[Clayart] shipping pots

[Snail Scott]

> On May 10, 2018, at 4:30 PM, Gregg Lindsley <gerrg42 at gmail.com> wrote:
> ...make a false bottom  in the
> box. I use peanuts, biodegradable it is claimed, and put a layer two inches
> deep in the bottom. I cut out a piece of cardboard and put it down on top
> of the peanuts…


Yes! Do not forget about the bottom - in addition to interior settling, boxes get set down on top of other things that aren’t necessarily flat. However, you should never expect that ‘up’ will remain ‘up’ once you have sent it out. Every side of the box, including the top, should be treated similarly, with crush zones. I include a lift-out inner ‘lid’ of foamboard that rests on the side-wall foamboard, because many things will get set on top of your box while in transit, and they may be heavy and/or pointy. 

Arrows and ‘fragile’ signs mean nothing, and will not cause your box to be handled differently. 

I once watched a large crate being hand-trucked into a physics lab. It had its ‘up' arrows all pointing sideways. The crate had big sheet-metal cones nailed to all of its sides, to make theoretically impossible to set it down in any incorrect orientation, but the ‘custom critical service’ delivery guy was persistent, cussing out those pointy metal cones that made it so tough to keep the thing propped up on end! The recipient came out of the lab, saw the orientation of the arrows, and refused delivery. "That cost a quarter of a million dollars; are you planning to pay for the damages yourself?” The delivery guy turned white as a sheet. Wonder if he learned from the experience, or is flipping burgers now. (The device was actually OK in spite of everything.) The moral of the story: pack everything with the assumption that idiots will be involved. They will be.

Snail Scott
claywork at flying-snail.com
www.snailscott.com