Secure pen trays

[MY63]

I have two friends who are pen dealers they both have day jobs but spend their weekends travelling to pen shows. One travels to Europe the other travels the world.
Unfortunately the second guy has had a tray of pens stolen at a large pen in the USA.

sarj by my0771, on Flickr

This is a devastating loss for him, As you may have seen I am developing a system of trays that stack for these guys. I am not going to get rich from this but they are friends and my costs are covered but now as well as stacking I need to find a way to stop someone walking off with a whole tray.

My first thought was to drill two holes on the long sides of the trays and thread a stainless steel wire through essentially fastening groups of trays together and allowing them to be fastened to the table they are sitting on. I may need to add some sort of tube to help the wire get through the sides of the tray.

This is how six look together

2020-02-09_09-49-14 by my0771, on Flickr

For larger shows he may need 12 to 18 trays to hold all of his stock.

My question is am I overthinking this is there an easier way to do this weight will be an issue stainless wire may be swapped for something like para cord.
Any ideas would be appreciated.

 

[StevieB]

rare earth magnets in the sides of each tray to attach them to each other?

 

[9fingers]

If some tea-leaf can make off with a whole trayful then presumably these must have been quickly decanted into a bag or large pocket to avoid being seen by others.

I'd be thinking of some sort of tilt alarm built into each tray that could only be disabled by a strategically placed magnet during transit.

Another magnet based idea would be a large disc neodymium magnet secured to the under side of each tray and steel areas (or a second magnet set into the table top. The strength of these magnets mean that the only easy option to part them is by sliding sideways and attempts to lift them off vertically, even if possible, would lead to the pens being displaced from the tray and attracting attention.


Bob

Edit: SteviB beat me to it with a related magnet idea

 

[Robert]

If your lash round the table idea could be adapted to use a 1" tie down or ratchet strap like I use on the car roof bars it would take care of the tensioning and securing problems too.

Wire rope isn't that heavy so weight isn't as issue but it is not friendly stuff to handle so securing might be a problem.

Amazon

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Silverline-566 ... B01AM8MIS6

or

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Silverline-449 ... 003H0YMSQ/

Light fingers don't just take one pen out of a tray and make off with it then?

 

[MY63]

As far as I know single pen losses from shows are not uncommon but it would be lower value items from the periphery high value pens tend to be right in front of the seller.

DC+Pen+Show by my0771, on Flickr

This might give you an idea of what a pen show looks like this is a US show which tend to be 3 or 4 days long English ones are single day affairs.

When I run a retail outfit some years ago we had wire cables to secure our range of laptops those ratchet straps might be a little on the large side.
My current plan is to use 6mm MDF which I will laminate (as suggested on the other thread) to save me hours routing. I know high end pens deserve hardwood but it is too heavy and quite expensive compared to MDF.

Magnets are a good idea

 

[AndyP]

If security is that much of a problem I would of thought something like this would be a better way of transporting, displaying and securing the pens. It would easy enough to put a lock on the lid and surely its size would deter theft. Size might have to be adjusted for the pens and to fit into hold baggage for airline travel.

https://www.storesupply.com/pc-12031-49 ... 22101.aspx

 

[MY63]

Sorry for the delay in responding Andy those enclosed trays are not liked by pen dealers the sizes are wrong for hand luggage. Also I don't think they like the lids. I am working on a couple of possible designs.