Portable Painting Palette I Made at TechShop Chandler

A wood painting palette with a glass surface I use for oil painting. Made at TechShop Chandler, www.techshop.ws

For this project I bought 2x 1x2's (pine or poplar), some 1/8 birch plywood, and a sheet of replacement glass (16x20)

Take your 1x2's and measure the length you need, for this project I needed 4x of each length, 2 for each side. I measure my length from the inside edge of the miter because I needed the sheet of glass to fit inside.

The easiest way to do this is to set the miter/chop saw to a 45 degree angle, set up a stop, cut your wood and then flip it over. and do the other side

Next grab your corner clamps/90 degree clamps, apply glue to the ends of your wood and clamp them. Double check that they are clamped square. I chose to nail mine also, you don't have to.

Once all corners are clamped use a palm sander to make it pretty. Hopefully under the glue blobs you will have some nice pretty joints

Next cut your birch plywood to a little bigger than your 1x2 rectangle, slather some glue on and clamp them together

After the glue is dry cut your sides a little closer on the table saw if there was a lot leftover like mine. Then grab a 1/4 flush trim/bearing bit and stick it in a router. You want the bearing to follow along the 1x2's underneath the birch plywood. When you route it will trim your birch plywood perfect to the edge of the 1x'2s

If you want your edges to be a littler nice and not as sharp put a rounder bearing bit in the router next and take another lap around those edges. I didn't do the full radius of the big, just enough to take the edge off.

I bought small hinges at home depot, pick the ugliest side and make it the back.

Once the 2 sides are screwed together via hinges all you have to do is stick your glass in! I chose to put a layer of cardboard with a piece of white paper on top of that and then my glass. This just gives the glass a little forgiveness, and since I usually start a painting on a white surface I wanted to mix my colors against a white. Some people put 50% gray paper instead, or brown paper if they do a lot of under paintings.