Ikea Alex Paint Storage Trays for Pro Acryl

Ikea ALEX drawers are everywhere in the hobby world. … but they all come with the same problem: that wasted space in the back. About 7 inches of space that is nearly inaccessible and feels fairly useless.

So I designed this to hold my model paints: a two-part sliding drawer system designed specifically for the ALEX from Ikea. Now this solution works for me in the smaller drawers that are about 12 inches wide (The 14" wide alex drawers unit). This could be adapted to the wider drawer system I believe… but it would require multiple trays so that you can remove just 1 section of the front and pull the tray from the back. 

It is printed as 2 parts (left and right) to fit on any 254x254 bed size. It has supports for the handles, just in the center. I'd recommend PLA or PETG for this, either should be fine. 15% infill should be perfect and 2 to 3 wall loops. 

This tray snaps together (Left and Right) with some mild alignment. No serious force needed, if they are not sliding down easily, something is not lining up somewhere, double check then try again. I'd recommend a few drops of superglue before putting together as extra protection.

All the rows are the same on this tray: 6 rows, all can accomodate the following paints:

GW (Games workshop / Citadel)

Pro Acryl

Golden

Golden High Flow

Createx

Any similar bottles of about 30mm diameter.

Bottles are tilted back 45 degrees to allow ease of access in the drawer.  

Bottles are tilted back 45 degrees to allow ease of access in the drawer. When you need to access the tray in the back, just use the handles to lift up the tray in the front, and pull the back tray forward. 

Check out a video of the process of making these, as well as the items in use here on my channel: www.youtube.com/Crafts4painting 

( If you can spare a sub or like, that would be awesome too! )