Subject:
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Re: how to transport lego by air
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.general, lugnet.loc.au
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Date:
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Mon, 24 Nov 2003 19:54:22 GMT
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Viewed:
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1024 times
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> Is it safe to trust it to airport baggage handlers or should I take it
> in-cabin?
Don't trust the airport baggage handlers. Read about my experiences earlier
this year with sending a large MOC as checked baggage.
http://news.lugnet.com/loc/au/?n=10998
If your MOCs are small enough to take as carry-on, I would do it that way.
If your MOCs are large (like mine), then following the experience described
above, I did the following.
I cut a piece of foam rubber to fit the bottom of the box to absorb any
shocks from underneath. I then put a piece of board (plywood) on top of that
as a solid base for the MOC to sit on.
I remove all the "little bits" on the MOC that can be easily knocked off and
put them in a ziplock bag to re-attach on arrival. I then put the MOC into a
large plastic garbage bag and tie it closed (the rationale is that if it is
smashed to pieces, at least the pieces stay in the bag). I then put the MOC
in the plastic bag onto the piece of board in the box.
I then roll and bend large pieces of foam rubber to fit between the MOC and
side of the box. The foam rubber needs to be thick enough that it doesn't
fold over but resists being bent/rolled so that it pushes outward like a
spring; the idea is that the MOC is now being held in the *centre* of the
box (away from the sides where any impact might occur) by pressure from the
foam rubber on different sides. I then fill any empty spaces with more foam
rubber, bubble wrap or other lightweight space-filling packaging materials.
I then place more foam rubber rolled/bent on top of the MOC to try to hold
it down onto the board when the baggage handers ignore the "This Way Up"
signs (which they did on another trip!).
I then tape the whole box sealed with loads of packing tape and add all the
"Fragile", "This Way Up" etc signs (for what little good it seems to do).
This set of techniques has reduced the damage to the MOCs considerably.
However, when you see your box arrive on the baggage carousel upside-down,
you can reasonably assume that some damage will probably have occurred
unless your MOC just happens to be flat enough on the top that it can
balance upside-down.
Finally allow sufficient time on arrival at your destination to reconstruct
your MOC if all else fails.
I believe that when professional model builders (not just Lego) transport
stuff, they wrap the models and put them in the box and then spray in some
kind of liquid foam that fills the space around the models in the box and
then sets (I am not sure exactly how firm it ends up, but presumably soft
enough to absorb impact and hard enough to hold the models in place in the
box). Then on arrival they cut the foam away (which is why it is important
to wrap the model or the foam gets all through the model). Clearly the cost
of this use-once spray-foam (and whatever equipment you need) is justifiable
for professionals but I suspect it's probably out of the league of the
hobbyist, although I keep meaning to make enquires just on the off-chance
that it is a bit more affordable than I imagine. Anyhow, my rolled/bent foam
rubber is my poor man's equivalent of the same technique.
On the positive side, you *can* always rebuild a Lego MOC. Imagine if your
hobby was china painting :-)
Kerry
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Message has 1 Reply:
 | | Re: how to transport lego by air
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| (...) Kerry, There's a product out there called "Foam In Place Seating", made by Dynamic Systems, inc. in North Carolina. You can make custom-sized foam inserts. Their primary focus is on seating systems, especially for elderly people in wheelchairs (...) (21 years ago, 24-Nov-03, to lugnet.general, lugnet.loc.au)
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Message is in Reply To:
| | how to transport lego by air
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| I am going to be going on a holiday over xmas, part of which includes meeting some AFOLs and hopefully going to a BUGS meeting (Brisbame lego club). Being the kind of person that I am, I want to make some kind of moc or mocs to take over and show (...) (21 years ago, 24-Nov-03, to lugnet.general, lugnet.loc.au)
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