24 Sep
2011
24 Sep
'11
12:25 p.m.
On 24 Sep 2011 at 18:33, Tony Duell wrote:
I find such containers very poor for this. The plastic
used is
designed ot degrade, and afte a farly short time they fall apart
scattering their contents. They are also a static menace, whether you
have a cat or not.
Metal biscuit tins are quite useful though. They don't degrade
(although they can rust), and are naturally faraday cages, so no
static problems.
Quite possibly a "cross the puddle" thing. Our containers appear to
be quite heavy-duty; I even have some that have a space for labeling
for reuse. And HDPE tends to be a bit more hygroscopic that hard
plastics, so I don't find any problems with static. These bloody
things seem to last forever. Maybe the UK has different standards.
We don't have "metal biscuit tins" here, but for the annual onslaught
of "Danish Butter Cookies" and "Almond Roca" at Christmastime. I do
use those for hardware (screws and bolts) hellboxes. But they've
gotten flimsier over the years. I may end up reverting to my
father's solution--reuse large metal food cans, such as those used
for baked beans or tomatoes.
The best thing I've found for this are those
divided plastc parts >
storage boxes (I find Raaco are the best). Don't get the new, improved
ones with adjustable partitions, they tend to self-adjust at just
the> wrong time (yet another case of an improvemetn for the worse).
Don't know what those are; Harbor Freight sells some convenient sizes-
-again HDPE oddly enough. Older ones used to be styrene which was
given to getting brittle and breaking.
That probably has to do with the recycling trends in this country. A
lot of recyclers won't take styrene in any form and will scorn bags
of styrene foam in any quantity, so HDPE reigns supreme. My CD jewel
cases are even HPDE--thank heavens.
It probably helps that the RH in this part of the coutnry seems to
always hover near 40-60 percent. It also probably helps that the
house has no wall-to-wall carpeting and my shop area is good old
vinyl composition tile. I can't remember ever having drawn an arc
with my finger in the last 20 years. Just doesn't happen.
--Chuck