HOW TO MAKE A RIKER MOUNT® WALL DISPLAY

by Ray Hill

Here's a neat way to display your Riker Mount boxes in a grouping to make a nice wall display. I recently put 21 of the 8 x 12 Riker boxes up in my office to show off part of my collection. It was easy to make and easy to put up. You may want to try something like this.

I took one ten foot 2 x 4 and cut four rails that are shaped like a letter "T". I mounted them to the wall, being sure that I ran brass screws into the studs in the wall and slid my display cases in from the end.

I started by taking the 2 x 4 and ripping it on my table saw into two pieces that are 1-1/2" x 1-1/2". Then I cut to the length I wanted; for mine I cut them to span four studs in the wall with 6" left over at each end, making the rails 60" long. After I cut the four rails 1-1/2" by 1-1/2" by 60", I then ripped them on the table saw to form them into a letter "T", to make a track that the boxes could slide into.

Here's a hand sketch of the track or rail that I made. I did all four of the 1-1/2" by 1-1/2" pieces like this.

After I had made the four rails, I pre-drilled the screw holes so the wood wouldn't split when I bolted them to the wall. I measured 6" from one end of the 60" long rail and drilled a 1/8" hole. Then I measured 16", the space between the studs in the wall, and drilled another hole. Then two more holes at 16" spacing, leaving 6" at the other end. I then spray painted the rails black to match the Riker Mount frames and let them dry.

Here's a close-up of the end of one of the rails showing what it looks like. I used 2-1/4" brass screws to mount the rails to the wall.

Here's a shot of me sliding one of the Riker Mounts in-between the rails.

And here's a shot of the completed display.

The Riker Mounts I used are three-quarters of an inch deep, so only small specimens will fit in these frames. If you want to try making a display like this and your specimens are larger than ¾" you will need to use a 1" frame or even 1-1/2". Then, obviously you will need to make larger rails for your display with larger cut-outs to accommodate the larger frames. You can even put the small white fold up specimen boxes inside your Riker Mounts to hold larger specimens and still put the covers on the boxes.

This wasn't a difficult project.  You can do it too.

Ray Hill
Great South Gems & Minerals, Inc.
www.greatsouth.net
888-933-GEMS

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