P&P for complete frames

[Fellows Framing]

Hello,

I am making a deep box frame that needs posting to the customer. I have not had to post before so was after advice on the following please:
1) best packing materials to use - (the honey comb board looks good for packing out but where do you get it from?)
2)Which couriers are good?
3)The breakability or not if float glass used - if no good then which alternative glazing?
and anything else that you think is relevent.

Thank you!
Sarah

[Graysalchemy]

My only piece of advice is to wrap it as best you can and then wrap it some more, Use mdf on the front and back and plenty of bubble wrap as well as corrigated cardboard.

Remember you package will have to withstand being thrown about and dropped and stood on. Also remeber some couriers don't accept glass and they certainly won't insure it if it has glass in it.

I have even crated a mirror up in a wooden box (like what they use for shipping) and the courier still managed to not only break the glass but smash the frame.

My advice is to do business locally.

[prospero]

There are specialist carriers that do artwork shipment and know how to handle such things. General carriers yer take yer chances.

How big is the frame? Glass is a worry, but it's not as fragile as you might imagine. Barring a driver planting his size 14 on it even a biggish piece will take a lot of abuse. As long as there are no chips in the edge and you haven't jammed it in the frame too tightly.

If you wrap the frame in something like jiffy-foam,which doesn't squash like bubblewrap you should be OK. Foam corners are good as you can cut a piece of MDF to go each side and the corners will lift the boards clear of the glass surface so that no (reasonable) thumps will hit the glass.

I have often knocked up wooden boxes for framed paintings - some glazed, some not. They are quite easy to do from lengths of sawn timber - which is cheapish. Just chop four sides and nail/screw/underpin them like a frame and then screw a sheet of MDF (preferably 2.5mm) each side. The resultant box is very tough, but pack the frame carefully inside so that the glass is not near the outside and there is no packing on top of the glass.

Then just call the carrier and pray.

[Graysalchemy]

Thats what I did with the crates but they still as I say managed to damage it, I think perhaps a forklift was driven over it

[GeoSpectrum]

I send a lot of frames via Parcel Force, in fact I've just got a business account with them, but as Alistar said, no insurance if glass is used so I don't. For the few glazed frames I send out I use styrene. It's a bit thin at 1.2mm so on larger frames it may not be an option. There are thicker products on the market which may be a better bet.

So far Parcel Force have been great and the business rates I get make them competitive.

For packaging I use handy wrap followed by a couple of sheets of backing board, one on the front, one on the rear of the frame. Corner and edge protection followed by bubble wrap followed by 7mm corogated board. I've only had two reports of damage in several hundred parcels.

Kite packaging are very good, but no doubt there are others.

[Not your average framer]

Packaging of frames is quite an art and this technique will protect both the frame and artwork in almost all circumstances. Unfortunately, first class protection doesn't come cheap, so don't forget to allow for this in your pricing!

First of all there is a self adhesive film which can be attached to the glass which in the event of the glass breaking still hold the broken pieces in place. You can either use this film (and I can't remember the name for it), or criss cross the glass with a vinyl packing tape, don't bother with the normal polyester packaging tape, it's not good enough!

Frames for posting are better with 3mm glass, instead of 2mm glass. The extra strength of 3mm glass is quite a lot! Bubble wrap is good for packaging some things, but expanded polystyrene is much better. You can get 1" thick expanded polystyrene from your local builders merchant and it is a good dense grade as well.

Cut the expanded polystyrene to fit inside the frame and directly onto the glass, cover the whole exposed area of the glass to spread any impact across the surface of the glass. Also cut another piece of expanded polystyrene to fit into the back of the frame against the backing board, taking care to cut it in the right place to accommodate the picture cord. Hold the expanded polystyene in place with handy wrap.

Now make a box for the frame with suitable sized batterns and 6mm plywood with smaller frames, or 12mm plywood for large frames. Allow 1" all round iside the box for so strips of expanded polystyrene and fill any remaining space inside the box with layers of corrogated cardboard. Glue and staple the ply onto one side of the box and screw the other side into place.

[IFGL]

Like Geo spectrum we have only had two problems with sending frames, one was damaged the other was lost, if you read the small print almost everything to do with our trade is exempt from insurance, prints, artwork, and canvases are all on the "we'll let you insure it bit won't pay out" list.

I have been experimenting with less and less packaging and all are getting there safely, the key is to create space around the frame then the outer box. So handy wrap, then box, spacers, outer box.

We also have sent hundreds of famed pictures all ours have 2 mm float glass, up to 680 x 690 mm

[Jamesnkr]

If the frame has no artwork, then don't send the glass.

[prospero]

Good point James. I've packaged up framed pics to go overseas and taken the glass out and replaced it with MDF (suitably isolated. ). I don't seal it all up again - just a few points to make it secure.
The recipient can then toddle along to his local picture framer and have it glazed and reassembled. Seems a bit of a hassle, but to my mind it's silly to transport a sheet of glass halfway round the world when there is a ready supply at the other end.

[Chris_h]

I regularly send frames out, always with glass and mostly 70 x 50 cms or bigger. I wrap mine in bubble wrap use some mountboard offcuts round the edges of frames, use some mdf offcuts on the top and bottom and then just tape with two sheets of mdf over them.

In three years only had one damaged, glass was fine though just a knock to the corner of the frame.
I also use Parcelforce.

Making the use of my waste

DSC_0398.JPG (2.78 MiB) Viewed 10636 times

[Fellows Framing]

Thanks everyone for all your tips and ideas. As always this forum is full of helpful people.

I shall consider them and will probably come up with a p&p fusion of them all.

Sounds like parcel force is the best courier to try first.

Cheers
Sarah

[vintage frames]

All my work is delivered by courier. I use APC couriers. They tend to carry the goods and not fling them about. They seem to be used for wine and even live fish deliveries! All their services are overnight and I'm paying about £11.50 inc. per consignment countrywide.
Bicycle boxes are the most useful outer packaging; available from any bike shop.
If a frame is glazed, I use this stuff to cover the glass:
http://www.toolstation.com/shop/Paintin ... ion/p20527

[Abacus]

Fragilistics specialise in transporting pictures and mirrors, they are not the cheapest, but I've used them and would recommend them. My last job was three 1200 x 1000 picture frames from West Yorkshire to that there london. Cost me £60. Minimal packaging is required, I just used corner protectors and bubble wrap.

[Whitewater Gallery]

I use Silversprint.co.uk for my larger pieces, £45 + VAT, I think they do allot of large eBay deliveries. It is a slightly awkward consolidated service, I usually get a call on a Saturday to give a 2 hour collection window on a Monday or Tuesday (it has been as early as 7-9am and as late as 7-9pm) and if I can not make this it is then rescheduled for collection the next week, it is pretty much the same for the customer. I guess we have now used them on more than 50 occasions and have had one instance of minor compression damage to the frame, which the customer decided to live with. We wrap in about 6 layers of bubble wrap and then make up a cardboard bow around this using old Artglass boxes.

[muffinski]

just been browsing this thread as I could be starting to send completed frames on a regular basis, just wondered if there are anymore up-to-date successful thoughts on sending via courier and packaging?

[Framie]

just been browsing this thread as I could be starting to send completed frames on a regular basis, just wondered if there are anymore up-to-date successful thoughts on sending via courier and packaging?

Blue corner protectors are well worth the money, combined with handy wrap.