sending box frame through post

[red]

hi all

Ive never sent a picture through the post with the glass being broken,Ive thought
of thicker glass or acrylic ,advice most welcome

[red]

oops it should have read 'without the glass being broken'

[prospero]

1] Employ a specialist art courier (Aardvark?).

2] Make a stout wooden packing case.

3] Deliver it yourself.

[Justintime]

We frame for an artist who sends good sized glazed pieces by UPS with no casualties so far, but I couldn't handle the stress!
I've just sent one with 2mm acrylic, much safer.
We bubble wrap, then blue foam corner material all round the frame then bubble again then cut down a cardboard box to fit. Maybe it's overkill for acrylic glazed pieces but it helps me sleep at night

[red]

yes the thought of sending it gives me visions of broken glass,making claims etc.Ive never done it before,
someone wants a box frame sending, my inital thought was 'come and get it' then thicker glass/acrylic.
the thought of 2mm glass through the post! Im sure it is done though by the online people though?

[Justintime]

Mostly acrylic online I believe.
If glass, it helps to use a glass sanding pad to take off the edges, reducing the chance of shock and a tighter fit rather than loose.
The various layers act as buffers, the blue corner surround suspends it in the package. No affordable shipping providers insure for glass which is the problem.
That artist also tapes the front of the glass, in case it does break in transit. These are mounted pieces, so a lot more support for the glass than a box frame! When she was framing her own work from wholesale kits, they would send her a box of 50 precut pieces of glass with the bare minimum packaging, usually around 30 would actually make it without damage, they'd just send another 20 out, 15 would be ok and the whole process would continue...

[red]

many thanks for your replies ,acrylic the way to go!

[Not your average framer]

I particularly prefer glass and I have to admit that I don't do very much sending frames by post, but there are times when there is not a lot of choice about it. I always criss-cross the glass with PVC insulation tape, it has a very good type of self adhesive on it and is easily removed at the other end, without leaving a horrible to remove residue. I avoid the brown self adhesive packaging tapes as many of these leave a rather difficult to remove residue.

I like to sandwich the frame in between a mixture of resistant and crushable layers, the ingredients of which tend to vary according to the size and the weight of the frame. If the frame is going to go into a cardboard box, I like to create crush zones Inside the box from strips of corrogated cardboard wrapped together with handy wrap to act as ready thick areas. These are retained in plage by fold trays of corrogated card board, which keep the multiple layers of corrogated cardbord in place against the outter part of the box.

I have a good supply of second hand cardboard boxes, which I find easy to make things up from and I also like to have something reasonably rigid across the front and the back of the frame. I then fill up any remaining voids in side the box with screwed up bits of brown packaging paper. I have a crazy sized roll of brown packaging paper, which just lasts and lasts. The first layer around the frame is always a polythene bag, sheeting, or shrink film to provide a degree of waterproofing, just in case.

Larger and more vunerable frames are normally created between fairly solid pieces of Plywood, which seem to stand up to almost anything. I can't be bothered to take parcels to the post office so I arrange for a courier to call and collect them.