Acrylic Wall Hanging Paint Rack - Sphere Products

[Mike]

Wall Hanging Paint Rack (Acrylic)
Sphere Products

We've known about Sphere for a while, and their MDF racks and fittings have been reviewed here before. Their engineering is very nice, and they work just like they're supposed to. Jon Page let me have one of their newer products, which has made a jump from sheet MDF to crystal clear Acrylic, which to me adds a great deal of class to their products.

The racks can be configured as you like it to fit your chosen paint pots, from Gunze through Humbrol to Xtracrylix, and it's the latter that he let me have for review. The racks are provided in kit form from the factory to reduce postage, and mine arrived in a recycled box wrapped carefully and ensconced within a thick gauge Ziploc bag with two further bags within to protect the small parts from the large and vice versa. In the bag were three large pieces of acrylic with their protective peel-off sheet still attached on one side, packed in a way that naked acrylic doesn't rub together. In one of the smaller bags were a pair of notched uprights, and in the other, the hardware to lock the parts together, including a little Allen key to ensure you don't have to scrabble round your toolbox looking for the right one. That immediately scored brownie points with me.

One large sheet is decked out with two slots at the narrow ends, with a pair of lugs cut out from the top to accommodate the screws needed to attach them to the wall. The other two parts have the same slots, plus 66 paint-pot sized holes in them, cut at a very slight angle so that they line up and hold the paint at a slight upward tilt to stop them sliding out. The end pieces have the tabs that slide into the long slots, plus some complex little grooves that accommodate the bolts and retain the nuts that pull everything together. The hardware consists of eight dome topped Allen bolts, eight washers, and eight nuts, all M3 sized, in case you need replacements.

Construction is simple. Peel off the protective layer, place the clear sheet at the back, and drop the holy sheet without the logo on top of it, ensuring the holes are pointing up toward the fixing lugs. The slide the long tabs on the end pieces into the slots, securing them with a nut/washer/long bolt combination from the back. Then drop the remaining sheet onto the tabs, with the logo at the back, so the words are readable. Secure that with the remaining shorter bolt/washer/nut combination, and ensure it's all tightened up with your free Allen key. That's it! You've done it. All you need to do is place the rack level on your wall, mark two Xs and drill/plug or drywall bolt it onto your wall. My workshop walls are chipboard, so it was a piece of cake for me.

You'll notice from the photos that I've written the paint codes on the bottle tops to help me find the correct bottle, as that's the one downside of these racks. Get yourself a fine permanent marker and you're ok though.

Conclusion
The acrylic is beautifully finished, with all sides polished to a high sheen. The design is very clever, and the resulting paint rack is an incredibly space-conscious way of storing your paint on the wall. My rack is less than a quarter of the size that it used to be, and all my doubles are now in a small box somewhere out of the way. The one drawback? I think I have the full range of Xtracrylix, and there are perhaps another 24+ paints from the Armour range that won't be in this new rack. If it had enough holes for the full range, it would be just about perfect.

My thanks to Jon for providing us with the sample, and for including my new 000 Windsor & Newton Series 7 brush in the package to save me postage.

Very highly recommended

Review sample courtesy of

[Wizball]

The holy sheet?

[Paul A H]

That does look mighty fine. Just the thing for the modeller with a cluttered work area!

[Mike]

It's actually a handsome addition to your wall too - looks kind of cool