Display Cases

[Knuckles930]

Hello everyone,

Normally I'm active on the DDR sub-forum, but I thought I would share this
with everyone at the appropriate forum.

Today I finished two display cases I've been working on for a few days.



For these I used the Ribba from IKEA, they come in 25x25 and 52x52.



The one's I used where the smaller 25x25 ones.

[Knuckles930]

So for anyone who is interested in building one, I took some photos
while building the one on the right in the previous post.

For materials I used the following:



A sheet of 1mm Forex, but any type of thicker cardboard should do also.
A roll of foam for padding and a roll of white cotton as backing.

For tools:



Scissors, knife, pencil, ruler, triangle, some tape and double coated tape,
spool of fishing wire, a pricker and a cutting board.

[Knuckles930]

After you opened the frame pack, start getting an idea of how you want
to put everything in the display. The paper is useful for that. Don't forget that there is a box frame.



The passe-partout is useful for cutting the replacement materials.



Some foam might be more easy to cut with the blade fully out and
cutting with a small angle.



For the cotton leave a few centimetres on the side to fold over
towards the back later.



To make sure sides are divided equally, you might want to put some marks.

[Knuckles930]

Use the double coated tape on the Forex or cardboard to paste the foam on it.



If your planning to pin medals on there, it becomes more easy if you keep the
placing in mind, so your not pinning them over the tape.

The end result should look something like this:



Flip the board over and put tape on only the edges, this will be for the cotton.

[Knuckles930]

Not as clearly visible as I had hoped, but at this point trace the general
layout of your display, this will help you locate the places where you have
to puncture the backing.





The pricker can help fully piercing the board and widen the holes.

[Knuckles930]

And than comes the fun part of preparing the fishing wire. Using a needle is
almost a must, since even than, it can still be hard to find the hole.



After inserting the wanted item, tie the back ends.



The front should come out something like this:

[Knuckles930]

Items with metal prongs on the back are much more easy to place, just like
screw cap badges.



Simply push the prongs into the paper, until they leave a mark onto the cotton.
Than pierce the left marks.

The front should end up like this:



And the back like this:

[Knuckles930]

By now it might be time to fix the corners of the back side of the cotton.



A little bar of tape on one side, cut the top and fold together.

[Knuckles930]

And now comes the real tricky part. Non Destructive fastening.
I once bought a batch of shoulderboards with a lot of them traces
of glue bars on the back. Some still stick together.

So we start with planning the holes for the wire. Tracing the boards
and planning the holes below the boards should give a end result like this:



I tried to plan the wire to run with certain parts of the boards to hide
the wire slightly better. Thus the one on the right runs with the curves.



The red spots show the wire's direction and the crosses the
puncture holes. The circles at the top are the button holes, which I
plan to change to actual buttons when I get some more.

[Knuckles930]

It makes things a bit more easy to start from the middle (button hole)
outward. Keep the wire below for last.



At the back tie them together, make sure you fasten them tight and straight
at the front side. Usually when you tie them, because its fishing wire, they end
up slightly more lose. Also don't use the same hole twice for the same wire. Cross
them over to secure the board better.

Once tied, its a good idea to secure them with a piece of tape.

[Knuckles930]

The end result should look something like this:



And something like this at the back:



You can discard the paper place holder and the passe-partout. Assemble the
rest. Don't forget to move the hanger at the back towards the middle. By default it's in the top left corner.



And here is the end result:



If you have any questions, feel free to reply or PM.

[Frank K]

Thaks for the tip and the detailed how-to instructions

Believe I'll look for a couple of Ribba cases the next time in Ikea.

[Bernie Brule]

Thanks for the detailed how to's.

[Mooyman]

Very nice job!!

[Sebastien T]

Look awesome, very nice