Scrapbooking Experts / Archiving & Storing Printed Material

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Can the CycleChat collective mind suggest a suitable solution to a problem that's been bugging me for a while?

I have a collection of motor racing memorabilia that I've been putting together since 1987 - a mix of newspaper clippings, race reports, race programmes, magazines, posters, photographic prints of various sizes, smaller sundries and artwork.

It's current home is an arch lever file, most items kept individually in A4 archive wallets. The reason for the arch lever file is not just that I happen to have a lot of bits, but that it's easier to add new stuff to a collection kept in chronological order.

But the file is both battered and overflowing to the point I can barely close the lever ring whachamacallits, and some of the pieces that belong in the collection (mainly magazines and posters) don't fit in A4 wallets. Cutting things down or folding to make them fit in the A4 wallets is not an option.

Now I could keep this stuff in a box, but there's no fun in that. I've been thinking about splitting across multiple folders (e.g. one for each year) and / or using A3 art folios that come with ring binders for the larger items, but this kind of defeats the point of keeping everything in one place.

Can anyone suggest something?

Does a larger-than-A4, double capacity arch lever file exist?
 

classic33

Leg End Member
There's one or two that do them
 
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Reynard

Reynard

Guru
There's one or two that do them

Thanks for the heads up xxx :hugs:

Not entirely what I'm looking for, though. Most of the stuff I have is A4 or smaller, so the odd larger item would get damaged in an A3 file. I'm looking for something that is probably only a couple of inches or so wider than A4 at most - assuming that sort of thing exists.

Although that search did throw up Jumbo arch levers which take 800 sheets rather than 500. That certainly solves the "overflowing file" part of the problem...
 
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Reynard

Reynard

Guru
How much of an overlap, and which way?

An inch or two extra widthways should do it (perpendicular to the arch). No more than that. I'd also need the archive wallets as well.

Irritatingly, the older copies of Autosport aren't A4 - they're printed on 302mm x 220mm. :banghead:Although having said that, the standard A4 archive wallets are too tight a fit for the current editions of Autosport as well - which *are* printed A4 size...
 
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classic33

Leg End Member
There's the file holders "sealed" on two sides only. Slightly larger than A4. About an inch on the open sides.
 

slowmotion

Quite dreadful
Location
lost somewhere
Oversized A4 lever arch files hit a raw nerve round here. I made some bookshelves and they don't fit!

Both Bantex and Esselte make versions that are larger than standard.
 
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Reynard

Reynard

Guru
Actually, this place has various different kind of expanding pockets. They also have A5 ones, which are useful for smaller items that I don't want to mount.

Not so great on arch lever files - other than A3, which I don't really want, the rest doesn't seem to give me anything different to what I already have.

What I'm already using is a foolscap file with a 75mm spine, btw.

Need to find one with a bigger spine...
 
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Reynard

Reynard

Guru
Well, it's pretty well much official - as of today, my archive has outgrown the arch lever file. Transferring to a file with an 85mm spine is pointless, so I have decided to buy one of these instead:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Really-Use...coding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=Y1ER7ZX113GRN0CD2JFT

I'll keep the individual sections bound in report wallets - which gives me the flexibility to add and move items whenever necessary.

It's a shame I can't keep everything in one file anymore - it's lived in this one since 1992, and prior to that, three exercise books. But I have to be realistic. Just need to figure out which size of box I want.

That'll probably be the 24 litre one at a minimum, because I need to make allowance for the additional binders, and it needs to be future-proof for a while.
 
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Reynard

Reynard

Guru
Still banging my head against the wall with this.

Individual binders are proving to be really problematic.The ones I can get in regular high street stationers / craft shops are either simply too flimsy for the volume of paper or the rings are too small / or on the back cover rather than on the spine. Sturdier ones with decent-sized spine mounted rings can be had, but are only available as bulk orders.

After having recently included the draft manuscript and research material for an abortive book I was working on several years ago, I'm really stuck for space, so for now will just decant part of the archive into a second arch lever file while I try and solve the binder issue.
 
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