Storage, outgassing...

[pico]

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Short question: How does one know if a plastic container outgasses?

No need to read further if you know and can answer.

Verbiage follows.

 

In an obscure part of my house, among rafters and early built walls reachable only with a ladder and seen with strong light I have stored some cameras and parts so well that it is like a squirrel's cache - squirrels really do not remember where they buried their finds, and discovering them again is just luck. It's like that with me, too, and I'm only seventy years-old.

 

Today I dehumidified a small room to 27% @ 70° F with a few Leica M bodies I've ignored for many years in order to prepare them for sealed box storage.

 

Okay, back to the technical question - my older stuff is stored in Korean war steel ammo boxes with rubber seals in the lid. Today where I live those real-deal boxes are unobtainable with  only badly made Chinese clones available and they smell bad.  I don't trust them.

 

I bought some plastic look-alikes.

 

So, how can one find if a particular plastic out-gasses, or does it not matter?

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[mikemgb]

I don't think I would use any type of plastic container for long term storage, I believe any plastic will leach over time. PVC outgasses a lot, acrylic is very stable, but even that will leach gasses and chemicals into anything stored in it.

 

This may or may not be practical for you, but if you can't find suitable metal containers, consider glass, a large glass storage jar will hold several cameras and be stable for many years.

[pico]

I don't think I would use any type of plastic container for long term storage, I believe any plastic will leach over time. PVC outgasses a lot, acrylic is very stable, but even that will leach gasses and chemicals into anything stored in it.

 

Wow! I had not considered glass. It makes a lot of sense. Being a rural farming area big glass jar are common. I'm off tomorrow to get some. Thank you so much for the reminder.

[skucera]

I don't know if you have any Costco stores nearby, but my Costco has .50 cal ammo boxes for sale, brand new.  However, I like the idea of glass storage jars.  A year or two ago I saw flat glass storage boxes with rubber seals and metal bales to hold the glass lids on.  Those were at a bed and bath store.

 

Scott

[michaelwj]

I have a vision in my head of a shelf of glass jars with Leicas in them instead of the body parts. I wonder if you can suspend them somehow to really get the effect ...

[pgk]

Firstly, rubber deteriorates - in my experience anyway. Anything old made from rubber will tend to harden, crack and presumably this is as a result of chemical changes so I'm unsure that rubber is a good archival seal.

 

Polyester is regarded as being an archival safe material as is acid free cardboard and both are available 'museum grade". Personally I would direct your question to museum staff who have to deal with long term archival storage all the time. They will already have sorted out this problem and so should be able to suggest as cost effective solutions as are viable (may not be that cheap so will depend on your requirements and the item's values I suppose).

[derleicaman]

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I remember reading about the archival storage for collector automobiles in a the German publication Auto, Motor und Sport. If I recall, they were put into some sort of giant inert plastic bag filled with nitrogen. Cars are a lot harder to archivally preserve than cameras. You might want to look at the Smithsonian website to see how they store items in their collections.

 

I too have many cameras and lenses from my collection stashed about in my house. I keep them in waterproof Pelican cases. Some of them for 20-25 years. The only problems I see are with lubricants drying out and some fogging of lenses, which is due to the old time lubricants used originally. Some of my screwmount lenses and cameras date back to the late twenties - early thirties. They are still in great shape and i would say there are no ill effects from this type of long term storage. As long as the gasket is good, they are a great means of storage. I have some Haliburton cases which have not fared as well. Their gaskets have all failed.

 

One drawback of scattered storage is you do forget what is there. I "misplaced" a Rolex Explorer II cream dial watch for about ten years this way. I had stashed it on top of a built-in wall unit. Only re-discovered the watch when I was doing a bit of deep cleaning one day. That was one happy day!