Hands Free Hair Dryer for Your Miniature Painting Convenience and Glazing Pleasure
I like how a hair dryer speeds up the painting process by drying your current work, so you can move on to the next painting technique faster. This is especially nice while glazing layers. If you ever tried to glaze over a not so dry area and had the lower layer basically tear, you know what I am talking about and the frustration. I know picking your hair dryer and quickly holding it over your work is not so bad, but just tapping your toe and placing your model in front a dryer make painting a little more enjoyable.
The parts for this easy project are simple:
1) A hair dryer (Please measure the plug
2) 60 inches of 2 inch PVC pipe (Measure you power plug of your dryer to make sure it's size will able to feed through the PVC pipe.)
3) Three 3 way 2 inch PVC connectors
4) Four PVC 2 inch end caps
5) 1 Foot Switch. Click link to purchase on Amazon.
Lighted Foot Switch with 9 Ft cord
1) I cut the PVC with a basic miter box and saw kit I have:
a) Cut the PVC pipe in two pieces 36 and 24 inches.
b) Cut the 24 inch piece into 6 eaual 4 inch pieces. This is for the bottom supports.
c) Remeber not to put it together, tightly, until you have got you hair dryer plug fed through the power plug to the end of one of the feet. I did this and had to take rubber malet to it get apart again.
2) Cut a notch in the 4 inch lengyth PVC to have enough room to have the wire feed through the foot.
a) Put the PVC cap on lightly so you can easilky take it off again. Mark an area about 1/4 inch wide by 1/2 inch deeper than were the cap stops.
b) Use a hobby saw and cut to the bottom of the retangle you just drew.
c) I snapped the the tab left after using the saw, them used a rotary tool to clean any remaining PVC.
d) Finished and cleaned the cut with a sanding stick
I still have not figured out if I am going to, if all, glue the PVC together. I want to be able to swing down the dryer closer to my work area to able to put a miniature in front the dryer, hands free, while I am working on something else.
It is so nice to tap your toe on a switch a quickly dry the miniature and be ready to move on. While the mini is drying you can be cleaning your brush getting ready for the next glaze layer.
Below you can see I left enough slack in the power cord to be able to ajust the settings and have the capability to use the hair dryer extended from the base.
If I ever want to use the non heated setting I am using a velcro wire tie/power cord organizer to be able to hold down the non heat button. (Amazon Link to Buy)
Here is a photo with the Velcro strap in use. The velcro ties are great to have around in numbers, there are many uses for them.
I hope some find this a useful inexpensive contraption to make miniature painting a litttle more productive. It is nice not having to grab my dryer from the hook on my work station above the blue compressor or having it in my lap during a painting session. You easily modfiy this, drye holder, by changing the length of the main tube. You can also buy a PVC exrender, to lengthen the main pipe, if you paint on work surfaces at different heights.
