Saturday, January 1, 2011

Dungeon Bash Storage and Transport

I need some way to store this monstrosity as well as easily transport it to and from the convention.  Considering it's a lot of cement in little pieces I'll be carrying around boxes of rocks.

I was looking at various sizes and shapes of plastic storage bins but they're never actually square and they tend to have style aspects that make it difficult to use all the space.  Plus I was worried about how sturdy they would be, considering the aforementioned boxes of rocks.

Instead I found some 12 x 12 x 6 cardboard boxes that are designed to transport up to about 70lb of material.  I'll just leave it at that as to what kind of boxes these are.

I bought some of the large size bubble wrap, which turns out to be perforated in handy 12 inch lengths and is 12 inches wide.  Things started coming together.

The final piece that came together was finding a foam core display board that was being tossed away at work.  Free foam core is not to be taken lightly.  It's to be taken quickly. :D

Tonight I wanted to see just how this would work out.  I put bubble wrap along the sides of the box, then made "flats" out of foam core with bubble wrap on one side.  Then it was a parfait of foam core level, walls, foam core, corners, foam core, corridors (Note 1), bubble wrap.  So I was able to get 2 layers of walls/corners and a double layer of floors in a box.  It's not too heavy at all and I used lengths of foam core between then rows of pieces to fill them out and minimize damage.  I didn't go so far as to put them between each piece.

I'm guessing the walls and corners will take just over 2 boxes and then the other pieces will probably spread it out to 4 boxes.  I'm hoping to have room in that last box for the minis but given how many they are they might get their own box.

I need to get some sticky back velcro so I can seal the tops of the boxes and I'll get one of those portable luggage carts and a ratchet strap to put the whole thing together.  I just don't trust bungies for this because they don't have enough surface area.  A ratchet strap will hold things more securely.

Tomorrow I should be able to pack up one more full box and clear off the mantle of finished pieces.  I think the room floors will all go into the last box since it will have extra room.

Note 1 - The 2mm foam I use as a base also lets me stack the floors and not worry about them scratching.  Bonus!

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