deskthority

It's finally time I cleaned up and organized the spare keyboards I have that I don't have displayed with it's appropriate computer or terminal. I ordered some boxes that I thought might be of interest. They are not the optimal size but I think they will work. This was the best I could find for the best price in case anyone is wondering. I will be getting them early next week so I'll post some pics when I get them if anyone is interested.

http://www.uline.ca/Product/Detail/S-31 ... rds=S-3189

23 x 13 x 2 1⁄2" White Literature Mailers

I rather prefer:
http://www.uline.com/Product/Detail/S-6 ... oard-Boxes

They fit everything up to a Model M.

keyboards-f2/keyboard-boxes-t3753.html

If you Google around for the size - "19 1⁄8 x 9 1⁄8 x 2 3⁄16" - you can find them more cheaply elsewhere. I just ordered a stack of 100 of them and have gone through 45 of them so far...

I was looking for that thread. I did find an old one but not that one so thanks for that thread. Strange.

Anyway, I have a lot of older keyboards so bigger is better for me. I also wanted to try to keep things thin for space so I thought 4" was a bit much. We'll see how these work. I did chicken out and only bought 50 for now just in case.

Thanks to share. I'm wondering about the keyboard box size. Cause my clean keyboard getting much.

The 19 x 9 x 2.5" dimensions makes for very compact and efficient storage of full-size model M keyboards.
I second Uline's keyboard boxes for storage purposes.

....but not for shipping purposes, as the boxes are a bit too thin and don't have enough space at the ends for padding materials.

Nice, it's not that easy to find boxes that will fit a Model M well. I get mine from the recycling centre in all kinds of sizes, but not many fit an M. I did one some nice ones, I have Dell boxes that fit three Bigfoots like a glove, and I even found ones that fit a Battleship. The only things I haven't fond a proper box for at all is my M0116 and the Pingmaster because of their bizarre shapes xD .

For archival storage - as I do - I propose cutting away a short (2", 5cm or so) section of flaps to better enable the boxes to close. The IBM Model M, Dell AT101W, and AEK I and AEK II all fit nicely.

As clickykeyboards mentioned, these boxes are not ideal for shipping purposes - not alone, anyway. However, this box *inside* another box, with padding in between, would be really great. I have yet to ship a keyboard like this yet but know it will be way better than bubble wrap.

Here is where I got mine, way cheaper than Uline.
http://www.esupplystore.com/19-18-x-9-1 ... _3112.html

Exterior dimensions:
516mm wide x 239mm deep x 62mm tall

Interior dimensions:
494mm wide x 235mm deep x 58mm tall

Box weight: 206 grams

Convert these to other units if you need, I'm able to more easily be precise in mm and grams. These are actual dimensions taken just now with a real box and a measuring tape.

I can fit eighteen of these boxes standing up, on shelves readily available at Costco!
Again, some keyboards, most notably the Model M, are wide and can make it very difficult to close the box. I recommend cutting away part of the side panels as noted.

The one flaw of the uline keyboard boxes is the low height and sometimes short width, which in not suitable for some older keyboards and longer keyboards, like a beam spring or 122-key Model M/F. Oh well, they work for most.

XMIT wrote: For archival storage - as I do - I propose cutting away a short (2", 5cm or so) section of flaps to better enable the boxes to close. The IBM Model M, Dell AT101W, and AEK I and AEK II all fit nicely.

As clickykeyboards mentioned, these boxes are not ideal for shipping purposes - not alone, anyway. However, this box *inside* another box, with padding in between, would be really great. I have yet to ship a keyboard like this yet but know it will be way better than bubble wrap.

Here is where I got mine, way cheaper than Uline.
http://www.esupplystore.com/19-18-x-9-1 ... _3112.html

I started to order these, but the shipping costs nearly doubled the price.

So, I ordered these from Amazon:

https://www.amazon.com/Aviditi-MFL1992- ... rd+mailers

$48.98 shipped from Amazon Prime for a pack of 50.

I also bought some 23 x 13 x 2 1⁄2 boxes. I think this is the best stock size out there for over-sized keyboards but it is definitely big. Feels too big for the average keyboard.

I'm going to purchase some 19 1⁄8 x 9 1⁄8 x 2 3⁄16 boxes at some point to use for the bulk of the collection. It's a shame the perfect keyboard box doesn't exist. Something like 21 x 10 x 2 1⁄2 would be great.

I use 20x10x4 Uline boxes for storage and occasionally shipping keyboards. They're a little tall, but that just leaves extra room for padding

The Aviditi boxes arrived and I put a few of them together yesterday. Well, you get what you pay for. The quality is not as good as that of the Uline boxes. The cardboard is a bit thinner and they don't assemble as well. The tabs on the sides don't fit as well into the slots -- I had to tape one of them to keep it from unfolding. Nevertheless, they will work.

I've been stacking my keyboards in boxes, but I think the XMIT method is better -- stored on metal rack shelves like books, with accession numbers showing on the "spines" and all the information in a computer database. Now that's organization!