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Post by africaone on Sept 30, 2012 15:18:15 GMT -8
Does anyone has technical information about the magnetic setting boards ?
I never saw one and I am interested by any info about that
Thierry
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Post by boogtwo on Oct 2, 2012 0:33:10 GMT -8
No idea about commercially made ones if they now exists. But I converted all my adjustable wooden pinning boards around 30 years ago. Had 60 of them in two sizes plus many I made in various sizes that were flat for Riker mounts. Had a sheet metal shop cut thin but sturdy galvanized metal to all the sizes needed for them, two per board. I sanded and rounded the edges/corners of the metal myself with 600 grit paper to be snag/cut free, drilled small holes in each corner and installed them with small button head wood screws. They covered all of the wood except a very small strip along the inside edges (just in case I ever needed to use a pin to hold something, never did). Bought magnetic tape from a stationary store. It came in long rolls in different widths and thicknesses, and I bought fine graph paper for it. Glued strips of the graph paper to the mag strips on their adhesive side, used the graph lines to cut them with scissors into several different matching sizes. IE, 1X1, 1X2, 3X3, 4X4 and 6X6 squares following the graph lines to keep them uniform. Bought a divided plastic storage box for the magnets to keep them together by size, insect pins, stylus, tweezers and other pinning tools. After the pinned lep was put on a board, I slipped pre cut wax paper in the appropriate size from various sizes to push the wings down on one side, then the other, held then in place with just a couple of magnets on the top and bottom. Then I used home made stylus made from small diameter wood dowels and various size insect pins (straight and bent) to position the wings using wing veins near the body to move them as they were not covered by the wax paper there. Then placed appropriate size magnets as I went to hold the wings were wanted one at a time. The magnets were not placed over the wings themselves except rarely, instead just around the outer edges. , And they could easily be repositioned if wanted after all were set by simply temporarily lifting any magnet needed to do so. I also used a magnet to hold the specimens data label right with it while on the board. Made pinning about as easy as it gets, very fast, no damage to the specimens ever, no holes or tears in wings. They are very fast to remove when dry and all of the materials used were reuseable, even the wax paper as you could just wipe off any scales if any remained on it. The magnetic strips remained good all the years I used them. So it was mostly a one time expense, time and effort to make all of it up, and then I used them constantly for 25+ years. My SC was near 65K specimens, but only about half were pinned.
Hope some of this answers some questions for you anyway...
Unfortunately my son tossed them all in the trash a couple of years ago when he was cleaning my garages for me to make room to store my Corvette I no longer drive, so I have no pictures of them. They were no longer used... after over 40 years seriously doing lepidoptera my field days ended when the health did 6-7 years ago. Too bad they got tossed before I found this forum, I would have put them in the classifieds as well as my dozens of sleeves, dozens of custom made rearing cages, dozens of field livestock containers, dozens of nets, other tools and lots of field, rearing and pinning supplies. All I have let over is way too many books and papers on leps.
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Post by africaone on Oct 2, 2012 1:10:21 GMT -8
 thanks very much for your precise description. I can now start to see how to plan a project ! Thierry
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