bgreenstone Posted July 13, 2015 Share Posted July 13, 2015 Earlier this year when my wife and I returned from Tucson with an SUV loaded to the brim with fossils and rocks, and we quickly realized that we had no way to properly display them. We searched and searched for "nice" display cases, but all we could find was plastic snarge. Restoration Hardware was the only place that sold nice specimen display cases, but they were too big, and too expensive. I told my wife "I could make those, and I'd put lights in them!", so I did. We spent the last few months coming up with a good design and making prototypes. Now we've got an entire house full of these things. -Brian Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sseth Posted July 13, 2015 Share Posted July 13, 2015 Stunning minerals. The cases really enhance them. _____________________________________ Seth www.fossilshack.com www.americanfossil.com www.fishdig.com Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xonenine Posted July 13, 2015 Share Posted July 13, 2015 terrific job, thanks for sharing them! "Your serpent of Egypt is bred now of your mud by the operation of your sun; so is your crocodile." Lepidus Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jcbshark Posted July 13, 2015 Share Posted July 13, 2015 Those are really nice, great work! : ) Every once in a great while it's not just a big rock down there! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Herb Posted July 14, 2015 Share Posted July 14, 2015 "Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence"_ Carl Sagen No trees were killed in this posting......however, many innocent electrons were diverted from where they originally intended to go. " I think, therefore I collect fossils." _ Me "When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth."__S. Holmes "can't we all just get along?" Jack Nicholson from Mars Attacks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ZiggieCie Posted July 14, 2015 Share Posted July 14, 2015 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
amour 25 Posted July 14, 2015 Share Posted July 14, 2015 Look great , and dust free is the best. Jeff Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RJB Posted July 14, 2015 Share Posted July 14, 2015 Hey Brian, You do some very nice work. Can I ask what you used to keep the glass together? RB Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aplomado Posted July 14, 2015 Share Posted July 14, 2015 Impressive. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bgreenstone Posted August 3, 2015 Author Share Posted August 3, 2015 Hey Brian, You do some very nice work. Can I ask what you used to keep the glass together? RB It's all leaded glass. It's built with the same techniques you'd use for stained glass. We copper foil the glass panes, and then solder them together. Then we apply either a copper or black patina to the soldered seams, and finally we apply carnauba wax to protect it from oxidization. -Brian Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RJB Posted August 5, 2015 Share Posted August 5, 2015 Thanks Brian. I have a Didymoceras that will need one of those once I put it together and figure out the deminsions needed. RB Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike Pocock Posted August 25, 2015 Share Posted August 25, 2015 Very nice displays, i may well have a go at making one of the boxes to display a set of ammonites. I love this forum, it seams to produce ideas that you would not think of yourself and inspires members to achieve results that without the information on the forum may not normally be achieved either through lack of understanding or no clear explanation anywhere else. Thanks for the post Regards Mike Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mnuser Posted September 20, 2015 Share Posted September 20, 2015 Those cases are awesome. Nice work! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bgreenstone Posted September 20, 2015 Author Share Posted September 20, 2015 Those cases are awesome. Nice work! Thanks! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FLINTandBONE Posted September 21, 2015 Share Posted September 21, 2015 Good job, very nice! I really like the look of illuminated minerals. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Runner64 Posted September 21, 2015 Share Posted September 21, 2015 Very cool! This case displays items very well. How much does it cost to make one of these? Might need to look into making a few after seeing yours! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bgreenstone Posted September 21, 2015 Author Share Posted September 21, 2015 Google "Greenstone Lighted Display Case" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bgreenstone Posted January 18, 2016 Author Share Posted January 18, 2016 Here's another custom case I just completed: I'm really happy with this one, but I've got to find a different wall to put it against since the fossil sorta matches the wall color. -Brian Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Plantguy Posted January 20, 2016 Share Posted January 20, 2016 Those look pretty sharp Brian. Congrats! Thanks for showing us your handy work. Regards, Chris Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fossilized6s Posted January 20, 2016 Share Posted January 20, 2016 From one crafty DIYer to another, I love these. They're very nice. I never thought about soldering the glass together. ~Charlie~ "There are those that look at things the way they are, and ask why.....i dream of things that never were, and ask why not?" ~RFK ->Get your Mosasaur print ->How to spot a fake Trilobite ->How to identify a CONCRETION from a DINOSAUR EGG Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jpc Posted January 20, 2016 Share Posted January 20, 2016 Very nice... And inspirational. My one thought is what if you put the lights along the top, horizontally so they don't reflect on the back glass pane? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bgreenstone Posted January 20, 2016 Author Share Posted January 20, 2016 Very nice... And inspirational. My one thought is what if you put the lights along the top, horizontally so they don't reflect on the back glass pane? When I was first contemplating building these my thought was to put a light across the top, however, there were several problems: 1. One light bar across the top isn't enough light. 2. The light would be uneven - very bright on the top of the specimen, but dim on the bottom and sides. 3. Mounting it would be hard since the lights are attached to the base, not the glass top, so some sort of arch would have to support the horizontal light. The glare isn't as bad as it often looks in photos. In real life the reflections actually adds some dimension to it. My first prototype I tried to put a black backing on the rear glass, and the blocked the reflections, but I found it actually looked better with them. I've also thought about using Museum Glass either for the entire thing, or maybe just for the rear pane to block reflections, but Museum glass is crazy-expensive and I'm not sure how it would hold up to the soldering and flux and patina cleaning. Thanks, -Brian Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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