Mug Packaging

[socialgiraffe]

Hi Guys

Does anyone know where I can get cardboard boxes that hold the polystyrene mug mailer boxes?

I have a client that wants them sent in the polystyrene mailers but also want that to be in a cardboard box.... fussy buggers :-)

SG

[GoonerGary]

http://www.listawoodtradesupplies.co...d=MUGPA&pgnum=

but styrenes can vary in size.

[rossdv8]

I found a novel way to pack mugs. Most come with a cardboard box. Put a protective sheet sheet inside the box (I used aluminium foil but it might be better to use plastic). Put the mug in its plastic bag and put it in the box so the bottom of the plastic bag is 'inside' the mug and the bag wraps around it. Stick a bit of tape on the join part under the mug.

Shove a paper or cardboard tube smaller than the inside diameter of the mug down the inside.

Then spray a squirt of that aerosol expanding foam down each corner outside the mug and inside the mug around the tube, which strengthens the inside wall of the mug but saves a bit of foam. That also leaves a hole in the middle so it is easy to remove.. You don't need to fill the whole thing.

I should add that I stuck a piece of cardboard over the mug handle so the gap where your fingers go didn't fill with foam.

Anyway, it works for me so far dropping a couple of metres onto concrete. And it is cheap and easy.
Not sure if it is up to postal workers handling though. It might be that we just have softer concrete than the rest of the world :-)

[pisquee]

Hi Ross,
How long does it take you to do each mug?
What is the material cost for each mug? (amount of foam, bags, card, foil...)

[rossdv8]

Hi pisquee, As you know, I usually sell my mugs direct to customers.

I also make my mugs in sets of 4, and for those I shrink wrap them as a set because I don't have to ship them. The idea is that if there isn't $40 profit in every sale I don't want to bother with it.

But I occasionally do mugs to order for friends and club members, typically with a photo of their pet or their aeroplane or yacht, and these I was putting in their pox with some bean bag beans, then putting the box in a satchel. And they almost invariably get broken.

That got me wondering. I had been vermin proofing a wall and ceiling space in the workshop one day and had a mug to send. And I had a partly used can of foam. The rest went as I described. I didn't bother timing it, but after the third practice mug (old ebay failures that I could throw onto concrete) I worked out a few things.

If I feel like wasting the cost of a can of foam I'll time it one day, otherwise I'll wait until I have to repair something again.

However instead of using the snigle pack can of foam, which goes hard in the can if you don;t use it all, I have been wondering about using 2 pack marine or similar foam. It is a liquid and half a shot glass of the stuff should do a mug box with stuff all waste.
They have something similar in the UK.
http://www.cfsnet.co.uk/acatalog/CFS...iquid_415.html

I'll think about getting a can for the heck of it, and time it and take pictures, but this will give you a more cost effective option.

[ArferMo]

That 2 part can get very hot as it reacts..... mind it doesn't blur your print.

[rossdv8]

Thanks ArferMo.

I'll play around with the spray can again. The two problems with the aerosol are that is is messy, and you have to trim off the excess. Because I was sending to friends I just used a serrated knife, but that would be no good for you blokes doing 100 mugs at a time.

But I was thinking back to my modelling days when we used to make a 'hot wire' to cut modelling foam. It would be a simple quick operation to just drag a hot wire across the top of the boxes after the foam stopped and close the lid.

Instead of the cardboard tube I stuck down the middle to reduce the amount of foam - I wonder if a disk of cardboard stuffed maybe an inch down the top of the mug would be better. That would provide a sort of foam plug across the top of the mug.

Anyway, some time when I'm bored I'll play with it again. I rarely ship mugs, but maybe some day I will have to so it is worth knowing if I was just lucky or it it works regularly.

[AlanD]

I buy a fair bit of sign vinyl (my proper job is signmaker) and the vinyl rolls come in carboard boxes big enough to take 610mm or 1220mm logs. They are strong and surplus and once cut down make excellent mug boxes for shipping. Shredded paper makes good padding.