Saving money on building supplies

[Guest]

I've found some money saving tips and thought it time to share. First let me explain that some of these tips may not work for everyone for obvious reasons and this is'nt meant to be an end all know all thread. I also welcome any advice ,critiques or helpful input of any kind. Now on to the goodies,first sandpaper.

I buy a lot of sandpaper in large rolls or big books of sheet for my full scale painting projects and its a nice trickle down for this hobby. For this to work for the average hobbyist you'll need to enlist like minded fellow builders.Here is a picture of the materials I use

just for an example a 100 sheet roll of 320 grit sets me back $22.39. Get together a few chaps to defer the cost and for pennies on the dollar you've got enough sanding material to make a big pile of plastic dust. I go through a half sheet on average per build. Also another handy item is the rolls are self adhesive so you can cut, trim,fold and attach them to various shaped item for custom made sanding sticks. The wet dry grits are much the same in savings ,again the key is buying in bulk with lots of fellow hobbyist.Paint supply houses here give free sticks and strainers with each order, another saving bonus and the sticks have lots of great uses.I tape parts to them for painting and also cut them to size and adhere sandpaper to them for a quick cheap sanding stick!

[Guest]

Thinners are another high mark up item,I buy 5 gallon drums of lacquer thinner for less than $35.00. This will fill up a whole lot of 50mil/ or1&3/4oz jars, bottles that they charge $5.00 for. Again you'll need to do some networking and buy some cases of bottles

also might be a good idea to have a safe place to keep a large container like this, in your apartment closet probably is'nt a great idea. Just be safe

[Guest]

Trey, just where are you, I'm not sure where O-town is! It would be interesting to do a similar comparrison with UK prices.

A good example is the fact that I bought a packet of 2000 grit wet and dry a few years ago and I will probably use only a couple of sheets in my lifetime. If I could have shared the cost with 5 or 6 other modellers it would have made a lot of sense.

[Guest]

Trey, just where are you, I'm not sure where O-town is! It would be interesting to do a similar comparrison with UK prices.A good example is the fact that I bought a packet of 2000 grit wet and dry a few years ago and I will probably use only a couple of sheets in my lifetime. If I could have shared the cost with 5 or 6 other modellers it would have made a lot of sense.

hey Richard.I'm in Orlando Florida

[Guest]

Good idea, Trey! Should be very useful with a "Supply-savings" thread.

I have one too; on liquid mask were you get almost 10x as much for your money as with Mascol, on top of that; brushes can be cleaned with tap-water and it reacts even less with our paints than the typical cellulose based masks. I found it by chance while accompanying my girlfriend to her hobby shop. It was one of those full of fabrics, needles, thread and women, some of them not at all bad looking - the fabrics that is ;-) . Apparently many women like to make there own slippers from felt. On wooden floors these are deadly if not treated with something providing some friction. This is were the liquid mask comes in, they use a natural latex solution which they paint on the soles of the slippers.

The one I found was a local brand that probably isn't sold outside of Denmark, but I would be surprised if this sort of stuff wasn't available in all sort of guises around the globe.

/Daniel

[Guest]

great tip Daniel thanks