A Quick and Dirty Description of our Microfossil Vial Storage System
The three photos below illustrate our current microfossil storage method. We use small cardboard tubes from Jonesville Paper Tube Corporation (http://www.papertube.com/index.htm), made to our specifications to fit various size vials. These tubes are adhered to card stock with PVAc emulsion (yes, Elmers!). The card stock is printed with a number grid that is dimensioned to the tube sizes, and the overall size of the card stock corresponds to our standard collection tray sizes. Shown below are a short stack of finished 8 x 8 inch vial holders, a box of loose tubes, and an 8 x 8 tray with the vial holder unit inserted, and various sized templates. Other photos are pretty self-explanatory.

Adhering the tubes to the grid is really quite easy and therapeutic. A great job to do if you are feeling stressed out and need some relief. Simply pour out a quantity of Elmers onto a non-porous surface (like closed-cell ethafoam sheet), spread it out a bit (smear it around) and place a couple of dozen tubes down in the puddle on end. Pick them up a couple at a time and place them in position on a home-made template printed on card stock. It is easiest to place one vertical row and one horizontal row first, then fill in the rest of the template using these first rows for alignment. Elmers tacks fairly quickly, so the tubes stay in place pretty well as you add more rows. Stack the completed units as you go to provide a little positive pressure as the PVAc dries. If this description isn't clear, I can take some pics of the process next time I make some up.

The tubes really provide neat storage. You can have the tubes made in sizes (inside diameter, outside diameter, length, wall thickness) specifically to fit your vials or you can choose a single tube size that will accomodate all your vial sizes (several vial sizes are shown in the tray below).

Cost: There is a price break for quantity, and a minimum order size for custom made tubes. As I recall, the minimum order is $125...and for that you get about 17,000 tubes! For orders over 17,000, cost is around $5 or $6 per thousand, depending upon size and quantity. That's less than a penny per tube...not bad at all. (2003 prices)

If anyone needs more info, please contact me.

Gregory Brown
University of Nebraska State Museum