Thank you all for your kind words. I'll continue to post close ups of the rest of the collection, mostly because I've been waiting years to do this, so hopefully that's not too indulgent.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Bruticus82
I was very curious to see your collection setup. Very nice!
Did you incorporate any special features based on your museum/archival experience?
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To answer your question, yes but nothing really fancy, more like design decisions that were made with this in mind. The examples I can think of:
1) The floor is raised about a foot off the original floor which is cement. This was an unfinished space in an older house so this let me do a couple of things. It meant that I could make the floor completely level which helped to level the shelves. It also mean that flooding is less of an issue as the room next to this one does have a water source in it and an outside door. In fact the floor has about a 1 inch gap on the bottom which leads to a drain to help deal with this.
2) The shelves are all metal and glass, so no wood, so no off-gassing.
3) The shelves all have adjustable feet so I could level them perfectly and reduce the chance that something would roll or topple off a shelf.
4) The shelves are all anchored to each other where I could and all are anchored to the wall with at least two metal brackets and into a stud. This makes the shelved stable and means that they don't vibrate when I walk around the room. I tested this by jumping up and down in front of them and nothing moves.
5) The lighting is all LED 5200k natural light. This means that everything looks natural but there is no UV being given off. I also rewired the room to put the lights on a separate switch (they were shared with the room next door). This means that when I'm not in the room the lights are off, so no light damage happens.
6) I replaced the window with one that filters UV and have a blind over it which I keep drawn to cut down on natural light. There is also nothing directly in front of it. I would have removed the window but I need it to provide air for the air conditioner.
7) The air conditioner is a portable dripless unit with a strong fan and a digital display and thermostat. I keep it permanently set to 22C and it maintained that without issue all summer.
8) The heater is a portable infrared unit also with a digital thermostat and a fan. I also keep it set to 22C. This means no forced air and therefore less dust.
9) I have a humidifier with a digital readout I'll start using in a few weeks when the humidity finally drops this year. I'll keep it set to about 50%
10) I should have mentioned, this all works because I added a new floor, ceiling and new paneling over old drywall and then insulated the wall, ceiling and floor, so the temperature and humidity can be kept very consistent. This sounds like overkill and I wouldn't have done it except I had to refinish the space anyway so I took the opportunity.
Basically that's it, nothing too unusual but I think it all helps.
