Tuesday, February 02, 2010

Pochade Box Finished

Well, I was going to go get some ref photos this morning but instead drove to home depot to pick up hinges and the side hinge for the pocahde box. On the way back my heater core started leaking in the car...what luck! This happens when you own a 20 year old car, hahaha. I'm waiting for that Lotto thing to kick in.
The pochade box came out pretty cool. A lot bigger than the 9"x12" box but then again that box can't handle 11"x14" or 12"x16" panels. This bigger 12"x16" pochade can handle all of them from 12"x16 down. I could also do a vertical 16"x20" too although I've never attempted to do something that big plein air.
Anyway...here are some pics of the completed pochade box.....
I didn't notice until I posted this picture that the washers on the lower side hinge are in the wrong position, hahaha. Where's my screwdriver?

Here it is folded up...The slots cut across the top are where you attach the panel with a thin bungee cord. I thought that would not hold very well but very surprised it works great....and is simple to use or replace down the line. From the backside you can see how the pochade box mounts to the tripod. I used oak hardwood to hold a hammerd in Tee-nut to screw into the tripod mount....works great. Wood was scrap I had leftover from my previous pochade box project and the 2 back hinges, 1 side hinge and Tee-nut cost less than $20.00...oh, I spent about $10 for a quart of varnish but that will varnish a gazillion other projects down the line so if you want to get technical I guess you could say I used about .50...maybe .75 cents worth of varnish. Still a very affordable pochade box.

4 comments:

jimserrettstudio said...

Hi Ron.
Another great looking box!
When I first built this box I figured until I got my plein air technique together that 9x12 was about as big as I should go.
Lately I've wanted to try larger pieces to help in my brush work development.
I had 11x14 and 14x18 pre-stretched canvases that I had bought in packages.
I used small picture wire eyelets on each side of the stretcher bars and doubled up the backpackers bungee and just attached it like I would a panel.
I used a piece of insulation board, the blue hard foam stuff you get at the box store to insert in behind the canvas inside of the stretchers so that the piece would lay flat against the Pochade lid.
Worked out pretty well, with this new kit I think you could go as big 16x20 stretched canvas easily.
Anyway I thought you might find this of interest, certainly will enjoy seeing you tackle some larger pieces on location.
And as always great work on your site.
Jim

Ron Guthrie said...

Hi Jim,
That's a great idea of painting larger on the smaller 9x12 box. I think I use 9x12 and 12x16 panels more than anything and I had the extra wood laying around so I just decided to build the larger box. I love the size of the 9x12 though.

I've yet to get out with the new box. I've painted about 4 paintings on the smaller box and found my bungee became stretched. I put a screw into the top of the lid and just wrapped the bungee around that to add tension and was good to go.

I went out the day before yesterday but needed the French easel for 16x20 horizontal work....if vertical I could have used the new 12x16 pochade box.

These boxes are great and so simple to build Jim. Finding your website and the directions really made it all happen, thanks Jim!!

I'll let you know how it goes with the new pochade soon.

Unknown said...

hi, i'm attempting to gather all of the hardward to build this pochade box. What did u use as the side hinge to hold the box open? Is it a lid support that sort of click and unclicks to engage/disengage? How is it working?
thanks, carolyn

Ron Guthrie said...

Hi Carolyn,
That hinge is called a Table Hinge and they are available at Home Depot. When you open it it has a notched area that locks in place to keep it open. This was the second pochade box I built. Here is a link to the first one...just scroll down to see it.
http://guthrieart.blogspot.com/2009_11_01_archive.html
Good luck with your box Carolyn!