Bitters & Bottles reached out to us to design and paint all the signage for their storefront. For this three-day project we were able to do it all with two smaller ladders and four kits. We generally work with oil-based paints but a lot of wall jobs end up being water-based paint, so we carry a separate kit to hold all the extra tools for cleanup.
On multiple-day projects, we try to find a place onsite to store our kit so we don’t have to lug it back and forth from the shop at the end of the day. We don’t have garage space so leaving our kit and ladders in the car overnight isn’t the best idea. With how clean our current kit packs up, it doesn’t take much to convince our clients to let us store it somewhere in their space.
For our jobs in the city, it’s common for us to park multiple blocks away — so being able to quickly unpack from the car and easily roll it down the street is crucial. Many sign painters have very old-school, machinist-style tool kits that are beautifully crafted but can be very heavy and cumbersome, then they may pair them with random other milk crates or tool boxes. We have used the same ourselves and have lost many supplies falling through the cracks of those milk crates!
We have one standard “setup” kit which is orange. That holds measuring tools, tape, Stabilo pencils, glass scrapers, pounce pads, etc. This kit is for all the initial surface prep and pattern hanging / making. We also have the little briefcase-style insert on our lid to hold pencils and business/wet paint cards.
Orange — Systainer³ M 137 + Systainer³ M Office Lid Insert
The blue kit is for all of our paint and extra painting materials like larger brushes, rollers, and fences. This holds our little wood cut off that we can snap onto the top of one of the kits as a mixing table.
Blue — Systainer³ M 437
We generally have a large black kit that holds our tarps, safety cones, and kneeling pads.
The last Systainer is another large one we have for cleaning supplies, a bucket for cleaning brushes, paint cups, rags, paper towels, etc.
We had one of the original Festool rolling carts but ended up purchasing the newer, wider one. We honestly didn’t like it at first because of the extra footprint, but then realized if we position our ladders the right way with a bungee, we can roll our whole setup to the job site with ease. It is now a core part of the setup!
The things we are hoping to make better with our setup are a way to hold or hang our trash bag, a better snap-on table, a water-based paint kit with a drawer for those brushes, and separators for our setup kit so it doesn’t turn into a jumble so easily.
One system. For everything. For everyone.
Systainer USA.
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