Norm Dresner wrote:
It's a small matter but one that's driving me batty. In my modeling work I
usually have anywhere from 2 to 6 little "medicine cups" [the kind they use
in hospitals] filled with various liquids -- custom mixed paint, glue, paint
thinners, etc -- on the bench and naturally I'm constantly knocking over one
or more of these almost every day.

The obvious solution would be to create a small base for them that's
tip-proof. Conceptually a 1-3/4" square of something like MDF in which
there's been bored a tapered hole that matches the taper of the cups would
work fine -- I've already done this with a straight-sided glue bottle that
was consistently in danger of tipping because the base was too narrow for
the height.

Anyway, I suppose I could drill a straight hole attack it with a rasp. I
could also, I guess, use my bandsaw with the table tilted. Both of these
seem like brute force and I keep thinking that there has to be a more
elegant way. I just measured the slope of the side of the cup and it's ~15
degrees from the vertical so I don't think there are any router bits that
would help much either.

Suggestions welcome.

Build a tray to hold however many cups you need with a little room
between each cup. The rim of the cups should be just a little higher
than the top edge of the tray. Use a carpet tack, or similar, and nail
the cups to the bottom of the tray, cups spaced as required. Pour
plaster into the tray up to the top edge. Let set, pull carpet tacks,
remove cups (no need to grease them - they'll pop out easily).

R