Bubble Wrap - Its Metalworking Related Really

I ship machined aluminum molds all over the world now. Primarily by USPS Priority Mail. Since they are aluminum I am concerned about dings and dents in transit. It happens. I usually wrap the molds in bubble wrap and then pack in other packing materials to stabilize them in the container. Now being somewhat of a harder I've always saved bubble wrap for the occasional shipping I had to do as a communications contractor. Now I'm starting to run out.

I'm not against buying bubble wrap, but the price at the local office supply stores is insane. The flip side is its pretty reasonable on-line, but the shipping cost gets the net cost back up there again. Other than hording air in little plastic pockets like I have done, what do you guys that ship stuff do to keep the costs down?

Every piece of bubble wrap that comes in is placed in storage boxes in my office, but its just not enough.

Reply to
Bob La Londe
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Hey Bob,

When I was reading your quest I remembered a customer of mine that has a bubble wrap making machine.

Something like this:

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Personally I don't know the economics of it all but you may want to run the numbers for yourself.

Hope that helps.

Have a good week.

Les

Reply to
ABLE1

I ship machined aluminum molds all over the world now. Primarily by USPS Priority Mail. Since they are aluminum I am concerned about dings and dents in transit. It happens. I usually wrap the molds in bubble wrap and then pack in other packing materials to stabilize them in the container. Now being somewhat of a harder I've always saved bubble wrap for the occasional shipping I had to do as a communications contractor. Now I'm starting to run out.

I'm not against buying bubble wrap, but the price at the local office supply stores is insane. The flip side is its pretty reasonable on-line, but the shipping cost gets the net cost back up there again. Other than hording air in little plastic pockets like I have done, what do you guys that ship stuff do to keep the costs down?

Every piece of bubble wrap that comes in is placed in storage boxes in my office, but its just not enough. =========================================================

The shipping dept. at my last job bought from

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but we used a lot of 2 and 3" thick x 3' x 10' polyethylene foam planks and big pallets of big boxes so the truck shipping wasn't bad spread over a big order. At a quick glance prices on amazon look about the same or a bit better and some vendors offer free shipping so that's probably your best option. If you haven't already signed up for prime maybe this will make it worthwhile. I agree that Staples is pretty high, I needed a small roll right then last week and just gritted my teeth and paid, sigh.

Reply to
Carl Ijames

I asked some of my customers to save bubble wrap and smaller boxes for me. They were all local, so no big deal to swing by and pick up. Might ask around, could be someone nearby with a steady supply of bubble wrap they need to dispose of.

Jon

Reply to
Jon Anderson

LES !!!

What are you doing over here in the metalworking area? Good to hear from you. I still read ASA about every other day, but don't feel I have much to contribute anymore. Anyway. Thanks. That's an option I had not considered. I don't know if its financially viable either, but I bet I'll have fun learning bout it.

Bob

Hey Bob,

When I was reading your quest I remembered a customer of mine that has a bubble wrap making machine.

Something like this:

formatting link

Personally I don't know the economics of it all but you may want to run the numbers for yourself.

Hope that helps.

Have a good week.

Les

Reply to
Bob La Londe

Jon, That's a great idea.

Thanks. Bob

I asked some of my customers to save bubble wrap and smaller boxes for me. They were all local, so no big deal to swing by and pick up. Might ask around, could be someone nearby with a steady supply of bubble wrap they need to dispose of.

Jon

Reply to
Bob La Londe

Have you tried U-Haul or the moving companies?

John

Reply to
John Halpenny

Seems to me I paid about $125 for a 4 by 250 foot roll roughly nine years ago, when the local retailers wanted about four times that price in much smaller quantities. Uline was one of the more expensive suppliers as I recall.

The trick seemed to be finding a vendor who already made truck deliveries in my area. They dropped it in my driveway at no extra cost. It was much cheaper to do that than buy at retail, but I'm still trying to use up the extra bubble wrap.

bob prohaska

Reply to
bob prohaska

+1

We used to throw a lot in the dumpster at work. Not to mention what we kept inside for sending stuff out. Suspect you might find quite a bit just dumpster diving places that receive a lot of stuff.

Nowadays it maybe going in a recycle bin, not sure...

In a previous life I used to repair computer terminals. They would come in boxes that had been shot with expanding foam. Kind of like putting the terminal in a plastic wrapping, shoot foam in the bottom of the box, set plastic covered terminal in, shoot more foam to fill... Never saw anything damaged in shipment that was done that way. It wouldn't stop a forklift stab but worked good for dropping and crushing troubles.

Not sure how far you would get with the spray foam in a can used for sealing air leaks around windows and doors. But if you could buy it cheap enough it may be worth trying...

Reply to
Leon Fisk

That's some tiny, thin stuff, mon. Good for wrapping business card holders and such, not molds, I wouldn't think. My guess is that he'd want 1/2" or larger bubbles on thicker stock.

Reply to
Larry Jaques

Bubble wrap is great for protecting delicate stuff against high accelerations. I.e., the box being dropped, thrown, etc. You don't need that - you need protection against the box being "violated". Bubble wrap will do that, but so will a couple of layers of cardboard.

Reply to
Bob Engelhardt

In that case, it might work. That stuff is awfully flimsy in that size, though.

Yes, and at much, much better prices than any store or USPS outlet.

- If ever the Time should come, when vain and aspiring

Men shall possess the highest Seats in Government,

our Country will stand in Need of its experienced

Patriots to prevent its Ruin. -- Samuel Adams

Reply to
Larry Jaques

Yes. I ship finely polished brass parts every day, and don't ever buy packi ng material. Fortunately, I share a courtyard with a bathroom supply wholes aler, so I have an unlimited supply of corrugated cardboard. I wrap the par ts in tissue paper, then kitchen plastic wrap, and then however much free c ardboard I deem necessary for the job.

Reply to
robobass

I ship machined aluminum molds all over the world now. Primarily by USPS Priority Mail. Since they are aluminum I am concerned about dings and dents in transit. It happens. I usually wrap the molds in bubble wrap and then pack in other packing materials to stabilize them in the container. Now being somewhat of a harder I've always saved bubble wrap for the occasional shipping I had to do as a communications contractor. Now I'm starting to run out.

I'm not against buying bubble wrap, but the price at the local office supply stores is insane. The flip side is its pretty reasonable on-line, but the shipping cost gets the net cost back up there again. Other than hording air in little plastic pockets like I have done, what do you guys that ship stuff do to keep the costs down?

Every piece of bubble wrap that comes in is placed in storage boxes in my office, but its just not enough.

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I swear I looked on Ebay before and the large rolls of bubble wrap were not found then. I went ahead and ordered several rolls from a couple different sources. I'll see who ships fastest and if anybody's product is substandard. Some of the other suggestions were interesting as well. I may look into collection and salvage options.

Reply to
Bob La Londe

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