The New Hotness

For reasons not relevant here, I sent the Beckman DM73 to a good home in Europe. Having some experience with the brutality applied to innocent packages by various package-delivery organizations, I filled a Priority Mail Flat Rate Small Box with a solid block of corrugated cardboard:

One inner layer has a cutout for the manual:

The meter and its leads tuck into form-fitting cutouts:

I bandsawed the cutouts from a block with enough layers for some space on the top and bottom:

After mulling that layout overnight, I made a similar block with the saw cuts on diagonally opposite corners, so pressure on the center of the edges won’t collapse the unsupported sides. A slightly larger meter cutout allowed a wrap of closed-cell foam sheet that likely doesn’t make any difference at all.

With everything in place, the box had just enough space for a pair of plastic sheets to better distribute any top & bottom impacts.

I won’t know how the armor performed for a few weeks, but it’s definitely the best packaging idea I’ve had so far.

Update: After nearly two weeks, the package arrived undamaged and the meter was in fine shape. Whew!