How to make something for supporting my arm and something for supporting fossils for use while prepping?

[fossilhunter21]

Hey everyone! So I have heard from many people that it is good to have something to support your arm and something to support your fossils. And I just thought I would ask everyone how they made theirs, what they used, and maybe what they look like? 

 

Thank you in advance! 

 

-Micah

[hadrosauridae]

I bought a couple yoga sandbags and filled them with playground sand from Lowes.  Some times also put those onto a heavy aluminum baking tray from wally-world.    It all super cheap, can be made to conform to the fossil and can be moved around without disturbing the base.

[Randyw]

I use layers of foam padding….

[fossilhunter21]

7 hours ago, hadrosauridae said:

I bought a couple yoga sandbags and filled them with playground sand from Lowes.  Some times also put those onto a heavy aluminum baking tray from wally-world.    It all super cheap, can be made to conform to the fossil and can be moved around without disturbing the base.

 

6 hours ago, Randyw said:

I use layers of foam padding….

Thank you for your replies, @hadrosauridae and, @Randyw!  Those are both pretty good ideas.  I think I might try the foam padding idea. 

 

-Micah

[fossilhunter21]

So I actually decided to not use foam. I ended up using some leather pieces I cut out, I hand sewed the pieces together and then used super glue around the edges. I actually used some micro matrix that had been searched through as filling, and it works really well. Here are some photos: 

 

-Micah

[siteseer]

On 4/28/2022 at 8:28 PM, Randyw said:

I use layers of foam padding….

 

Yes, foam can be good and you can sometimes find it cheap with some variety to choose from at a place that sells packing supplies.  There used to be a great store in my area that was a UPS shipper but also sold a wider range of packing supplies than your average UPS store.  It had odd sizes and shapes of various kinds of foam.  I used it in packing odd-shaped fossils and larger pieces were good to sit on when working on stuff while sitting on the garage floor or an otherwise uncomfortable chair for periods of time.

 

The company closed that store a couple of years ago.  It still has a store but that one hasn't had the same variety of foam.

[fossilhunter21]

Hey, @Fossildude19. Would it be possible for you to change the name of the topic to:

"How to make something for supporting my arm and something for supporting fossils for use while prepping?"

 

Thanks, Micah

[Randyw]

I actually cut up an old mattress pad we were going to throw out. I cut it into various sizes so i can use them for different size work. And I can add and subtract layers as needed. You can see a couple layers under my next project.

[fossilhunter21]

2 minutes ago, Randyw said:

I actually cut up an old mattress pad we were going to throw out. I cut it into various sizes so i can use them for different size work. And I can add and subtract layers as needed. You can see a couple layers under my next project.

Looks like it would work really well!  And you did not have to spend a dime, and that is always nice.

 

-Micah

[Fossildude19]

18 hours ago, fossilhunter21 said:

Hey, @Fossildude19. Would it be possible for you to change the name of the topic to:

"How to make something for supporting my arm and something for supporting fossils for use while prepping?"

 

Thanks, Micah

 

 

All set, Micah.

[fossilhunter21]

4 hours ago, Fossildude19 said:

All set, Micah.

Thank you, Tim! 

 

-Micah