FMF - Friends of Minerals Forum, discussion and message board

[Carles Millan]

[Louis Friend]

Hi Carles:

Many thanks for your kind words. If you and the other moderators are agreeable I will show how these stands can be made. The one shown took less than 30 minutes to make but spread out over two days. The cost for materials was about $7.50AUD for that stand. You just need a few basic tools and a bit of “elbow grease” but they are very, very easy to make. Even routing out the contour for the mineral is possible if you know someone who has a CNC machine and is willing to do it for a small fee.

[Carles Millan]

[Matt_Zukowski]

Nice specimens and stands. I would like to see how you do the stands.

[Louis Friend]

ACRYLIC STANDS (related with Louis Collection )


Hi Carles and Matt:

I will happily show the procedure for making the acrylic stands. You need to purchase or borrow a few inexpensive and simple tools, along with the adhesive and applicator. My applicator is a 10ml glass syringe with needle. The adhesive comes in a convenient 470ml tin, which is enough for several hundred basic acrylic display stands. In the plastics business the process is called “solvent welding” and is easier than gluing two strips of metal together with araldite.

The acrylic stock is very cheap and I use the 25mm thick stock cut at the store to my specifications. I generally buy enough to make about 12 stands. Therefore, as I need more stands I simply buy more acrylic. You can of course get 20 and 15mm thickness, and thicker if you want, so it depends a lot on personal taste. I use the 25mm! For the supports, such as those seen in the photograph of the large magnetite I use a 1200 x 50 x 10mm off-cut that I just cut up and trim with a “cheap” adjustable hand operated Mitre saw that I bought from a local hardware chain for $19.95AUD. I will include photos of all tools and materials. I will also provide links to a couple of You-Tube videos to make the work very easy. The rest really depends on your mineral.

In the case of the large magnetite I simply looked at it from the side supported by my hand and estimated the best display angle with a plastic ruler. This gave me the dimensions for the largest support, and where to place the small support at the front to stop the rock sliding forward. These were then mitre cut, sanded and attached to the acrylic stand. I gave it about a day to “cure” and then positioning the rock on the stand supported by my hand, I determined the best position for the second support. This support was then mitre cut, sanded and “solvent” welded to the acrylic stand.

I know it sounds like a lot of work but it is very, very easy. The large stand was the first and most difficult one I ever made, and I am pleased with the result. Most stands are very simple, comprising nothing more than a back rest and a small support for the front as can be seen in my other mineral photos. Of course, the cost of parts is cheap, the quality of the product depends entirely on your labor!

[Louis Friend]

Dear FMF Viewers

For all those that have viewed this page on acrylic stands I thank you. I will be attempting to have the procedure up in “pictorial” form within the next few days together with a couple of very relevant and very instructive You-Tube videos on working with Acrylic. I thank you all for your patience.

Kind Regards

Louis

[Louis Friend]

HOW I MADE MY ACRYLIC STANDS:

I decided to post these as JPEG’s as it would be easier for those interested to cut, paste and print using any of the currently available word processing packages.

[Carles Millan]

Louis,

Many thanks for letting us know how to manage the stands in such a magistral way.

I'm sure it will be of great utility to many of our readers.

[Louis Friend]

Dear Carles:

Many thanks for your kind words. These stands are very easy to make, and I hope others will gain joy from building their own Acrylic stands.

Just a quick note on labels.

You can buy two products either in clear film or white sheet, A4 for inkjet printers, both with a “sticky side.” You can then print the label on these and stick them on the front side of the acrylic stand. If you get the clear printing film, the labels look just like the ones the professional do! A great stand with its own great label – neat!

Kind regards

LF

[Louis Friend]

In the second part of the making of acrylic stands I am going to show the materials and techniques I used to make a stand for a green chatoyant Congo Malachite. It is a very, very simple stand, but highlights the things you need and the things you need to get to do this work. It is almost impossible to give a step-by-step recipe as everyone’s mineral specimen is unique as are the many ways the collector might wish to display the piece. Later as the opportunity arises, I will show some of the more complex stands I have made, but I am leaving these until I am confident in my work.

[Louis Friend]

Incidentally, if you would like a few circular stands it is possible to get acrylic rod in very large diameters. I will be using the 60mm diameter rod cut to a thickness of 25mm for all my miniature specimens, which are in the 3.5 to 6.5 cm range. These rods offer great display potential as it would be possible to saw them at angles other than parallel.

The same procedure is used regarding sanding, but these might have to be polished with a small Dremel buffing wheel. I will post my results and suggestions as they come.

[Matt_Zukowski]

Very nice, well documented post. Thanks.

[Carles Millan]

Simply astonishing!

[Louis Friend]

To all FMF viewers many thanks for your encouragement and support.
I hope I have helpful in providing this information.

For those who may not have a MAPP burner or might be unsure about using one, you can omit the flame-polishing step. Instead, sand the edges with progressively finer grade silicon carbide paper. Start with 80 grade, and then go to 180, then to 240 and finally 360. This will give you beautiful edges with a slight translucent appearance, which in my opinion looks very nice too.

This kind of edge provides a great backdrop to those labels printed with an inkjet printer on clear film. If you can get the ones with an adhesive backing, the result is a stand and label equal to anything the professionals could do. There is tremendous pride in looking at your piece and thinking, yep I chose this beauty, and I also made the stand too!

You can also bevel the edges but you will need a special and inexpensive tool – router bit. If you know someone, who has a small woodwork shop you could ask for his or her help. I have a Dremel with a router/shaper table and I will be trying stands with beveled and decorative edges too. The plastic shop can do it for you but it increases the cost of each block.

Kind regards

LF

[Louis Friend]

I decided to print a label on an A4 size sheet of labels. This particular paper sheet has a sticky side. After printed I cut out the label and covered it with a small portion of the clear plastic covering used to protect book covers. This clear material also has a sticky side. I then trimmed off the excess, and removed the backing and carefully placed it on my stand. I think it looks neat, but I am going to do the same with the clear adhesive sheet so I can compare a white background with a clear one.

[Louis Friend]

MAKING OF MINERAL LABELS FOR ACRYLIC STANDS

To print the labels you can use whatever is at hand. You can use a software package like OfficePrinter. Avery has a nice package that is free to download, and of course you can manipulate MS-Word’s textbox or table functions. This way you can put whatever borders you like around the text, but note that these labels are designed for use with 25mm thick acrylic block. If you use anything smaller you will need to adjust the font size and leading to accommodate the label. The end product can be whatever appeals to you, and you are in full control of the product and its production – neat!

The next project will focus on photography, lighting, lighting effects and reproducibility. I will start with the construction of a cheap, yet effective light tent.

[Louis Friend]

This is part three of my ongoing adventures with acrylic. If you have any questions about the process or anything related to minerals please ask, and please have a look at my rocks - Louis Collection.

I am trying to provide something that the collector can really use, and so my aim is to genuinely help fellow collectors with knowledge and advice. Show reports are great, but at the end of the day, the collector is still left with needs that such reports can never meet!

Recently I have had some great success with cleaning very “rusty” meteorites, and the process is probably worth documenting.

[Louis Friend]

In part 4 of my adventures with Acrylic I will be showing how to make stands that make the mineral look like it is “floating” in air. I might also include a part on basic routing with acrylic so we can place our specimens in “slots.”

I will also be showing you folks how to create a “museum’ style display cabinet without having to spend a fortune, and here I am talking about glass shelves that seem to float. The trick requires a few special clamps and a few lengths of special steel cable, but the cost is relatively inexpensive.

I will also show you all how to set up cheap, yet very effective “LED” lighting using the new generation of “super bright” LEDS that are so inexpensive you will cry. (LED = Light Emitting Diode).

I am still working on my “portable” light studio Mark I, so please stay in touch and have a look at my rocks – Louis Collection.

[Louis Friend]

The display shelves I am talking about are those shown in the picture below. They use a simple clamp and cable system, which are available from any business that deals in shop display merchandise. The shelves shown in the photograph are glass, but I might use polycarbonate. Why use polycarbonate? Simple; you can hit a polycarbonate sheet with a hammer and it will not break, try that with glass! And believe me when I say such a setup is not expensive at all, but of course to make it inexpensive you must buy the parts and do the work!!

[Louis Friend]

Just thought I would add a few notes on how much the tall stand cost to make. The back support was cut for me at the plastic shop and cost $1.50AUD. The Acrylic block was $2.50AUD and the head rest and foot rest cost about 5 cents. The Weldon-3 cost less than 0.1 cents per stand. The other materials are just bits and pieces you buy during the course of your adventures with acrylic. So a professional “tall” stand can be made for less than $5AUD!!