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Old 30th Jan 2021, 6:08 pm   #21
Lloyd 1985
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Default Re: I bet you cannot beat this for poor packing .

That does look a mess, interesting rebuild project though!

I had stuff arrive looking like that, one was a Murphy radio, little Bakelite thing, very well packed, but looked like it had been dropped from a very great height, it had also been re-packed by the courier, for what reason I don't know, and not very well.

Best one I had delivered was a Philips portable colour TV, little 10" set, the packing was simply 2 jiffy bags, one gaffer taped over the front, and the other taped over the back! How it survived intact, and working, I don't know!

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Old 30th Jan 2021, 6:20 pm   #22
Junk Box Nick
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Default Re: I bet you cannot beat this for poor packing .

I received a 1960s Philips portable packed in a breakfast cereal box only just large enough to contain the set. The only other protection was a bit of newspaper around the handle. The set survived cosmetically but didn't work, despite being sold as such. Whether it was when it was despatched is open to debate, though as we’ve had a lengthy discussion about the somewhat wide definition of ‘working’ let’s not go off topic.

However, bad packaging isn't confined to private sellers and the inexperienced. I bought a second-hand CD box set containing of about a twenty CDs and the large company who sell through the likes of Amazon, and should be well-versed, chose to pack it in a polythene bag often used for books (of which they also sell a lot). Needless to say, what had clearly been a pristine item, suffered badly in transit with the presentation box bashed an split apart and CD cases in pieces. All the CDs survived so I negotiated a very healthy discount but you have to wonder at the common sense of the person who packed it.
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Old 30th Jan 2021, 6:31 pm   #23
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Default Re: I bet you cannot beat this for poor packing .

I had people end boxed items in just a plastic bag as well before, naturally the box gets damaged not good if it's a present.
Companies need to realise that unless the items box specifically says it can be shipped without any extra packaging a plastic bag won't do.
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Old 30th Jan 2021, 6:38 pm   #24
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Default Re: I bet you cannot beat this for poor packing .

It’s worth understanding how parcel sorting centres work. The modern ones are multi-storey. All the parcels start life at the top of the building. Each stage of sorting is performed by the parcels dropping, through chutes, to the storey below. So, when packing a parcel, allow for it being dropped from storey to storey, repeatedly.
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Old 30th Jan 2021, 6:53 pm   #25
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Default Re: I bet you cannot beat this for poor packing .

Hmmm ..... I had a suitcase-style portable delivered by courier a month or so ago. The delivery guy did the [now normal] 'Covid-runner' when he saw approaching the door in response to his hammering and thumping ... and in fairness it was raining heavily. He'd actually dumped a sodden/soaking/dissolving corrugated cardboard box on my front door-step - which I immediately took inside and opened with my heart in my mouth. Fortunately the radio within the 'remains' of the box had in fact been well-packed i.e. wrapped in multiple layers of bubble wrap and cling film: AKA water-proof material. So ... it would seem that when packaging one must legislate for all eventualities: storm, flood, fire, theft, tempest, lightning strike, earthquakes, acts of god etc. etc.?
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Old 30th Jan 2021, 6:56 pm   #26
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Default Re: I bet you cannot beat this for poor packing .

There are cases when however well packed, a radio is quite likely to arrive destroyed. Transformers, loudspeaker magnets and so on can be very heavy. Even with perfect packing, the accelerations produced when the parcel is thrown around can make the heavy components break loose. Then they just smash everything in sight. I have had parcels arrive with no sign of damage on the outside but a kit of parts on the inside. After several radios arrived destroyed I gave up buying them online. Now it's fleamarket or nothing.
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Old 30th Jan 2021, 7:02 pm   #27
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Default Re: I bet you cannot beat this for poor packing .

If I'm double-boxing, which I quite often do, I try to make the outer box the less robust of the two. Its main job is to hold the intermediate packing in place and it doesn't need to be super-strong to do that. The advantage is that most couriers don't like handing over a parcel with the outer packaging really badly damaged and disintegrating. So if they pick it up and it feels a bit lightweight then they may just take a bit more care of it.

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Old 30th Jan 2021, 7:22 pm   #28
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Default Re: I bet you cannot beat this for poor packing .

In the past, whenever posting/courier any item(s) my philosophy was always to pack so it could be dropped from 6ft at least. Damage notified was less than 0.1%, and that I then considered to be my failure!

Before I retired, there were 2 incidents I recall.
One, a high power 19" rack tx, about £6-8K value packed in a box like 20 packs of cornflakes would be in, together with a couple of handfuls of polystyrene chips. This was sent airfreight from the Far East. The front panel, about 3mm thick aluminium was bent at each corner and sticking out the box. The chassis side members were also bent.
The specially manufactured metalwork almost doubled the repair cost I imagine.

The second, almost disaster, but actually survived without any major damage was from the Royal Navy stores depot. Just a couple of plastic knobs broken I think.
This was a pallet with 2 rows of transceivers, each stacked 3 high and surround only with a few bands of clingfilm to hold it all together. Each was about 600mm W X 250mm D X 900M L and weighed nearly 30kg. Total value was easily in excess of £100K!
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Old 30th Jan 2021, 7:29 pm   #29
G6Tanuki
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Default Re: I bet you cannot beat this for poor packing .

Does anyone else use "Shockwatch" tags?

https://www.packability.co.uk/shockw...tickers-review

Having first seen them used on packages when shipping the old removable hard-disk-drive packs for 1970s/80s minicomputers, I've since used these on valuable consignments and have a suspicion that their obvious presence on an item goes some way to deterring truly-bad handling by couriers.
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Old 30th Jan 2021, 8:32 pm   #30
Dave Moll
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Default Re: I bet you cannot beat this for poor packing .

Quote:
Originally Posted by dglcomp View Post
I had people end boxed items in just a plastic bag as well before, naturally the box gets damaged not good if it's a present.
Companies need to realise that unless the items box specifically says it can be shipped without any extra packaging a plastic bag won't do.
Just last week I received a telephone in original box sent that way. Fortunately, both the 'phone and the box arrived none the worse for their sojourn with Hermes.

I can't resist, however, recalling a package containing an unusual bakelite plug or socket (I don't remember the details) some years ago that the postie while I was out decided to drop into the barn I use as a garage. Unfortunately, it was dark when I arrived home, so I didn't see it on the floor of the barn when I opened up to park the car. As I was reversing into the barn I heard a loud crunch, so I went into the house to get a torch and discovered a card saying that a package had been left in the barn. Once said torch lit upon the remains of the package it was obvious that no amount of glue would reassemble the pile of powdered bakelite and twisted metal into anything usable. The irony is that it was well-packed and had probably survived unscathed both its journey through Royal Mail and a four-foot drop into the barn, but no amount of packaging could save it from the weight of a car rolling over it.
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Old 30th Jan 2021, 8:44 pm   #31
The Philpott
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Default Re: I bet you cannot beat this for poor packing .

I wouldn't be brave enough to assemble that smashed case with any type of cyanoacrylate, even a slow grade. Slow Araldite every time! CA comes into it's own when you have a crack in bakelite that has not fully separated, and you need something of low surface tension that will wick in. Both of these formulae sand down OK if required.

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Old 30th Jan 2021, 9:23 pm   #32
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Default Re: I bet you cannot beat this for poor packing .

About 20 years ago I had a consignment of stuff from Screwfix delivered in a large cardboard box with no packing whatsoever. Amongst other things the box contained a large metal boxed twist drill set which had wreaked havoc amongst the dozen or so packs of 10 GLS light bulbs. I did quite well out of it as Screwfix sent replacement packs for those that had been damaged and didn't want the damaged packs returned.
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Old 30th Jan 2021, 10:01 pm   #33
David G4EBT
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Default Re: I bet you cannot beat this for poor packing .

Quote:
Originally Posted by The Philpott View Post
I wouldn't be brave enough to assemble that smashed case with any type of cyanoacrylate, even a slow grade. Slow Araldite every time! CA comes into it's own when you have a crack in bakelite that has not fully separated, and you need something of low surface tension that will wick in. Both of these formulae sand down OK if required.

Dave
The CA I mentioned will give a long enough ‘open time’ to be able to adjust the fit accurately, is sufficiently viscous to fill small gaps you can move on to the next piece of the ‘jigsaw’ with no clamping. If you’re happy with the fit, you can spray it with accelerator and it will cure in a split second, unlike any two-part epoxy, which takes time to fully cure, but people will use what they find works best for them.

With 20 sec medium CA, I can glue small segments of wood together, including end grain to side grain without clamping, give it a flash of accelerator and plough a groove it in with a router right away. It’s why it’s the standard glue used pen makers the world over to create wood and acrylic pen blanks for turning on the lathe. But that’s a different hobby of no relevance here.

Hopefully, what you and I have suggested might encourage Mick to rebuild the cabinet rather than to just use the chassis as a ‘donor’.
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Old 30th Jan 2021, 10:35 pm   #34
John_Dw
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Default Re: I bet you cannot beat this for poor packing .

I bought my Ultra U405 from. Don't know if it was because I added a message to him when paying, saying please make sure that it was very well wrapped because of the way that some carriers are known to mishandle packages. Anyway he messaged back acknowledging my concern and that he would comply.
When the package arrived it was a box big enough to get four U405's in. Inside was a LOT of polystyrene packing shapes and nestled right in the centre, totally surrounded by the bits was a second box, about an inch bigger all round than the radio, inside which was the radio totally, securely, wrapped in bubble wrap. Needless to say it arrived undamaged.
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Old 30th Jan 2021, 11:10 pm   #35
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Default Re: I bet you cannot beat this for poor packing .

Had many like that at work.

One dealer sent a (front of stage) powered monitor in for repair. His "engineer" had unbolted the heavy 12" driver and mains transformer, then stuffed them back inside the cabinet, wrapped it in corrugated cardboard, and shipped it back to us for repair SCRAP.

Another dealer wrapped a very expensive 32 channel audio mixing desk in clingfilm for shipping. Not a lot survived.

You would think that goods packed on a pallet would survive. A dealer had sent in a 12 box powered PA system for repair, packed on a pallet, and shrink wrapped - all twelve cabinets smashed.
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Old 30th Jan 2021, 11:22 pm   #36
Wendymott
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Default Re: I bet you cannot beat this for poor packing .

This is what I got from a supposed trader.... in an envelope would you believe, as normal the idiot refused a refund..... but not worth chasing.
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Old 30th Jan 2021, 11:49 pm   #37
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Default Re: I bet you cannot beat this for poor packing .

Sorry folks, but grumbling about bad packaging, incompetent couriers etc. here never achieves anything. Time to close this thread.
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