After Art School, I started shopping with various mail order companies, since I wasn't living that near my art school, in whose proximity were a number of good stores. In their catalogs, I always saw the ubiquitous Tube Wringer advertised. As a student, I couldn't afford such $20 luxuries. And, convinced that my diligence and effort in squeezing every bit of expensive pigment out of my tubes was enough, I later never bothered.
After randomly coming across some reviews, I decided to finally plunk down for one. Ha. Well, let's just say after using it once, I proceeded to pull out every tube of Acrylic and Oil paint I had--even plastic tubes, and put them through. It was not only lots of fun (I'm easily amused), but the thing works. I was advised to skip the plastic and go straight for the metal one, which I did. I so enjoyed seeing the tubes flatten out so much that I even put my toothpaste through it.
Above is a large 150ml tube of white paint. White paint is fairly inexpensive, but a standard 37ml tube of, say Cadmium Yellow, Orange, or Red can go for $15-20. A premium color like Cobalt Blue, which is probably my favorite blue, runs for $25-34 for a small tube. Just finishing up my existing partially-used tubes will probably earn back the cost of purchase. For the record, my paints in Art School were usually cheap student-grade brands. As soon as I was able I abandoned them all.
Who was I kidding? There is no way my own efforts, fastidious as they may have been, could flatten a tube like that! So yeah, if you paint, get one. Now. Don't be like me.
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