Voila! Storage solutions!
For the lower priced pencils which generally come as loose stock, we have a 4-draw A4 paper tray, as shown above . Using heavyweight acid-free paper and (supposedly) archival quality adhesive I have made some inserts for the trays. 26 slots per layer, 2 layers per tray, 4 trays in the unit so that’s 208 pencils in total. It’s about ¾ full.There are still several storage crates full of boxed pencils down in the storage room.
Upstairs in the office at home we now have the display cabinet. I bought the glass fronted wooden cabinet several years ago – just got around to doing something with it a couple of weeks ago! I put in a couple of wooden shelves, made some little display stands and the vertical rack system out of artcard, etc.
Bottom Shelf
Middle Shelf
Top Shelf: Yard-O-Led and some old leads 
The background behind the pencils is removable, so I’m going to have a few different backing cards – some plain colours, maybe some pencil drawings, and some vintage advertisements, as shown in the picture above. The fancy backgrounds do distract a little from the pencils, but not too much in real life. Plain white background as below.
Anyway, it’s not totally finished, but it’s a huge leap forward for me. Still got really decide what to put on the top shelf.
Anyway, it’s not totally finished, but it’s a huge leap forward for me. Still got really decide what to put on the top shelf.
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14 comments:
That display cabinet is absolutely marvellous and deserves to be a prominent exhibit at a pencil museum!
I use a two tray tackle box but it's pretty full currently.
Thanks Gunther, but pencil museums are bit short on the ground in these parts! Maybe at Staedtler HQ, and Cumberland :-)
Time Waster - a taclke box is a good idea. I've still got plenty of other pencils sitting in cutlery draw insert trays, sewing / tackle / hobby boxes, etc. The problem, for me, with these is that the divisions are generally too big. I wanted one pencil per division or slot.
Sounds like you need a second tackle box :-)
It looks like a nice system.
Where do pencils like the Delta go? Do they stay in their original boxes?
Good question Stephen. Unfortunately the cabinet is not all that deep, so some premier luxury pencils can stay in their case and go on the top shelf, but many cases are too big, so I'll have to make some sort of display stand for them.
Alternatively they could go in the middle and I have another vertical rack system on top. It would be fairly easy to have a removable rack mounted on a card back-board.
Any change of you sharing your tray insert design?
Deleted my first Tray Design comment as I mixed length and width! Duhh!
Tray Design.
A4 110gsm acid-free drawing paper. Across the wirdth score a line every 15mm. I used an ordinary dinner knife to do the scoring – sharp enough to give a good indentation in the paper but not so sharp as to actually cut the paper. You have to make sure the scored lines are evenly spaced and parallel. When all done, carefully fold the paper up sort of concertina like to make the series of (square) U-channels. I found it best to put a ruler on the scorings, gently start the bend, then take the ruler away to complete it.
Then sort of flatten the paper out again and put a layer of adhesive down the two “sides” that get folded back together to be the vertical walls of the channels. Do this one channel at a time. I used one of those dry glue-stick adhesives that are archival quality – “Power Pritt”. Then when you have glued the “concertina” back up it’s done.
Then do another sheet. Side by side, these two folded up sheets should be about the same width as an A4 sheet. Now, cut them to length across-wise so the channels are only half a sheet of A4 long. Now glue 2 side by side to a laid flat sheet of A4. So only half the base sheet is thus covered with the channels so you can fold up and cut off each end of the base sheet to make ends for the channels to stop the pencils sliding along and out when you pull the drawer out. Repeat with another 2 concertina halves. Two of these half-trays then sit end to end on another A4 basesheet to finish the tray. Choose an A4 paper tray drawer that’s a tight fit so your folded trays won’t slop around and the end pieces will stay folded up pressed against each other.
Actually all rather simple but you need to fold them accurately. I messed up my first attempt or two getting the scoring and folding straight, etc but practice certainly did improve things. So, make sense? Even though the paper is only 110gsm it’s surprisingly sturdy and rigid when all folded up and glued together. Let me know if you want further clarification, I think I’ve got a photo of a half-done tray which might help.
Only problem is, a very small number of pencils will be too long for these half sheet channels.
whoa, you have a gray Pentel Smash. SWEET!!!!!
outstanding storage david. i hope to help out with both of your problems soon. not enough pencils, and not enough storage space. mwuahahaha!!!!!!
germ
The drawer system is similar to the one I use. It's on my Blog at the bottom of the page. Wish I could link!
The cabinets look great. If only my wife................
Hello LePhare
Well, entirely by chance I discovered your blog last night via the link on Lexikaliker. First thing I thought was great minds think alike, our storage solutions are very similar.
I'll put a link to yours into my article soon. Not sure about your comment "wish I could link". I'm happy to show you how to link your storage atricle with mine if you were meaning you didn't know how to do that? You can contact me at the email up in the blog header if you want.
I would make a dark background in that cabinet, it'll make it look more elegant. White is OK but it is way too plain for a collector's display... :)
Well I just had a parcel arrive today filled with the fruits of my last online shopping expedition and now I need a way to store them. How is your current methodology working out? Would you store things differently if you had the chance?
Hello Daniel. I've seen quite a few storage solutions on the net but I'm pretty happy with my drawer system. Its economically priced, but you do have to put in the time folding up the paper inserts. I've looked for all sorts of other possible inserts, e.g. cutlery trays, but never found anything reasonable, and the special pen trays you can buy seem very expensive.
I'm onto my third set of drawers now!
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