Home Forums Reloading Bullet Casting BEST SIZE FLAT RATE BOX TO SHIP BULLET ALLOY???

I have had requests to ship linotype and wheel weight alloy in both small flat rate boxes and medium flat rate boxes. I'm looking for input from those have shipped or received bullet casting calloy in either of these boxes and any what to do and what not to do pointers. I have 175 lb or lion and 200 lb of WW to get rid of, and don't wnat problems with the post office for the me or who may be receiving. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

The $13 USPS medium size box has a weight limit of about 65 lbs. Over that and they charge you a lot more. I was able to build a small wooden box inside of one made of scrap wood (paneling and 1x4s) and fit then in 60 1 lb ingots. I padded them with sawdust and was just 2 lbs under the limit, which is how I found out said limit. The postal clerk lady laughed and said that I was ripping off the Post Office.

Please check with the Post Office but that cost me only $13. Good luck.

https://www.usps.com/ship/priority-mail-express.htm

Sorry. it went up to twenty bucks but the limit is 70 lbs.

I have had a fair amount shipped to me in flat rate boxes. The ones that fared best had been thoroughly banded with multiple layers of reinforced packing tape. For a while there I was persona non grata with my mail lady.

Box it up in a medium flat rate box, tape it real good ,put in a large box and put more card board around the medium box to keep it from shifting, tape up the large box and ship. That's the way I've had alloy arrive from roto metals .
Ronnie

Tape the contents to a piece of scrap wood and restrict its movement. This has worked well for me.


http://s66.photobucket.com/user/Cre...101/Bullets/016.jpg.html?sort=3&o=17

http://s66.photobucket.com/user/Cre...stOfficebullets.jpg.html?sort=3&o=46

hi Creeker that first pic looks familiar. How,s retirement going

Love retirement. In Little Rock at present trying to catch some catfish.

BTW the first picture is of Cliff's alloy. Box was openex by a machine of somesort but the alloy stayed put.

Medium and heed the warnings about taping the crap out of it, double boxing etc,. I had a medium box arrive with 18#'s of what started out at 70#. I think the postal workers get mad when they get a heavy box and do everything they can to try and get the contents to spill out.

If it would help, if you need to get rid of the lino and wheel weights, you can send them to me and I'll pay for the shipping......

My buddy and I have shipped several tons of lead. I would suggest going with the small flat rate boxes. The medium sized ones require cutting too many cardboard pieces to fill the empty space; foam peanuts and other packing materials get crushed, then outer box will tear open and your parcel will arrive in a bin.

We've made ingots sized for the small boxes and tape the lead pieces together. Fill the excess space with pieces of cardboard. Then wrap the heck out of the outside of the box with packing tape.

Hint from someone who has literally shipped two tons of lead.
weigh out 65 lbs of alloy.
get a med flat rate box.
get six small flat rate boxes.

use elmers glue to glue the bottom of the MFRB, then tape the bottom closed too.

make up the 6 SMFRB's, tape them up after adding the alloy, use newspaper to fill the gaps so it doesn't rattle.

tape sides of MFRB, then, amazingly add 6 SMFRB's inside the MFRB.

glue the top closed and glue it to the boxes inside, then tape the top.

label as EXTRA HEAVY, add shipping label

done.

I bought 100K bullets and the caster shipped them to me in medium Priority Mail boxes well taped with the fiber glass reinforced packing tape.

That's not bad and is well thought out.

I have a similar approach, but I've had damaged packages in the past, and they are are not that uncommon if you ship a lot of stuff...even one will piss me off.

I hot melt glue the boxes and put the internal boxes inside the Tyvek envelopes that they have for international shipping and others, wrapped tightly around the boxes and taped solid. Sometimes I have used 2 of the same sized FR boxes one inside the other to get a double wall.

If there is more than one internal bundle I glue the Tyvek bundles together to form a solid-one-piece insert. I might glue the insert into the external box, and tape the outside with a minimum of 2 doubled bands of packing tape circling both dimensions. Heat welded plastic banding is a similar concept and even better.

Taped boxes boxes are ok until USPS manages to get them wet somehow and drag them down a warehouse floor and spill your contents everywhere and the cardboard has all the strength of wet spaghetti...btdt!

The damaged and partially missing shipments I have had in the past would have arrived intact had I adopted the Tyvek envelopes and the other procedures sooner.

Whatever method you choose, keep in mind that if you think it's overkill, it's only overkill until it's needed. Whatever works.

I always buy insurance and tracking, and return receipt if expensive, but consider how you will prove contents, condition and v alue to the USPS satisfaction when going through the USPS claims process that takes 30-60 days. They will ask for satisfactory proof before they will pay out a claim.

I take pictures and keep sales receipts, etc.

I generally like my local USPS and they are pretty good but damaged/missing shipments piss me off.

UPS is worse, but claims are simpler, but just CYA.

I'm glad that I'm not the only one who has that suspicion about the postal workers and heavy flat-rate boxes.

I've mailed 1000's of heavy boxes & have lost only 4 & only 2 showed up leaking bullets. That's speaks well of the USPS or at least it does for me. I've had other problems with USPS concerning heavy boxes but damage wasn't one of them. I'm sure mileage varies for others.

This is the way I like to do it and line the box with some OSB top, bottom and sides.