Cornell unit trays

[takahe]

I've removed all the unit trays from my Cornell drawers, creating much more room and generally making things better. The thing is, what good are the trays now? I invested tons of money in them so hate to just through them away. When I first started years ago, I was under the wrong impression that they were needed in the drawers. Does anyone here use them for anything? I'm thinking I'd like to sell them (for less than I paid) and get some of the money I invested back. I've got lots of them, in all existing sizes.

I just thought I'd most here and see if there was any interest, and if it would be worth putting an ad in the classified section.

[Chris Grinter]

Unit-trays are a must for non-display collections because it allows you to easily move and rearrange species without individually handling each specimen. On the scale of a large collection this saves a huge amount of time and breakage.

You should try selling. Depending on the quality and foam you might get some money back. If they are the fold-your-own style with the cheaper foam I don't imagine they would be worth anything, but you could always donate to a young collector.

[jshuey]

Chris nails it – but you might read into his answer that this is for museums only. I’ll mention that my personal collection – (which is definitely not a display type collection) – is exclusively housed using unit trays. The collection grows in unpredictable spurts. You never know which drawers are going to grow or which ones will sit with just a few bugs added each year. Unit trays allow me to constantly shuffle the collection, without having to handle individual bugs (too often – I still find myself moving species into larger unit trays on occasion). Almost everyone I hang with uses unit trays for the same reason.

I’d say test the market – but like Chris says if you have BioQuip folding trays, they’re not worth much.

John

[takahe]

I did get them from Bio Quip but they aren't the folding type. They're rigid boxes, with Plastazote bottoms. I quit using them to save room since I only have 4 12 drawer cabinets and 2 6 drawer ones. I have mostly large leps and beetles, and the trays were wasting a lot of space in drawers.

[krupten]

I am interested in them - please send me a price for all with shipping to the PHILIPPINES - and let me know what country you are in? do you accept paypal etc? Cheers Greg

[e-mail]

[krupten]

please make that krupten01 sorry

[exoticimports]

Chris concisely discussed the use of trays.

I use them in 95% of my drawers. The exception is the very large stuff- the school display box of tarantulas and dynastes, the drawer of Papilio weymeri-type etc.

I find unit trays invaluable for evolving studies. For example, when I go somewhere new I keep all the location material together. After the studies are done I can move a whole tray of like specimens in one move. For example, All of my Samoa material was together; when I finished studies the beetle tray went into beetles, the nymphalid tray went into the world nymphalids.

I'm doing a school display tomorrow, and naturally want to show off the big uglies and big beauties. So I simply pull a tray from Golaithus, a tray from Dynastes, a tray from Ornithoptera and a tray from something else. Four moves, no damage. And when I'm done, four moves back. If I tried to move individual specimens it would take hours and something would get broken.


I have more trays than drawer space because I use them for placing specimens as the come off the board, and for pulling out (and protecting) a few specimens while I do my bench research.

Chuck

[coloradeo]

I am finding wisdom in the post above and have been interacting with others that use trays as well. However, all of the drawers I have ordered to date have foam bottoms.

Given that the drawers I have purchased in the past from Bioquip have the plastazote foam bottom, can I still order the unit trays with a foam bottom and place that over the top of them? Will the height or something else cause a problem? From their website, it seems like the measurements work with the inner dimensions.

Thanks for the advice.

[leptraps]

I use Cornell drawers with foam bottoms for larger Leo's. Shingles, Saturnidae, Speyeria, Pheobus, etc. I use unit traps for small Leo's. Lyceanids, Hesperids etc.

I shingle the big Leps in the drawer. It just works for me. Especially if you collect noctuid moths.

[bandrow]

Greetings,

Coloradeo - I use the Cornell system drawers and unit trays for my beetles. I have a number of drawers that I acquired with foam already glued into the bottoms. I have had no problems with adding unit trays on top of the foam and still having plenty of clearance below the glass. Most of the trays fit well enough that their upper edges do not extend higher than the edges of the drawer's walls. I would suggest getting a few trays from someone and testing your drawers just to be sure.

Takahe - For most collectors, there are 3 big expenses - drawers, pins and, if used, unit trays. Most of the rest of one's supplies can be bought cheaply or scavenged. I even started out by taking one of BioQuip's folding trays and making a template to cut my own and made all my own trays until I was able to get better trays over time.

BioQuip sells Cornell trays from around $1.50 to nearly $4.00 a piece depending on size. So I would suspect that you could find a buyer if you price them attractively. One big issue might be shipping expense - they're bulky - but you might find someone willing to make a drive to pick them up. I know I would if I needed them!

Cheers!
Bandrow

[LEPMAN]

Has anyone tried making acrylic or wooden unit trays?

[bandrow]

Greetings,

I've never heard of anything being used other than cardboard. I would think that acrylic could be expensive and wood would be heavy.

Another consideration is to be sure to use archival materials if making one's own trays. If not, acid in the paper or cardboard can cause degradation of the trays and even pins.

Cheers!
Bandrow

[Paul K]

Entosphinx is selling plastic trays, they look great but I think they are sized to European drawers which I am using.
www.entosphinx.cz/en/140-vnitrni-krabicky-do-krabic-unit-system-plast

[bandrow]

Interesting - I hadn't seen these before! I guess they'd be more sturdy than paper-based trays and the price seems only slightly higher than the traditional trays. I assume they are light weight too... pretty cool!

Cheers!
Bandrow