Storage boxes (8)

Original page created on 29/01/2010.

Gluing

The sides and lid dressing are glued with double-sided adhesive.

To glue the walls, the double-sided adhesive proved inadequate on such a small surface: after a moment, it peels off. So, I tried a new solvent-free glue (important for polystyrene and for plastic models health): Pattex 100%. Without having much hindsight at the moment, the gluing seems satisfactory. But since the hardening is not instantaneous — count several hours, I had to provide a system to keep the walls standing during drying: spacers having the exact width of the future cells.

Spacers

These spacers are made of a sandwich of different materials of well-defined thickness to obtain a regular spacing.

  1. 30 mm thick extruded polystyrene (XPS)
  2. 6 mm XPS
  3. 0.7 mm (about) cardboard

Naturally, if you are more gifted or better equipped than me to get well-levelled and parallel faces, you can make these spacers one-piece blocks, for example wooden.

Spacers

They are bevelled about 3 mm at the bottom to avoid being glued at the same time as the dividers if the glue overflows a little. Tip: mark the upper side of the shim.

To get fairly straight dividers, at least three rows of spacers should be provided: one at each end and one at the centre.

Gluing process

I proceed as follows:

When the last series of spacers are placed, blocking the assembly, I place a block of expanded foam over the walls (to compensate for the wall height unevenness), then a hardboard sheet of dimensions somewhat smaller than the box interior, and finally a 5 to 10 kg weight (a can of ironing water, well closed!) to hold well the whole. I let it dry overnight.