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Re: [ARSCLIST] Pancake horror story
Hey,those of us who receive peanuts from other people,have to get rid of them somehow...
Roger
David Lennick <dlennick@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote: Omigod, please don't get me started on peanuts. I order from eBay regularly and
buy from most of the major auction dealers, and I scream long and loud when I
have to open a large package of 78s buried in peanuts, which have become
charged and fragmented and have gotten in between the discs (and all over
hell's half acre as I try and remove a 20 pound hockey puck of 78s). If I had
the power to uninvent anything, it would be a tossup between the jewel case and
styrofoam peanuts, but ultimately the peanuts would win. (All the dealer has to
do is wrap something..anything..newspaper, bubble wrap, saran wrap, a grocery
bag, around the discs ..but noooooooooooooooooooooooooo!)
dl
Robert J Hodge wrote:
> And peanuts compress and fracture when used to pack anything weighty,
> becoming a totally useless mess.
>
> And Tom's previously mentioned problem with static electricity cling is
> 110% true! Even if the desirable materials are bagged before packing.
>
> Don't use them !!!
>
> Bob Hodge
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Association for Recorded Sound Discussion List
> [mailto:ARSCLIST@xxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Scott Phillips
> Sent: Friday, January 18, 2008 11:50 AM
> To: ARSCLIST@xxxxxxxxxxxx
> Subject: Re: [ARSCLIST] Pancake horror story
>
> Another reason to ship by the fastest way possible is that the
> recordings (tape, disk, whatever) will not spend 4 days on either an
> unheated loading dock being rained or snowed on, and in the summer won't
> sit in 100+ degree 95% humidity degree sunshine waiting for shipment any
> more than they have to....
>
> I'd also second the notion that keeping the weight down makes handling
> more likely to be gentle. My own experience is not to use peanuts as
> packing material, even in the box within a box situation. Using heavy
> bubble wrap with no real space for things to shift works best for me.
> Otherwise the box in the center with the recordings in it acts like a
> pendulum inside the outer box every time it is dropped. Peanuts just
> allow too much movement, settle, and have static electricity problems.
>
> Years ago I worked for Sony in QA, and in packaging drop tests for new
> products it became clear that contrary to what would seem to be common
> sense, making the packed object and the packaging seem like one mass by
> holding it securely centered in the packaging with very little give
> produced much lower gee forces than allowing 'soft' packaging. The key
> was both fairly rigid packing materials that kept the shape of what was
> packed, allowed as little shifting as possible, and allowed enough space
> around the centrally packed item to protect from damage from outside
> protrusion. Bubble wrapping in both the inner and outer boxes fits the
> bill nicely for most things.
>
> Just my 1.75 cents.... :>)
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Association for Recorded Sound Discussion List
> [mailto:ARSCLIST@xxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Tom Fine
> Sent: Friday, January 18, 2008 8:44 AM
> To: ARSCLIST@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Subject: Re: [ARSCLIST] Pancake horror story
>
> Hi Malcolm:
>
> The mastering engineer advised the parties to consider the shipment a
> "write-off" because the tapes were so mangled as to be unfixable. He
> said the tapes were packed in this sloppy manner -- pancakes tapes
> between pieces of cardboard with the edges of the cardboard clamped
> tight and taped together (which causes edge damage from the get-go). The
> boxes were so violently handled in shipping that the cardboard worked
> loose in transit, spilling tapes from the hub in most cases and mangling
> edges and tape-pack in all cases. Some tapes were packed horizontal,
> some verticle, none wrapped in a protective bubblewrap, all in a
> large/heavy box that was obviously dropped hard or slammed around en
> route overseas and back. The engineer lays blame squarely on the major
> copyright holder, saying he doubts a box packed that way would make it
> cross-country intact, much less overseas and back. The engineer states
> that he can't believe someone would ship master tapes without boxes and
> as un-flanged pancakes.
>
> I would theorize that ANY tapes packaged this way in too-bulky/too-heavy
> a box would suffer the same damage just being loaded and unloaded from a
> ground-shipping truck. I further theorize the major damage came either
> in a shipping depot or when cargo shifted during a rough airplane
> landing on the way to or from overseas. The point is, if you pack
> something too massive, damage is almost inevitable due to simple
> physics/gravity, which is why I advise clients to keep boxes small to
> medium and weight per box down and wrap everything in bubble wrap. I
> forgot to mention last night that I also advise clients to wrap grooved
> disks and tapes in a plastic bag during most seasons so as to avoid
> damage if the box is dunked in a puddle or slush in the gutter or left
> out in the rain.
> The nesting a box within a box can be very helpful if there is a sea of
> packing material to absorb blunt force.
>
> If I didn't know and trust the people who told me this story, and if
> they weren't directly involved, I'd never believe this could have
> happened with master tapes owned by a major company. These companies
> have been so cored out by "restructuring" and mega-glomeration that they
> no longer have any knowledgable folks minding the store! I agree with
> the engineer, the ultimate blame in this is on the person who chose to
> pack valuable intellectual property in such a sloppy manner. I would
> suggest the shipper behaved like a typical shipper -- these guys are not
> in the "careful" business.
>
> My takeaway is never ship pancakes, always have reels in boxes, tape
> boxes shut and wrap in bubble-wrap (none of this taping and wrapping
> tight enough to squish the reel or tape-pack, by the way), pack tapes
> either horizontally or vertically but not both, use medium-sized boxes
> and nest the box within a larger box in a sea of force-absorbing
> material. Perhaps also wrap the nested box in plastic so it is
> water-tight. Keep your total weight of tapes vastly under-spec'd to your
> boxes, so simple physics is your ally instead of your enemy. And ship
> via the fastest way you can afford so the tapes do not stay long in
> transit. And insure to full value which might, just might, catch a
> shipper's attention before they heave your box off a 2-story drop. Oh,
> and of course communicate clearly enough that you know exactly where to
> send the tapes!
>
> -- Tom Fine
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Malcolm Davidson"
> To:
> Sent: Friday, January 18, 2008 8:59 AM
> Subject: Re: [ARSCLIST] Pancake horror story
>
>
>> Tom,
>>
>> "Names deleted because this was told to me in confidence. Suffice to
> say,
>> these tapes are valuable
>> and not replaceable."
>>
>> This is the statement that caught my attention! Surely anyone making
> such a
>> decision to send originals needs educating, and rather quickly. I
> doubt
>> there is anyone on this list who would willingly send original content
>> anywhere by shipping company. It shows that, in this case, the
> company had
>> scant regard for the inherent value of the original analog tapes. (If
> they
>> must send them go with a courier)
>>
>> Unfortunately it's the same mind set that many people often have when
> it
>> comes to file back up. A hard disk crash wipes out files that were
> never
>> backed up, now what? In the above case, at least we hope there were
> digital
>> copies of the files.
>>
>> Malcolm Davidson
>>
>>
>> ----- Original Message -----
>> From: "Tom Fine"
>> To:
>> Sent: Thursday, January 17, 2008 6:37 PM
>> Subject: [ARSCLIST] Pancake horror story
>>
>>
>>> Some people swear by the practice of storing reels of tape as
> un-flanged
>> "pancakes" on a hub. There
>>> are some well-documented benefits to this practice, from cost-saving
> to
>> possibly avoiding damage if
>>> the box is dropped and flange is mangled badly enough to damage the
>> tape-pack. Well, let me tell you
>>> a tale ...
>>>
>>> Names deleted because this was told to me in confidence. Suffice to
> say,
>> these tapes are valuable
>>> and not replaceable.
>>>
>>> Tapes were archived on hubs, mistakenly shipped overseas and mangled
> on
>> the way back in transit.
>>> Badly mangled. It will be lucky if there are not unrepairable
> problems in
>> parts of tape containing
>>> music. This would not have happened if the tapes were on reels,
> although
>> the mangling was bad enough
>>> that the reels may have been bent. The owners of the tapes correctly
> blame
>> the shipping company but
>>> I would argue that it's a lesson in just how brutal shippers can be,
>> especially if a communications
>>> problem of lower-level employees gets something sent overseas and
> back.
>>> My take-away was that if one is to ship tapes as boxed-pancakes, one
> needs
>> to take extreme measures
>>> to keep the tape-pack rigid and protected. I would even suggest
> rigging
>> something up using a metal
>>> film can. Certainly don't use decades-old cardboard boxes, even if
> they
>> are grouped in large box and
>>> surrounded by rigid packing material.
>>>
>>> -- Tom Fine
>>>
>>>
>
>
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