I have a stack of hard-to-find spare door and window glass I would like to sell. I have a buyer in France who is exceptionally eager to buy my door glass. I can probably charge him whatever it takes to make it worth my time. I keep blowing him off and he keeps politely reminding me. It does me no good being stored in my shed. Anyone have experience with exporting fragile parts?
How do I package glass? Should I build a wooden crate?
What company should I use? What would it cost roughly? I can probably package it down to 24" square by 12"-18" tall.
Unless it isn't tempered, glass isn't *that* fragile.
If it was me, I would do the following:
- Get a quote to build a crate from a local crate-builder. Yes there are these services.
- Get a quote to deliver it or ship it to the freight forwarder of your customer's preference.
- Take photos of it as it is delivered to the freight forwarder, or the last time it leaves your custody.
- Let the customer know all freight/customs is their responsibility. They need to provide you with the forms you need to fill out.
- Put 20% juice on any costs you have to incur.
- Give your customer a quote, accept payment only by ACH prior to lifting a finger other than to get quotes.
Too much risk/headache to do it any other way.
Wood box. All of my shippers use 3/8 plywood and 2X4s for the boxes. I still occasionally end up with a broken piece.
Going overseas, I would want 1+ inch of rigid foam around the outside formed to fit the glass. Protect the edges especially well. You might consider expanding foam. I would also want 1/8" to 1/4" between the pieces. Sheet foam should work for this.
Make sure it's insured for the value plus the hassle of dealing with broken parts.
I would also consider putting one of these on the package. That way your customer will know the box has been handled poorly and can inspect it on arrival. They come in 25g increments.
last time I shipped glass overseas.. I took a box bigger than the glass itself and put a cheap piece of 1/8" plywood into it, cut to fit. I then sprayfoamed over the plywood and laid a trashbag over it. The glass went onto the trashbag with another going ontop of it. I then sprayfoamed over the bagged glass and then laid another sheet of ply over it before putting the top of the box over it. Once the foam was hardened, I cut off the excess bag that was sticking out all around, sealed it up, and shipped it off.
The trick is to encapsulate the glass in the expanding foam, but keep it off of the glass and make it easy to seperate the glass from the foam, hence the reason to use two sheets, one above and one below.
