Many of us have probably received a film projector that was poorly packed for shipping. Typically this results in a variety of damages--from broken feet to cracked cases, broken knobs, and much more.

A while back I received a Sankyo 800 which was packed properly. The projector was double-boxed and had crunched-up wrapping paper inside the second box. The projector was in its original factory box with styrofoam inserts and was then wrapped securely in bubble wrap. Dense foam 'swimming pool noodles' (the green and blue bits in the photo) had been split in half and taped all around the projector. These swimming pool noodles provided a cushion to both absorb impact and protect the projector itself.

We often hear about crappy packing, so I wanted to share this as a nice example of a seller who did it right....

I think that would survive pretty much any postal service, well done to the person who's done it before. I hope its got the hi pro lens Greg ?.

Hi Paul,

Sadly no "Hi-Pro" lens on this one...

Thats the way to pack a projector, it is minimum requirement to ensure it survives, the trouble is, as many people know, even the best packaging cant prevent some of the scum that work within the courier industry from playing football with it. The sender of your machine has certainly gone the extra mile Greg, thankfully.

That’s a well packed machine there Greg ,good to see someone has some common sense.
I had to send my Fumeo away and the packaging was somewhat similar,but my problem was also the weight they weigh enough without all the packaging by the time it went it was all I could do to lift it.Of course as Tom said you have no idea how the machines are treated once they leave you ,some of the couriers couldn’t care less and that goes for films as well.
Still good to see yours though.

Hi Greg. I perfected shipping Eiki 16mm projectors a few years ago using Banana boxes from the supermarket.
Pack the proj wrapped in a large roll of bubble wrap, then sandwich it between the na na boxes.
Pad around the sides well.
Packed like this the proj will survive all but the worst couriers.

I did almost the same I believe with my GS-1200 … Bubblewrapped the projector, overdoing it maybe, but to be sure. Used a sturdy box, more bubblewrap to make it lie still, then I took an even larger box, bubblewrap in the bottom, the put the box with projector in, fill up with bubblewrap. Went well, luckily

Hi Lee and Vidar,

I agree with you both, I think one of the keys is the "double box" approach. Many 'ignorant' sellers put padding only on the top of the projector, but what is important also is having cushion on the bottom of the box as it gets bounced around during shipment.

Happy to see that those in the know are very clear with the best practices needed.

Kind Regards,
Greg