Box-olagy

It is incredible how much stuff can be squirrelled away when you have space to do it. If that space is shared with a little brother who was never good at keeping his room tidy, you can imagine how much mess he can make in several hundred square feet!

My little brother (Tim, now in his 50s, but still referred to as LB) has just moved home and his new dwelling comes with the biggest single garage I have ever seen. This means that he has moved out of his lump of the space we share.Now I have more space than I know what to do with. To make things easier Tim has taken everything he wants and removed any rubbish leaving behind the rest for me to pick over and do with as I chose. This has been reasonably fruitful as he passed on a host of power tools and I managed to reclaim most of what he had 'borrowed' of my tools, power leads and fixings.

His stuff was scattered all over the place. Just like his childhood bedroom, it was impossible to find anything. This resulted in new tools being bought as it was easer and quicker than spending hours looking for stuff. I found at least three hacksaw frames and fixings of all shapes and sizes. In an old plastic tray that originally contained bulk chicken pieces, I found the remains of a box of 25mm, 18g narrow crown staples, along with an exploded box. The flimsy box had obviously given out under the less than careful handling it had received, during LBs tenure as custodian of said fixings.

Everything gets covered in dust down at the storage as the floor is loose chippings that are very dry. driving over them just kicks up fine dust that settles on everything that is not wrapped or covered. This open box of fixings had not escaped the layers of dust and just as the remains of Pompeii were eventually excavated, so it was for this little box of fixing.

At around £16.00 a box, it was worth collecting them up for recovery later. The box was loaded on to the van for transit back to the workshop. The first job was to brush and wash the dirt off of the fixings and see just what I had. It turned out to be thirty strips (3000 staples). That is just under a tenner's worth. The cardboard box was laying in the bottom of the open container with a flap hanging off and it had split down one of the corners rendering it useless as it was, laid flat. 

These fixing are very heavy for their size and the boxes they are supplied in, for the most part, are far too weak. I have often strengthened them with a wrap of 'Gaffa' tape. Just for the hell of it, I decided I would repair it and return it to a serviceable box. Yes, I know I am probably the only person to bother to do this, but If a fixing has an original box I much prefer to Keep them in it.

Repairing the box

The split box was washed off and left to dry overnight

The box had spilt down one of the folded corners and in order to be able to repair it properly I needed to separate the glued up seam. This I did with a scalpel.

As can be seen, part of the box remains on the flap, stuck to the original glue. This is no problem as it will be glued back together and become reunited making the same thickness as it was originally.

One of the flaps needed some repair as it was almost torn completely away

Water-resistant PVA glue is used to join it back together

More glue is added to the join where the box had been split.

Brown Gum-Arabic tape is used to reinforce the joint, the glue is activated with water painted on with a brush.

It is left for about 15 minutes before being burnished to remove any air bubles

The tape is trimmed to length before the glue has set completely

A final pat with a dry tea towel removes any excess moisture.

It is sandwiched between a couple of pieces of glass, weighted down and left overnight to dry

The repaired fold is scored using the handle of a scalpel and the box was assembled using PVA glue on the flap 

There we have it a serviceable box containing there best part of 3000 narrow crown staples ready for use. Note the additional strip of tape added to reinforce the outer corner where the box has been repaired

I know,I could have just put them in something else, but that would not be any fun. I have now achieved something and the original box will sit alongside the other couple of million air-nails/staples/brads that I have in stock.

Ralph.

And finally...

Not so smart, smart-phone.
I mentioned above that I refer to my little brother as LB. My current communication device has (as I assume most do) a talking mode. E.g. "Fred calling" I hardly ever use this feature but one day I was messing about with the settings and I must have inadvertently turned the voice on. A while later, the lady in the phone announced "Pound Calling!" ... What?  "Pound Calling!" It then dawned on me, I had entered 'LB' in the directory as the identifier for my brother's number. The dumb-phone thinks it is the abbreviation for pound weight (lb).