3D printed Watercolor Palette Tray

Watercolor is my favorite painting medium, and after trying different brands, I've chosen Sennelier as my primary palette. On my recent trip to Paris, I got a beautiful 48-half-pan watercolor palette at a very reasonable price. It has all the colors I wanted to add to my studio palette, but my biggest problem is fitting the full pans I already have with the new colors in a 48-half-pan palette. 

Most 48-half-pan watercolor palettes have 4 rows that fit 12 half-pans, but there is enough space to accommodate 5 rows of pans, increasing the number of colors to 60. I found a watercolor palette hack on YouTube that inspired me to find a long-term solution. 

I searched for a 3D-printed solution, but I had no luck. The only 3D design I found online is specifically designed for a new size Schminke palette, which doesn't fit other brands since the pans have different dimensions (around 1-2mm shorter than other brands and a bit wider). I really liked the design but have absolutely no idea how to modify an STL, and to be honest, every time I try to use CAD software, I end up frustrated and leave the project altogether. 

The only CAD software I have never tried is OpenScad because most comments say it's too difficult to use and recommend people use ThinkerCAD. I decided to try it, so I watched a tutorial to create a Lego brick to see how difficult it is. Surprisingly, I found it easy and intuitive; for context, I'm a Computer Engineer, so coding feels natural to me. I immediately started taking measurements to create this tray. 

It's quite interesting how you can design something thinking about it the same way you code. In software like this, you think about building blocks and loops. For instance, the watercolor tray can be viewed differently; it could be a cuboid with hollowed rows or a flat surface with walls. In the end, you'll get a similar functional design.

I designed it as a flat surface with walls for two main reasons. First, I wanted to add something on top of the wall to keep the pans in place, similar to the inserts that come with each watercolor palette, and I figured it would be easy to design for a beginner if I added a different shape on top of a wall. Second, there are two other sizes in the same family of watercolor palettes, and to modify the design to fit a different size, I just need to define the number of walls each can accommodate, and I have a perfect design with minimal effort.

If you are interested in the model, I shared it under Creative Commons License CC BY-NC-SA 4.0  

STL Files:  Watercolor Tin palette 60 half-pans insert

Enjoy!

K.