Making a fossil display shelf

[Misha]

Hello everyone,

I have recently noticed that while my fossil collection is growing, the space I have for my fossils is not.

I wanted to get a cabinet with many shallow drawers to store my fossils but I have not been successful in doing so yet.

As a result, I decided that for now, I would build an additional shelf to house part of the collection.

I was interested in seeing what other people have here on the forum as I have no idea how to format this shelf to have something that looks good, is sturdy, and can hold some fossils.

If you have any display shelves you are willing to share, handmade or not, I would love to see them as potential inspiration for this little project. 

Thank you!

[Bobby Rico]

I used part of a vintage ikea shelving unit to make my shelves (the blue metal supports in the photos), that fits into an alcove. This is because the wall I wanted the shelves to go on was full of electric cables, meaning I was unable to be drilled for brackets. Shelves I have are good because it fits into the space I have available. The down side is you do get dust on your collection with a cabinet less so. Saying this I prefer the look of shelving than of display cabinets. If you are putting your shelf in an alcove the best way is to use  2 by 1 battening screwed into the 3 walls and the shelf resting on top with a couple of screws to hold it in place  . Also use 18mm or above wood or a good quality plywood but not MDF. MDF has a habit of bowing under weight,  I hope I have helped . 
cheers Bobby 

[Misha]

39 minutes ago, Bobby Rico said:

I used part of a vintage ikea shelving unit to make my shelves (the blue metal supports in the photos), that fits into an alcove. This is because the wall I wanted the shelves to go on was full of electric cables, meaning I was unable to be drilled for brackets. Shelves I have are good because it fits into the space I have available. The down side is you do get dust on your collection with a cabinet less so. Saying this I prefer the look of shelving than of display cabinets. If you are putting your shelf in an alcove the best way is to use  2 by 1 battening screwed into the 3 walls and the shelf resting on top with a couple of screws to hold it in place  . Also use 18mm or above wood or a good quality plywood but not MDF. MDF has a habit of bowing under weight,  I hope I have helped . 
cheers Bobby 

This is very helpful!

Thank you for the information.

Your display is very nice looking, not to mention the really cool fossils themselves.

[FranzBernhard]

That´s my actual main display, total width is about 2 m:

I am using this shelfes since about 15 years. I don´t plan to replace them. No time, no money.

 

I have also made some kind of drawer cabinets out of stackable cardbord boxes a few years ago, each box is 60 x 40 cm and about 7 cm high, 13 boxes stacked upon each other. "Drawers" are 20x30 cm large boxes, with "curtain" for dust protection:

Franz Bernhard

[Bobby Rico]

7 minutes ago, FranzBernhard said:

 

That´s my actual main display, total width is about 2 m:

 

 

They look great and very flexible with displaying because you can adjust the shelf’s spacing  . Your Rugosa are stunning   

Cheers  Bobby 

[FF7_Yuffie]

Check out @ziggycardon thread in the collection board. His looks amazing. It's given me ideas for future displays of mine.

[FranzBernhard]

4 hours ago, Bobby Rico said:

They look great and very flexible with displaying because you can adjust the shelf’s spacing  

Thanks! But the spacing is fixed in these shelfes (and very wide).

I have another one with adjustable spacing, and I have adjusted this shelf often . This shelf is used for ores and lazulite (former areas of interest).

 

4 hours ago, Bobby Rico said:

Your Rugosa are stunning

Thanks, but now I am very curious . There are indeed a few rugosa on the the fossil shelf, but they are in no way stunning... 

Franz Bernhard

 

 

 

[Bobby Rico]

11 minutes ago, FranzBernhard said:

Thanks! But the spacing is fixed in these shelfes (and very wide).

You can drill  them out your self If needed and screw brackets in . The corals are stunning compared to my tiny ones. I also really like your Swiss roll display . Yum yum 

[FranzBernhard]

23 minutes ago, Bobby Rico said:

You can drill  them out your self If needed and screw brackets in .

Ok, thanks!

 

23 minutes ago, Bobby Rico said:

The corals are stunning compared to my tiny ones.

Top right are all Miocene corals.

Middle right are hippuritid rudists.

Bottom right are various Devonian corals.

 

Its ordered somewhat stratigraphically and facially:

- Top shelf  is Miocene (Styrian basin), from plants to the left (coalified wood mostly) to typical gastropods and bivalves of the "Florianer Schichten" (maybe a lagune) to the corals of the carbonate buildup near the open sea (Weißenegg-formation) to the right.

- Middle shelf is Upper Cretaceous (Gosau-group): Plants to the left (only coalified and jetified wood), to Trochactaeon snails (which tolerate brackish water), to hippuritites (with need a somewhat fully marine environment.

- Lower shelf is a little bit messy: To the left mostly upper Triassic stuff (coral rock, monotid rocks, ammonoid rocks). Middle and left is Devonian, mostly Eifelian Plabutsch-formation (various corals).

 

Everything is self collected and everything is from Styria. And it is important to me, to have the most characteristic fossils of a formation. I am not looking for the rare and special. Well, sometimes such things turn up .

 

Latest addition (April-June 2020) are the dark Trochactaeon snails a little bit right of the middle of the middle shelf. Got a hint from a friend and Corona made it possible to do some long prospecting trips around Kainach, about 50 km away from me. With great success. Most specimens are from a relatively new, but totally unexploited forest road cut.

 

You can see some more of these snails here:

https://www.franzbernhard.lima-city.de/Trochactaeon_Handstuecke.html

https://www.franzbernhard.lima-city.de/Trochactaeon_Laengsschnitte.html

https://www.franzbernhard.lima-city.de/Trochactaeon_Querschnitte.html

 

Sorry, @Misha, for highjacking your thread ...

Franz Bernhard

[Bobby Rico]

2 minutes ago, FranzBernhard said:

ou can see some more of these snails here:

The snails are wonderful so cool . I never seen them before. You have a great collection indeed.  

[Misha]

12 minutes ago, FranzBernhard said:

Sorry, @Misha, for highjacking your thread .

I don't mind at all,

 I have to agree that your fossils are quite wonderful.

[Paleome]

All of the above examples are fantastic!  Here is another idea.  Find out which retail stores are going out of business and take advantage of the showcases they need to auction off or sell at bargain basement prices.

Wow, can you ever find wonderful things that way!

[Wrangellian]

On 8/17/2020 at 8:50 AM, FranzBernhard said:

Thanks! But the spacing is fixed in these shelfes (and very wide).

I have another one with adjustable spacing, and I have adjusted this shelf often . This shelf is used for ores and lazulite (former areas of interest).

 

Thanks, but now I am very curious . There are indeed a few rugosa on the the fossil shelf, but they are in no way stunning... 

Franz Bernhard

I like this setup. Anything that packs a lot of specimens into a small area with easy access is good, and tends to look good too, in my book.

How did you manage to find boxes that fit those shelves so well, or were the shelves made to fit the boxes? (I know I have seen this before and may have asked you already, but if I did I forget the answer)

I think Bobby was looking at your rudists, but he's right that they are stunning, even more so probably because they are rudists and we don't see them as often as horn corals - at least I don't see them as often.

[FranzBernhard]

 

2 hours ago, Wrangellian said:

How did you manage to find boxes that fit those shelves so well, or were the shelves made to fit the boxes?

Everything by pure chance and luck! The fruit and veggie cardboard boxes are standardized to a max. of 40.0 cm. The shelves are from a well-known Swedish company and they are by pure chance 80.5 cm wide. Even the depth of the shelves fits perfectly (30 cm). I have bought these shelves also more then 15 years ago. I don´t know their "name" any longer, though.

 

2 hours ago, Wrangellian said:

and tends to look good too

To me also. It looks like "work in progress" (what it is), but also in some aspects quite tidy. As it is, it reflects my personality quite well .

 

2 hours ago, Wrangellian said:

I think Bobby was looking at your rudists

Yes. Here is my former rudist display again; I have already posted this about 1.5 years ago. All of these are now in the museum in Graz...

 

...but I have found some nice replacement specimens, as you can see in the pic below :

Franz Bernhard

[Wrangellian]

Yes... It's good that you were able to replace (more or less) the ones you donated!

[Ruger9a]

On 8/31/2020 at 12:46 AM, FranzBernhard said:

 

Everything by pure chance and luck! The fruit and veggie cardboard boxes are standardized to a max. of 40.0 cm. The shelves are from a well-known Swedish company and they are by pure chance 80.5 cm wide. Even the depth of the shelves fits perfectly (30 cm). I have bought these shelves also more then 15 years ago. I don´t know their "name" any longer, though.

 

To me also. It looks like "work in progress" (what it is), but also in some aspects quite tidy. As it is, it reflects my personality quite well .

 

Yes. Here is my former rudist display again; I have already posted this about 1.5 years ago. All of these are now in the museum in Graz...

 

...but I have found some nice replacement specimens, as you can see in the pic below :

Franz Bernhard

Do you use aluminum foil to make the bases?  I haven't seen that before but like the idea.  It looks like an easy way to shape a base for an irregular fossil without damaging it.  How well does it hold up?

[FranzBernhard]

3 hours ago, Ruger9a said:

Do you use aluminum foil to make the bases?

Yes. It was intended to be temporarily, but, well, I am rarely changing a winning team .

 

3 hours ago, Ruger9a said:

How well does it hold up?

Surprisingly good! No rudist has toppled yet (Well, we are in a quake-free area ). Convince yourself with a piece of rock and put it on an edge or corner with aluminum foil.

Franz Bernhard

[Ruger9a]

7 hours ago, FranzBernhard said:

Yes. It was intended to be temporarily, but, well, I am rarely changing a winning team .

 

Surprisingly good! No rudist has toppled yet (Well, we are in a quake-free area ). Convince yourself with a piece of rock and put it on an edge or corner with aluminum foil.

Franz Bernhard

Thanks Franz, I will try it on a couple of uneven base fossils.  I usually use the white modeling clay, but the oil base soaks into the fossils leaving it discolored and the water base leaves residue in the cracks or other defects.  Thanks again.

[pachy-pleuro-whatnot-odon]

When I recently had to expand my storage space for fossils, I went for IKEA's Bestå solution. Probably more expensive than a home-made plank and possibly also not as sturdy if you want to store heavy items, but ideal in all other cases. Basically, you get a frame of the size and colour you want and then fit it out with planks, drawers, closed doors, glass doors, whatever you want. Plus, the system is extensible, so you can keep enlarging it as much as you like. There's even a designer program with it that will help you determine layout, required parts and eventual size.

 

I've been using another Bestå setup for years in a different location now, and very pleased with it, as I am with my current choice. There's only one downside I found with my more recent purchase: while the glass doors previously had cardboard inset framing you could remove (thus enlarging the viewing space), nowadays you can't remove the inset frame any longer. This is no doubt seen as a quality improvement, but for my purposes it isn't