CurtPalme.com Home Theater Forum

[greg_mitch]

From a grocery store? I am fresh out of newspapers and all of my packing nuts appear to be missing.

I want to wrap each board in a single plastic sack and then stuff the box with tons of crumpled up plastic sacks. Is this bad in any way? I was thinking if anything maybe some static issues...

[greg_mitch]

Ok...I found some Shopper paper and will wrap the boards up and tape them in newspaper but the "filler" will be plastic bags. That sounds better?

[Elaine Benes]

Wadded up paper is the worst thing to use as filler, it even states specifically on the USPS site NOT to use wadded up news paper as filler in a packing job where you need to cushion the item. Newspaper simply packs up tighter and becomes harder as the box is moved around and the piece contained therein moves around. The more it moves around, the more the paper packs and the larger the void becomes, which in turn allows the item to move around even MORE. Lightweight items, you will often "get away" with using wadded up newspaper, but its really a poor choice.

Buy some bubble wrap from somewhere that sells it by the foot or yard, it will be REALLY cheap and does a MUCH better job of protecting whatever it is that you're sending...If you buy bubble wrap from anywhere that sells it in prepackaged tiny little squares, it will be really expensive...
Here there are UPS stores that sell good bubble wrap by the foot, usually only costs me a buck or two for enough to do a good job. I used to buy it by the 250' roll, that's when its REALLY cheap....

Wadded up plastic bags *might* be adequate, but what would be better would be putting some air in them and tying them closed, then they'd be just like the large void fill bubble product...Personally though, I'd still wrap the boards in proper bubble wrap FIRST...

[greg_mitch]

I've been using newspaper for years with not a single complaint.

Thanks for the heads up though.

[Elaine Benes]

I'll add an addendum with regards to the crumpled up newspaper...It *might* be sufficient for very light objects, but the heavier the item shipped, the less appropriate paper is. Also, paper weighs quite a bit more than the alternatives which makes your shipping cost more...

[greg_mitch]

[Jeremy112]

I think the only thing id be worried about using plastic bags is if they aren't anti-static, it could damage the boards.

The oddest thing used to happen to me when I sold a certain dell model on ebay, I had about 40 of the computers (GX280) and I tested them all out before listing them, and before shipping them because they were basically the "Edsel" of dell computers.

when packing them up I would put them into brand new plastic bags, not antistatic or anything special, just a big plastic bag so they peanuts wouldn't break up and get into the computer during packing.

Almost half od the computers I shipped out got returned with failed motherboards, and people weren't swapping their bad ones into the systems as I had asset tags hidden on every motherboard.

When I stopped using plastic bags, I never got another one sent back, I guess its a lesson learned the hard way!

[draganm]

ELiane is dead on, not worth saving a few sheckles to have broken sh*t arrive on the other end. I'm lucky though, my work generates literally mountains of used bubble wrap, boxes, and even anti-static bags. If it didn't I would still buy it though.

[CIR Engineering]

You must ship boards in anti-static bags...

craigr

[Spanky Ham]

As packing, wadded up newspaper may be bad, but shredded newspaper is pretty good. One of my suppliers switched from styrofoam to shredded newspaper and his shipping problems went to almost zero.

[greg_mitch]