Packing It Up - Part Two

Packing a headjoint for shipping

In a previous post, we shared tips and techniques for properly packing your instruments to ship them for repair.  The post, which you can read by following this link, also demonstrated how to pack headjoints and crowns.

We thought about a few more scenarios and revisited our Shipping Manager, Chris Lavoie.  Specifically, we wondered about shipping your flute and piccolo together in one box.  To do this, you'll want to make sure you have a box large enough to fit both instruments.  It's best to have the flute and piccolo each in their own case and then in their own box.  Then, you'll want to place foam (or comparable packing material) on the bottom of the shipping box.  Next, place the flute in the shipping box and the piccolo on top of the flute.  Make sure there is packing material completely around the flute and piccolo.  You'll notice a gap from the edge of the piccolo box to the edge of the flute box.  All you need to do to remedy this is to fill the gap with more packing material, as you will see in the photos below.

Gap at the end of the piccolo box.

Foam will fill the gap!

Also, we've had many inquiries about engraving, and we mentioned in a previous post that for lip plate engraving, you only need to send in your headjoint.  As with the instruments, you will want to place the headjoint securely in a small box that will then go into a shipping box.  The small box for the headjoint itself should hold the headjoint securely.  Chris tells us that you want to secure the headjoint so that it does not rattle or otherwise move in the box once it's closed.  We are a bit spoiled here at Powell because we have boxes that specifically are made with fitted foam inserts that hold the headjoint securely in place.  If you don't have this, just make sure that the headjoint is well padded and secured within the box, and you should be fine.

Headjoint secured with foam insert

If you need shipping materials, don't forget that we have flute shipping boxes with foam inserts in the shipping supply section of our online VQP Shop -- and always remember to put an extra layer of padding on top of the box contents.  Craft stores are also a great place to find soft packing materials like foam.  As long as the items you are shipping are secured and do not move within the box, they should have a safe journey!

Always remember to cover box contents with extra padding