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re: STAMPLIFT Box

Yes it works fine. I have been using it for over 60 years. Put water in cover and in box, drain it out so it is wet. Place stamp with paper against holes & close cover. Let sit for about half hour, remove cover, remove stamp, and just peel paper from stamp. Original gum should be on back of stamp, Place gum side on plastic cover away from words STAMPLIFT, and in a few minutes stamps should just pop off, with full gum remaining. Stamps may curl, so flatten them out.
Never tried it with self-stick, so have no idea if it will work there.
Please contact me at rgnpcs@optonline.net
Richaard

members.ebay.com/abo ...

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re: STAMPLIFT Box

Sweat Box


Build Your Own Stamp Sweat Box

Stamp Collecting with GS

Sometimes soaking isn't the solution. Sometimes it's best


to let humidity work on the glue before you try

to remove
a hinge remnant or separate a mint stamp stuck to

another
stamp or an album page. The same trick works for

getting
stamps off envelopes whose inks you know will

discolor the
stamp when placed in water.

If you live in a hot, humid area you could

experiment with
exposing your stamps to the elements, but for

most of us
the answer is a sweat box. It's simply an

airtight container
with a couple of sponges and a cradle to keep the

stamps
from coming into direct contact with the sponges.

The basic idea is to raise the humidity in the

sweat box so
that it dampens the stamp's gum just enough to

loosen the
stamp from whatever it's stuck on without

saturating the
stamp or the paper, or diluting the gum.

The basic parts of the sweat box are

1. A small air tight container. (picture #1) A

small, clear
plastic disposable air-tight food container works

well. The
smaller the container, the quicker the humidy

rises. If it's
clear you can check on the stamp's progress

without opening
the container, which would then also drop the

humidity.

2. A clean, never-used sponge or two to hold the

water
moisture. (picture #5) Two clean kitchen sponges

are fine.
You can try this out with what you have in the

kitchen, but
if you want to keep your sweat box working,

you'll want to
replace them with never-used sponges.

3. A screen on which the stamp on piece rests. I

used a plastic
basket that stores sell strawberries in. (picture

#1) I then
trimmed the sides down low enough to fit between

the two
sponges.

4. Spacers (picture #4) These raise the screen

above the bottom
sponge and must be non-porous, plastic, metal or

cork. I used
two bottle caps, but now use two pieces from a

backgammon set.

To put together a your own homemade sweat box

read the
following and refer to the pictures.

1. Soak the bottom sponge in water. Wring it out

so that it is
still heavy and wet with water but not dripping

and place it
on the bottom of your box.

2. Affix the top sponge to the center of your

box's top lid with
two push pins as shown in picture #2.

3. Soak the top sponge in water and wring it out

so that it is
still heavy and wet with water but not dripping.

4. Now trim your screen so that it will fit

between the upper
and lower sponge. See picture #3.

5. Place your two spacers on top of the bottom

sponge and
rest your screen on top of it. See picture #4

6. When finished and set up, it looks something

like this. See
picture #5. In a while, depending on the sponge

water, the
size of the box, ambient temperature, humidity

and sunlight
on the box, water droplets will form on the sides

of the box.

7. I cut a wine cork into ½" thicknesses and used

them to
cover the sharp ends of the push pins holding the

top sponge
in place on the cover.

The object of the sweat box is to have the

humidity in the
box seep through the paper and loosen the stamp's

gum, but
remember paper and gum interact in different ways
depending on the age of the paper, the age and

condition
of the gum and the humidity.

Self-adhesive stamps can be sweated off, but what

happens
with a SA stamp is that the binder layer

dissolves separating
the top paper layer from the bottom adhesive

layer so that
you can't save the stamp with its adhesive.

And if you think stronger measures are necessary,

just give
the sweat box more time to work. Remember "STEAM

is
EXTREME."

With a little experience and patience most glues

finally break
down under the humidity. Expect a gummed stamp to

take 30
minutes to loosen from paper, and gummed mint

stamps a bit
longer to release from each other.

posted by Audio Ebook Emporium | 4:51 PM

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re: STAMPLIFT Box

I notice that Subway has a Stamplift box for $6.95 but don't know what the shipping charges would be.
Larry

mengel419
27 Feb 2013
01:17:14pm

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re: STAMPLIFT Box

A somewhat simpler do-it-yourself stamplift box:

Take a small plastic deli container and two lids. Place a hot-water soaked sponge (with some additional hot water) in the bottom. Poke lots of little holes in the lid and close the container with it. Take your stamps and place them on that lid (gum side down works better). Place the second lid on top. Place something heavy on that lid to make it airtight.

Then--wait a couple of hours. Check it occasionally, perhaps re-heat the water/sponge. You should then be able to CAREFULLY remove the stuck stamps from paper or from each other. You can flatten them after they dry.

Experiment first with some cheap stamps. I've done this several times and it works--and you save $15.

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re: STAMPLIFT Box

Not mention having recycled stamps AND a plastic container. One's first stuck stamps ought to be green to celebrate.

juicyheads.com/link. ...

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re: STAMPLIFT Box

Here's a picture from an on-line supply company:



This device is made up of three pieces of plastic that form an airtight box with a perforated center tray (where you place the stamp) and two pieces of felt (inside top and bottom) that are soaked with water. Taken together when moistened, you have an airtight humidity chamber that allows you (if you have lots of patience) to carefully remove stamps from paper and at the same time retain most of the original gum. With this device you can remove unused stamps stuck on paper and turn them into almost mint. You can take stamps covered with hinge pieces and turn these also into almost mint. With a lot of practice, I have seen people make gum thins disappear (not paper thins) and the stamps appear almost mint. The drawbacks to this device are that lifted stamps are never really quite what they were when they were sold at the PO, and lifting stamps is very slow and time consuming. In addition, unless you are VERY careful, you can very easily ruin a lot of presentable stamps. In any event, the Stamp Lift is a good investment for almost any collector, except those in a hurry. I use my Stamp Lift to salvage stuck down mint stamps from collections that I buy. I also use it occasionally to remove hinge build up on old stamps. You MUST practice with this tool, and you cannot walk away and forget that there is something in it. Leaving stamps in the lift will cause the gum to run into the paper resulting in a terminal mess. It often takes almost an hour to loosen a stamp. In addition, you should pull only one stamp out of the tray at a time, and you need to work fast for the stamps dry a lot quicker than you would think. After you have separated the stamp from whatever, place it gum side down on the lid where there is no printing. It will pop free when it is dry.

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re: STAMPLIFT Box

Bought one from Subway. The sponge under the grid dissolved on the second day of use. I called Subway and they are sending me a replacement box. Apparently, the sponge dissolving is quite common. I don't think I would recommend it as purchase.

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re: STAMPLIFT Box

Unfortunately, this sponge that dissolved was under the grid. Do you know how to take the grid off and replace the dissolved sponge.

A Service Dog gives a person with a disability independence. Never approach, distract or pet a working dog, especially when (s)he is in harness. Never be afraid to ask questions to the handler (parent).
12 Mar 2013
09:01:58pm

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re: STAMPLIFT Box

Terry -

You just gave me another doctorate to aim for! LOL

Kelly

drkellyfleming.ca

The past is a foreign country, they do things different there.
21 Mar 2013
12:54:31am

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re: STAMPLIFT Box

Terry:

Formidable!

I'm constructing one as I write.

John Derry

parklanemews@gmail.c ...

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re: STAMPLIFT Box

Thanks Terry.

I will try to earn my doctorate. Subway sent me the new box, but so far I have been afraid to use it. Now that I know how to remove the grid, I am less hesitant to use it. I also have Super Safe Stamp Lift fluid which I primarily use to remove hinges.

Silence in the face of adversity is the father of complicity and collusion, the first cousins of conspiracy..
30 Mar 2013
02:34:05am

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re: STAMPLIFT Box

Warm, but not hot. Just enough to create a humid climate similar to South Miami in August.

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re: STAMPLIFT Box

Actually that would be 95 F., with a humidity of 99.9%. So as opposed to the "DRY" heat some brag about, this is definitely a "WET" heat, so wear Scuba gear.

Silence in the face of adversity is the father of complicity and collusion, the first cousins of conspiracy..
30 Mar 2013
08:25:10pm

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re: STAMPLIFT Box

Oh yes, Lisa, humidity and a few minutes will "sweat" the stamps loose.

And thus the name of the game; "Sweatbox'.

APS #222602 and Internet Philatelic Dealers Association #439
11 Jun 2013
07:19:02am

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re: STAMPLIFT Box

Well this is my something new learn today! I will put my sweatbox together and give it a try. Don't have to worry about high humidity being in SE Fl. Now a days with rainy season active, just walk outside and you've taken a shower!

Thanks for the great suggestion, everybody.

Luree

www.hipstamp.com/sto ...

It is during our darkest moments that we must focus to see the light. - Aristotle Onassis
11 Jun 2013
09:35:13am

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re: STAMPLIFT Box

If you leave stamps in a box for a long time and the humidity inside the box does not diminish at all, they will be fine. If the humidity diminishes, the stamps will re-adhere and you'll have to start over.

As long as you use barely warm water and do not create a steamy, hot box, most stamps will be fine. It takes a LONG time for most stamps to come off in a humidity chamber so patience is needed! If you make the water too hot, I would think that inks may run and you could have other problems since that environment is similar to just soaking the stamps.

I don't know about the chalky stamps. Hopefully someone else can help with that. My thought is that they will be fine because nothing is actually touching them and the box is humid, not warm.

And you're correct, ethically, you can not reuse the postage. Legally, I don't know.

lisaslunacy.com

michael78651
11 Jun 2013
01:04:12pm

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re: STAMPLIFT Box

Luree, since you're in Florida, you can wait for a Hurricane to come through. That'll soak your stamps and they'll easily come off the paper after the storm passes!

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re: STAMPLIFT Box

Don't know where are puffin2, but at this location we got 2 3/4" rain early last week, followed by 1 3/4" last Friday and another 3" yesterday/last night. I think I'm beginning to mildew....
Roger