R
RonEggers
Guest
Part One - Matboard Storage
When I abandoned my two 12-ft matboard racks during a move last year, I was looking for something compact, strong, adjustable and lightweight (when empty.) I settled on wire shelving units which are available in larger home and building centers in a variety of sizes. The assembled unit I use, when laid on its side, is about 48" high, 72" wide and 18" deep. You buy the shelves and posts separately, so you can assemble any configuration you need. The setup I built has six sections with about 11" of space in each. The bottom of each section has a piece of laminate-covered shelving to support the boards and allow them to slide in and out easily. The whole thing sits on a heavy work bench and I use the space beneath for storage. Several 40x60 fomecore boxes sit next to this rack on the 8' bench to store oversize sheets.
11" of space can comfortably hold about 140 32x40 sheets of matboard, or a total of about 840 sheets in 6 sections. Sections that are not full have pieces of fomecore to take up space so the boards don't bend excessively. Matboards are sorted first by vendor (Crescent, Miller, etc.) and then by number. Each board has the number written on the upper corner (with a white label for black-core boards.) 32x40 sheets of fomecore are used as periodic dividers with laminated cards ATGed to the fomecore as tabs.
I'll discuss in a future post how I decided which boards to stock. Because I get free weekly delivery from three different matboard suppliers, I carry minimum quantities of each stock color. Now this is critical: I never store more than one partial sheet of any board and it must be 32" high or it doesn't go back in the rack. Right below the mat number written on the corner of a partial sheet, I write a "P" to indicate it is a partial sheet. I actually keep a running inventory of how big the partial sheets are. More on this later.
I discovered that a big problem with mat storage is the accumulation of little scrap pieces. They take up as much horizontal storage as a full sheet and usually end up getting shove to the back of the rack where you can't see them anyway. I can't bring myself to recycle a 32x30 piece of matboard, but I no longer save 16x20s, for example.
When I pull a sheet out to be cut, I use a wooden spring clothespin to mark it's position so I can return the partial sheet.
The next step: organizing mat samples and choosing stock mats.
[This message has been edited by RonEggers (edited October 22, 2001).]
When I abandoned my two 12-ft matboard racks during a move last year, I was looking for something compact, strong, adjustable and lightweight (when empty.) I settled on wire shelving units which are available in larger home and building centers in a variety of sizes. The assembled unit I use, when laid on its side, is about 48" high, 72" wide and 18" deep. You buy the shelves and posts separately, so you can assemble any configuration you need. The setup I built has six sections with about 11" of space in each. The bottom of each section has a piece of laminate-covered shelving to support the boards and allow them to slide in and out easily. The whole thing sits on a heavy work bench and I use the space beneath for storage. Several 40x60 fomecore boxes sit next to this rack on the 8' bench to store oversize sheets.
11" of space can comfortably hold about 140 32x40 sheets of matboard, or a total of about 840 sheets in 6 sections. Sections that are not full have pieces of fomecore to take up space so the boards don't bend excessively. Matboards are sorted first by vendor (Crescent, Miller, etc.) and then by number. Each board has the number written on the upper corner (with a white label for black-core boards.) 32x40 sheets of fomecore are used as periodic dividers with laminated cards ATGed to the fomecore as tabs.
I'll discuss in a future post how I decided which boards to stock. Because I get free weekly delivery from three different matboard suppliers, I carry minimum quantities of each stock color. Now this is critical: I never store more than one partial sheet of any board and it must be 32" high or it doesn't go back in the rack. Right below the mat number written on the corner of a partial sheet, I write a "P" to indicate it is a partial sheet. I actually keep a running inventory of how big the partial sheets are. More on this later.
I discovered that a big problem with mat storage is the accumulation of little scrap pieces. They take up as much horizontal storage as a full sheet and usually end up getting shove to the back of the rack where you can't see them anyway. I can't bring myself to recycle a 32x30 piece of matboard, but I no longer save 16x20s, for example.
When I pull a sheet out to be cut, I use a wooden spring clothespin to mark it's position so I can return the partial sheet.


The next step: organizing mat samples and choosing stock mats.
[This message has been edited by RonEggers (edited October 22, 2001).]