which it is very easy to turn the whole painting with one finger. If you paint onto paper you can stick the magnets onto a sheet of card/board and then tape the paper to that.
This is my 4G Board with magnets taped to the back in a central formation.

Here is the 4G from the front and I can turn it with one finger. This painting is only 13 x 18cm but I'm sure it will work for bigger formats.

I thought I'd pass this idea on incase someone else might find it useful

For those who haven't seen Madbrush's fabulous Rotating Magnetic Easel here's the link http://www.airbrushforum.org/threads/home-made-magnetic-easel.10844/#post-150242

Cheers Mel

Great idea Mel

Very good idea indeed. And the tape over the magnets will protect the board from being scratched by the magnets.

Nice on Mel, the idea will definitely work on bigger projects, however if these are the magnates that came standard with your white board they will struggle unless you use a lot of them, I worked previously on MDF board and the standard magnates where useless, so I ripped out the magnates from one of my old air-plane electric motors which are more powerful, I now have different sizes and using different combinations of these allows me to do exactly as you've done here as well as push the substrate around the white board meaning pushing it up and down or side to side so as to keep the area I'm working on at eye/airbrush level without having to crouch.

You can get very cheap electric motors at any model shop if you fancy stripping it for the magnates, most of the motors I've used where under €10 and you generally, or since you are in Holland you could simply ask for old non working motors on the www.modelbouwforum.nl , and since these guys all know what they are doing, they might even strip the motors for you.

Thanks Matty and AndreZA

Madbrush, thanks for the suggestion on the Magnets but I use Neodymium magnets which are really, really strong. Those little ones in the photo are only 5mm x 1mm and hold my paintings very firmly. I can use them to hold stencils on top of the 4G no problems and if I need more strength I just stack them on top of each other.

I got 2 hundred of them so I've glued some together to make different sized stacks and I've glued a bit of plactic on some to make them easier to pick up. I use those ones to take off the single magnets because they are fiddely to pick up and with another magnet attracting them they just fly right off. It saves my finger nails On my YouTube video you can see me using the magnets and taking them off - Fast Forward to 8.05 mins

You can buy them in different sizes and shapes. Here's a link that has loads of choice and they have reasonable delivery charges in Europe http://www.supermagnete.nl/eng/magnets_overview_raw (they don't deliver outside Europe-minimum order €15). I didn't buy mine from here so I don't know what the service is like but I found it when I was looking to buy more in the future.

Cheers Mel
Don't forget, if you paint onto paper, you can tape the magnets to a sheet of card/board and then tape the paper to the card.

Well on my Water White piece I buried then under the masking tape around the edge. They are about the same thickness as the board so the board is still flush against the working surface. It is such a simple idea it's almost embarrassing to have not thought about it many months ago.

Great idea, Mel, but after looking on their website, unfortunately for the rest of us, magnets are considered to be dangerous goods and require specialist packaging and shielding to be sent as air freight.
Rare earth magnets would provide a suitable local alternative, but these are considerably more expensive than those neodymium ones.
Might be worth considering.

I got 150 small rare earth magnets off ebay. Cost me something like $0.10 ea and included shipping.

Melbee said:

Hi Peeps,
At the same time Madbrush was making his fantastic Rotating Magnetic Easel, I'd also been thinking of ways to easily rotate my artwork while I am working. This only works if you have a magnetic backboard like my magnetic white board.

The reason being that when I use my Top Feed Micron with a few drops of paint, the paint falls away from the head when I point it upwards. So to combat this I want to turn my artwork so I can spray from the side and keep my airbrush level.

Today I tried a very, very simple method of taping magnets to the back of my Card/Board in a central position forming an axis on which it is very easy to turn the whole painting with one finger. If you paint onto paper you can stick the magnets onto a sheet of card/board and then tape the paper to that.
This is my 4G Board with magnets taped to the back in a central formation.
View attachment 31163
Here is the 4G from the front and I can turn it with one finger. This painting is only 13 x 18cm but I'm sure it will work for bigger formats.
View attachment 31164
I thought I'd pass this idea on incase someone else might find it useful

For those who haven't seen Madbrush's fabulous Rotating Magnetic Easel here's the link http://www.airbrushforum.org/threads/home-made-magnetic-easel.10844/#post-150242

Cheers Mel

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Thats a good idea. I've been thinkin of designing and building a adjusting and rotating easel but i don't want to overwork the problem and your approach shows merit. BTW- while I have your attention, I'd like to ask your advice. I have a lot of expensive drawing paper that are too thin for airbrush work. I use water based paints and I thought of using aerosol adhesives to mount the paper to something more sturdy. possibly something with high tack that won't ruin the paper or interfere with the paint. Is that possible?

Dagann said:

Thats a good idea. I've been thinkin of designing and building a adjusting and rotating easel but i don't want to overwork the problem and your approach shows merit. BTW- while I have your attention, I'd like to ask your advice. I have a lot of expensive drawing paper that are too thin for airbrush work. I use water based paints and I thought of using aerosol adhesives to mount the paper to something more sturdy. possibly something with high tack that won't ruin the paper or interfere with the paint. Is that possible?

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Your idea is not only possible but also sensible, it won't make your paper easier to scratch or erase but it will stop it from warping.

I buy schoelershammer 4G paper and stick that to hard cardboard in the same way since the boards of the same brand are very expensive.

If you do that, spray the board and not the paper leave for 5 minutes and iron the paper on, this will stop glue residue discolouring the paper and also make the paper stiffer and easier to work on.

Madbrush said:

Your idea is not only possible but also sensible, it won't make your paper easier to scratch or erase but it will stop it from warping.

I buy schoelershammer 4G paper and stick that to hard cardboard in the same way since the boards of the same brand are very expensive.

If you do that, spray the board and not the paper leave for 5 minutes and iron the paper on, this will stop glue residue discolouring the paper and also make the paper stiffer and easier to work on.

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@Madbrush is that the G4 250grm paper you do it with?

Smiler65 said:

@Madbrush is that the G4 250grm paper you do it with?

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I'm not sure of the papers weight but I would say probably yes, if I don't do this it warps badly when covering larger areas and that does my face in

At carpet stores you can buy a special cheap card board underlay on a roll and if you use that and spray can adhesive you turn your paper into board which has all the same properties as the schoelershammer board except it's obviously one sided.

Madbrush said:

I'm not sure of the papers weight but I would say probably yes, if I don't do this it warps badly when covering larger areas and that does my face in

At carpet stores you can buy a special cheap card board underlay on a roll and if you use that and spray can adhesive you turn your paper into board which has all the same properties as the schoelershammer board except it's obviously one sided.

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@Madbrush thanks and thanks for the tip on carpet underlay,will look into that one.
Was just reading your thread on turn table easel, great idea all I've got todo is source the cake stand as ikea don't list that now.

Smiler65 said:

@Madbrush thanks and thanks for the tip on carpet underlay,will look into that one.
Was just reading your thread on turn table easel, great idea all I've got todo is source the cake stand as ikea don't list that now.

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The cake stand is easy to find, it first have to come from Ikea; if you can't find one try googling "lazy Susan"

The turntables are also available at hardware stores ( bunnings here in Australia. ) the dollar shops also occasionally stock cake turn tables / lazy Susan so look around.

Madbrush said:

Your idea is not only possible but also sensible, it won't make your paper easier to scratch or erase but it will stop it from warping.

I buy schoelershammer 4G paper and stick that to hard cardboard in the same way since the boards of the same brand are very expensive.

If you do that, spray the board and not the paper leave for 5 minutes and iron the paper on, this will stop glue residue discolouring the paper and also make the paper stiffer and easier to work on.

Click to expand...

Ahhh...Thank you. I like your advice on using a iron. It makes sense. Prior to your advice I was thinking of using a rolling pin but the heat of a Iron i believe would aid in drying and setting a permanent hold. Also, I'm Interested in your choice of paper. I will see if any local art supply stores offer schoelershammer 4G paper. It's German, so i can only assume it is of high quality. I will research on the net for additional attributes. Again...thank you. I sincerely appreciate your friendly advice.

Dagann said:

Ahhh...Thank you. I like your advice on using a iron. It makes sense. Prior to your advice I was thinking of using a rolling pin but the heat of a Iron i believe would aid in drying and setting a permanent hold. Also, I'm Interested in your choice of paper. I will see if any local art supply stores offer schoelershammer 4G paper. It's German, so i can only assume it is of high quality. I will research on the net for additional attributes. Again...thank you. I sincerely appreciate your friendly advice.

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You are very welcome D, that's how we roll here

Hey @Dagann like Madbrush says Great advice. The only thing I can add to it is to try Gray board as a backing which is cheap and available at most art shops. You can also try spraying your existing paper with a gloss varnish before you start painting which will stop the paint soaking into your paper and makes erasing and scratching easier I believe. I've not done it so I'm only passing on information I've read from others on this forum I use Schoellershammer 4G thick board which is great for erasing but not so good for scratching I find.

You can always just tape your paper to a piece of card (like Gray Board) with the magnets attached to the back of it for rotating so you don't have to glue the paper to a backboard if you don't want to. That way you can keep using the same piece of card with magnets attached for all you paintings.

Melbee said:

Hey @Dagann like Madbrush says Great advice. The only thing I can add to it is to try Gray board as a backing which is cheap and available at most art shops. You can also try spraying your existing paper with a gloss varnish before you start painting which will stop the paint soaking into your paper and makes erasing and scratching easier I believe. I've not done it so I'm only passing on information I've read from others on this forum I use Schoellershammer 4G thick board which is great for erasing but not so good for scratching I find.

You can always just tape your paper to a piece of card (like Gray Board) with the magnets attached to the back of it for rotating so you don't have to glue the paper to a backboard if you don't want to. That way you can keep using the same piece of card with magnets attached for all you paintings.

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Man...I'm glad i found this forum!...You good people are giving me a lot of good advice. Thank you!

Madbrush said:

You are very welcome D, that's how we roll here

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Again...Thank you my friend