DRAWER DESIGN








If you need a copy of the instructions to put together the DrawerBox, download this PDF file. If you need a copy of the instructions to install Boxlox Box Anchors, download this PDF file. WHAT ARE BOXLOX BOX ANCHORS? BoxLox Box Anchors are connecting devices that will tie the outside shells together side-by-side. They are flat button-like devices that are inserted inside the shell on either side of adjoining shells. When snapped into place they actually lock the two shells together. There are numerous advantages in doing this: DrawerBox shells and drawers are an "integrated" design in which each part is matched to the dimensions of the other so they will work like a cabinet or other drawer. You can pull open a drawer to its full extent and it will hang open. It does this because the weight of the open drawer is cantilevered by the weight of the box on top. However, since the top unit has no weight above it, it can tip when pulled further than halfway open. The box anchors will anchor the unit to the unit on either side, so they provide the counterweight needed to prevent tipping. But the advantages don't end there. By binding the sides of lower units tightly to each other, they help counter the weight of the units pressing down and will increase long term stacking strength. Additionally, they will prevent any lightly filled units, or full units that are "slammed" closed, from shifting. When used throughout they will make your array of DrawerBoxes one unified bank. HOW MANY BOXLOX BOX ANCHORS DO I NEED? The BoxLox™ Box Anchors are sold separately since how many each person uses depends on their configuration. If you just want enough to keep the top unit from tipping (the lower units are counterbalanced by the one above), then you need one less BoxLox pack than the number of rows across. However, they provide other benefits as well. They will keep the entire array more stable and increase the long term stacking strength on the lower units. So, we recommend using them throughout. To use them throughout multiply the number of rows high that your DrawerBoxes are stacked* times one less than the number of rows across. For example, 30 DrawerBoxes stacked 5 high could use 25 BoxLox. * Please note in our instructions that it is important to always stack the DrawerBoxes™ one more column across than they are rows high. They should never be stacked in a "tower" arrangement. This is both for safety reasons since it is easy for a narrow stack to be knocked over and because part of the engineering behind the DrawerBoxes requires as much mass on the sides supporting each unit as there is weight on top pushing down to maintain stacking strength. CAN BOXLOX BOX ANCHORS BE USED ON OLDER UNITS? Absolutely. Our newer shells have holes pre-drilled to accept the BoxLox. However, we also have a template guide available so the holes can be located precisely in older shells. With the template, retrofitting is simple and keeps everything compatible when you purchase new units. However, BoxLox will NOT work on other products. Most other products are made with 200# or 250# test cardboard (the industry measure of puncture resistance), which is not strong enough to withstand the stress. Only genuine DrawerBoxes are made with the heavier weight cardboard necessary for BoxLox.	D R A W E R D E S I G N We are very pleased to introduce the DrawerBox™ Storage System, the comic collecting hobby's only complete organizational and storage system. And the best part is it is completely modular. You can select the components that best fit your needs and add to them as your collection grows. The system is designed to be space efficient by being stackable up to 6' high taking advantage of all the vertical height you have available. Or they can be arranged side-by-side in short stacks to fit under or on top of a table, all connected by our BoxLox™ Box Anchors so any slippage or tipping is eliminated. Our short boxes are designed to be short enough to fit in the shallowest of closets yet still provide the maximum amount of storage capacity. Long and short DrawerBoxes can even be tied together with our BoxLox to fit unusual spaces. But an effective organizational system needs to address how to organize the inside of the drawer as well. Our belief is the contents inside the drawer need to be as accessible as the drawer itself. So our system also features our BoxSort™ Upright Dividers. Unlike traditional dividers, our upright dividers do a lot more than mark the separation between different titles. They will hold your comics upright even if there are as few as 20 or 30 comics in the drawer, and can continue to do so as the drawer fills. With multiple upright dividers you are free to organize the contents of the drawer to suit your needs. The complete DrawerBox Storage System has 3 basic components: WHAT IS A "DRAWERBOX™"? If you've been collecting comics for any length of time and have more than a few hundred comics in your collection, chances are you have seen the old-fashioned "long boxes". They've been the standard storage container box for comics for over 20 years. There are a couple of different brands, but all long boxes load from the top and have lids. A number of years ago, because of the weight involved in lifting long boxes, some manufacturers came out with a smaller version, typically known as a short box. Like its bigger brother, it has a lid and is filled from the top. But both styles suffer from the same disadvantage, namely that if you stack the boxes on top of each other you need to constantly keep lifting boxes to get into the ones at the bottom of the pile. Worse, if you stack them more than 3 or 4 high, you run the risk of the boxes crushing, possibly damaging the valuable comics inside since they were never designed to be stacked. There has to be a better way. And now there is! "DrawerBoxes™" are storage boxes designed to fill from the end rather than the top. They are actually a two-part container, consisting of an outside shell that provides support and a drawer that slides out of the shell from the end. This eliminates the need to repeatedly move boxes to get to the contents of the box at the bottom of the stack since all of the boxes can be opened just like a filing cabinet. And the shells are made of extra durable cardboard, reinforced in such a way that they will support much more weight than the old-fashioned long boxes. Yet, because each box is separate and has handles on either end, they are just as portable. DrawerBoxes™ can be stacked in any configuration you want and every comic in each drawer remains accessible. You can even remove the drawer in the box at the bottom of the stack and leave the rest of the boxes in place while you peruse your collection. This unique design means that you can gain more storage space per square foot than was previously possible. It also means you won't have to lift another box again to find a comic. HOW BIG ARE THEY? Long DrawerBoxes™ are 9" wide and 26" deep, a little shorter than a long box. This both enables them to fit in areas where most long boxes are too long to fit and reduces the weight of the drawer so they are not as burdensome to pull open or close. Short DrawerBoxes are 9" wide and 18" deep, a little longer than other "short boxes" to maximize the number of comics that can be stored in each unit. Both lengths are 13 3/16" tall, so even dividers with tabs and Mylars will fit in them. They are made of heavy-duty white corrugated cardboard and there is a pull opening on the front of each drawer to facilitate opening the drawer. The ends of the drawers around the handles are made with four layers of cardboard - a very important feature since the ends of typical long and short boxes are made with only one layer of cardboard that will not last with repeated pulling when filled with comics. Because each box uses considerably more cardboard than a long box, one unit weighs almost 5 pounds. Each long DrawerBox™ holds approximately 235 bagged and boarded comics and each short DrawerBox holds approximately 145 bagged and boarded comics, depending, of course, on the number of pages in the comic. They will hold both Modern Age and Silver Age comics with boards. They will also hold Mill Cases ™. Oh, and did we mention that each box comes with four Upright Dividers? HOW STRONG ARE THEY? For the DrawerBoxes™ to work, they have to withstand two types of stress: They have to be strong enough to hold up over long periods of time under other boxes loaded with comics. To accomplish this, we especially manufacture our own weight of cardboard to make it the heaviest board used in any comic storage container. The shell is further strengthened by a double wall construction. The drawers also have to withstand pulling from the front when the unit is opened. Keep in mind that a full drawer weighs as much as 50#. We accomplish this by featuring four layers of cardboard around the handle portion on the front of the drawer. Regular long and short boxes typically have only one, or possibly two, layers of board on the ends. We have found that over a period of time this is not enough support to withstand repeated opening and closing without bending and tearing. The drawers are further designed with tabs that will warn you when the drawer is pulled to its fullest extent, so you do not accidentally open it too far and spill its contents on the floor. Unlike many long and short boxes made today, the drawers are also made with a "solid bottom" design, so it cannot fall out, emptying its contents if it is removed from its shell. WILL THEY REALLY DO WHAT YOU SAY THEY WILL? You bet they will! The boxes are strong enough to be stacked six (6) boxes high when completely filled with comics. And with the use of BoxLox Box Anchors, the sides of the shells are bound together so they will even provide support for each other. Do not be fooled by manufacturers that tell you their boxes are made with "heavy duty" 200# or 250# cardboard. That is the same material that is used in old-fashioned long and short boxes, which fails over time when stacked 3 or 4 high. DrawerBoxes are the strongest boxes made for comics by anyone. Period. Should you be using anything less for your collection? We do encourage you to use good judgment when building your arrangement. Anything can tip over when stacked tall enough. For stability we suggest either stacking them against a wall and arranging them with at least one more in the number of rows going across as they are stacked high. That is, if you stack them 3 high we suggest stacking them at least 4 across. By the way, a stack of 12 boxes will hold over 2,800 comics in just over 5 square feet of floor space, with every comic at your fingertips. Let's see you do that with a long box! O.K! O.K.! YOU TALKED ME INTO IT. HOW MUCH ARE THEY? Long DrawerBoxes™ retail through this web-site for $13.00 each plus shipping. But, to get the best value for the shipping cost, we suggest a 5-pack case. If you order 5 we will give you a discounted price of $49.75 plus shipping. That works out to only $9.95 plus shipping per box. A pack of 5 Short DrawerBoxes are $43.75 plus, shipping, which works out to $8.75 each plus shipping. They are also available in select stores around the country, with more stores being added all the time. Please see our store locator for a list of locations.	WHAT ARE BOXSORT™ UPRIGHT DIVIDERS? Every collector has encountered the frustration of comics flopping over when a long or short box is only partially filled. When this happens, your comics run the risk of developing stress cracks along the spine from being bent. And in extreme situations, the entire comic can become permanently bent, even with backing boards, due to the weight of 50 or 100 comics lying on top of it for a period of time. One solution is to always keep boxes as full as possible. But that creates another problem when you want to file new issues, only to find the box is too full for them to fit. Even more time is then required to shift comics from one box to another to create more space. And who hasn't struggled with thumbing through a tightly packed box to find a particular issue? BoxSort Upright Dividers make keeping your collection organized easier than ever by solving these problems. All of our DrawerBoxes include four (4) upright dividers. When used with our optional BoxSort rails, you can keep any quantity of comics standing upright in the box. Slip an upright divider into the front slot and even as few as ten comics will stand upright, keeping them safe from damage and making them easy to thumb through. As the box fills, simply move the upright divider back to create more room. Want to keep several titles in the same drawer? Traditional dividers only mark the point at which one run ends and the next begins. But upright dividers can even be used to create sections or pockets for each title, each with enough space that they can easily be thumbed through. Or use multiple dividers to leave gaps between titles so you have room for each title to grow. They can even be used to block out the very back of the drawer if you prefer not to use that space. As you organize your collection, the possibilities are endless, forever eliminating shoving comics back and forth in the drawer. Don't need the BoxSort system in a drawer? The extensions on our upright dividers are perforated so they can even be used as a regular divider. But honestly, we aren't sure why you would want to once you experience the advantages of the BoxSort system. Note that you can order rails for only the number of drawers that you feel need them. HOW MUCH WIDTH DO THEY TAKE UP? Even with the BoxSort rails and upright dividers in place, you will still have 7 ¼" of usable space, wide enough for all Modern Age storage products and most Silver Age products. We even have an ultra-thin upright divider available on request for our customers should you find some Silver Age products are a little snug. CAN I USE THE BOXSORT UPRIGHT DIVIDER SYTEM ON MY OLDER DRAWERBOXES? You bet! We believe that it is very important that we never make our products obsolete with new improvements. Retrofit kits are available for both long and short DrawerBoxes. These kits include both the BoxSort rails and our thin upright dividers.