Any materials considered safe for use in exhibit cases is also appropriate for 
storage environments. Start with the National Park Serivce (USA) web site: 

The Exhibit Conservation cd-rom
http://www.nps.gov/hfc/products/cons/ex-con-guidelines.htm

In the US, many wooden storage structures are made of clear poplar sealed 
with a waterborn sealer. Poplar is a stable wood and not acidic. Exhibit cases 
are often sealed with a product called Marvl Seal or are faced with Formica 
(tm), also a stable product.

Best of luck

Diane Gutenkauf
Director 
Robert R. McCormick Museum
[log in to unmask]

On Thu, 21 Jun 2007 17:20:12 -0700, Oscar Gaona <[log in to unmask]> 
wrote:

>I'm forwarding this message from two colleagues:
>  ------------
>  Receive a cordial greeting from the conservation team of the Gold Museum 
of Colombia, South America.
>
>In this moment our museum remodels its installations, inside the current 
process of transformation, the Museum is interested in renovating the wooden 
drawers (made of plywood) that during more than 20 years have been used to 
storage the gold work collection.
>
>To carry out this change, we have begun investigating on conservation 
materials. Until the moment we have not resolved the problem of which 
material should be used to replace the plywood but we are making trays with 
sheets of expanded polyethylene (Jumbolon or Ethafoam), with the form in 
negative of each object that help to organize and protect theme inside this 
boxes. Each box can contain up to three of these trays.
>
>In spite of the fact that the plywoods are not advisable for the 
conservation, until now, our gold work objects have not suffered any type of 
chemical or biological deterioration. The wooden drawers have been extremely 
resistant but, in the face of their potential chemical instability, we want to 
study other possibilities. For such a reason we are interested in knowing your 
experiences, suggestions, recommendations or new contacts.
>
>We thank your collaboration,
>PABLO OBANDO and ANGELA OVALLE
>Restorers of Cultural Heritage
>Conservation Team
>Gold Museum of Colombia
>
>------------
>
>  Regards,
>  Oscar
>

=========================================================
Important Subscriber Information:

The Museum-L FAQ file is located at http://www.finalchapter.com/museum-l-faq/ . You may obtain detailed information about the listserv commands by sending a one line e-mail message to [log in to unmask] . The body of the message should read "help" (without the quotes).

If you decide to leave Museum-L, please send a one line e-mail message to [log in to unmask] . The body of the message should read "Signoff Museum-L" (without the quotes).