Will this work to ship in?

[n10sivern]

I've never had a need to ship out large amounts of heavy lead, I normally receive them. I've had bad experiences with the PO busting boxes and damaging items. So, I decided to build a wooden crate to go inside the MFRB. Do y'all think this will work or is it wasted effort? It fits in there perfectly with no wiggle room. The lead is in sheets and will be cut to fit inside of the wood box.

179210

[M-Tecs]

Tyvek bag with address on it inside the box and lots of strapping tape has not failed me yet.

[Pipefitter]

I have taken the MFRB and taped the bottom, then used Elmers glue to glue the inside bottom flaps to the outside bottom flaps. Then cut 2 boards (cheap 1x10's if I remember) to just fit the box dimensions. Sandwich the lead between the boards and then use about twice as much plastic wrap as you think you need to wrap the "lead sandwich". Into the box that goes, then wadded newspaper on top to fill the box. Glue the top flaps as I did the bottom, then tape them. Finish up with fiber strapping tape around all three dimensions.
A few years back I sold several hundred pounds of pure lead on Fleabay and did not have any failure to deliver using this method.

[osteodoc08]

The wooden box, while admirable, just takes up space and weight. Tyvek bags which are free from USPS and a good solid fiber reinforced packing tape are your friend

[DougGuy]

You need a boatload of filament tape on the outside of the mfrb as well. Stuff inside CANNOT move or it will turn into a battering ram. It will immediately flatten any mashable cushioning style packing material and then there will be no cushioning and the load inside will be free to move around. This is how stuff gets torn up.

The commercial casters block the inside of the box with hard styrofoam, cut in pieces to fit, so there is no compressable packing material, and their stuff arrives exactly as it was shipped.

[Hamish]

n10,

A few years back I bought a box of lead off eBay and the sellers made a box similar to yours using 3/4" pine nailed together and had 62#'s of ingots inside.

Your box would work, but I guessing the tyvek/tape option would be much faster and probably cheaper in the long run.

[RogerDat]

There is a sticky in swapping and selling on packing so it arrives. Lot of good techniques there. One especially struck me. Put a plastic bag from grocery store in bottom, fill with expanding foam insulation to the point of half size of box, tie shut, set in box, then place item on it like a nest. After it sets do the same thing above the item. The foam will conform to the item and protect it, as well as prevent movement. Not worth it for lead but for a nice scale, or press?

As pointed out above, no movement is key. Along with avoiding narrow point of impact. Flat end of 10# ingot won't punch through box, narrow 1# bar handle of a press will punch right through and fall out. The tyvek envelopes help with that. News paper compresses and doesn't spring back, plastic grocery bags spring back and when packed tight hold better. Fibered tape folded over all seams and edges. Clear tape over labels and most surfaces. It may arrive looking more round than square but the fibered tape holds it together and the clear tape keeps it from getting holes. Styrofoam peanuts are worthless. Crushed to dust in a mile.

Box is weight and more work than will normally be needed. Wrapping lead in plastic wrap so they become one big object then some plastic bags packed around to hold it in place works pretty well. You can also cut a second MFRB to fit inside. Have to trim it a bit to get the pieces to fit inside the other one but makes one solid box.

If you pack it so that turning the box on end or upside down doesn't allow the contents to fall around it should hold just fine. Oh and put labels on it that say "Heavy" you can save images found with google images. More likely the box will get dropped if someone is not expecting the weight. Go read the stick in S&S lot of good stuff there.

[rancher1913]

you can always fill 5 sfrb's and then put them in a mfrb to ship.

[n10sivern]

I read the sticky on shipping. Just didn't see anything about the wooden boxes. When I've received really heavy items in the past it was in boxes similar to this and arrived ok which is why I thought to do this.

[farmerjim]

One order of lead that I got several years ago was in a wooden box like the one pictured. This was put inside the MFRB and then taped with lots of filament tape. When the box arrived it was somewhat crushed on the outside, the wooden box was all broken, but the filament tape held it all together.
The least damaged boxes of lead that I have gotten were where the inside lead was packed tightly in SFRB's and the outside was heavy Filament tape. Also tightly packed in Tyvek bags and lots of filament tape on the outside. Filament tape is strong and will hold the box together even after it has been crushed destroying its structural integrity. Probably the best I have seen was the guy had a led mold made the exact size of the inside of a SFRB. 1 solid block of lead. They all arrived in perfect condition.

[warpspeed]

you can always fill 5 sfrb's and then put them in a mfrb to ship.

I have shipped lead this way with good results. I did have one box where the USPS destroyed it, losing some of the contents.

Filed a claim and they paid within a week. Shipped replacement to the buyer.


OP -

I think the box you have made will work if there is no movement at all. ZERO Make sure that you add cardboard or wood inside to insure it is all tight.

[leeggen]

The secret to shipping lead is for the lead to not move at all. Not one i/8 of an inch. in any direction. As said before itf it moves it will be like a battery ram. I rec'd 2 shipments that had fiber board around the edges and over top and bottom. I think it was like 3/8 thick but the lead could not move at all. Worked great, oh yeah, wrap in fiber packing tape in all directions.
CD

[bedbugbilly]

I have often received lead packed in SFRB that were then put in to a MFRB - then well taped all over. Always seems to arrive in good shape even though some of it has traveled quite a distance.

I do quite quite a bit of selling on flea bay at times. Sometimes that means making up boxes of a custom size for items or shipping heavy items. I have a "packing area" set up to do all of my packing and one of the items I use quite often is one of the "hot glue guns". They don't cost that much and theit sure works great for glueing the flaps solidly prior to taping well.