Relocation

[Phil_K]

Getting ready to relocate to the south (Alabama) and get away from winter. Has anyone gone through a long distance move - how do I handle the large tool? any ideas would be appreciated. Using commercial movers.

[garagemark]

Get your wallet out. Heavy, delicate tool moving = big bucks!

[GKman]

I read somewhere that some moving companies drop off a shipping container, you fill it, they haul it, you unload it. Five thousand pound mill, wife's china, your golf clubs....

[agrip]

Part of the shopping experience for choosing movers is talking to slick sales people tell you euphemistically how good their people are.

There is no free lunch in the freight business. That's what movers are with the eupheyak removed.

Movers are handling a lot of stuff with hiring "hall" (or day labor) swampers.

You can hire professional packers to pack stuff for you. Wont be cheap.

Because no one will appreciate what you appreciate quite as well as you do, I suggest you do your own crate work, because if whatever it is is heavy and tippy it wont survive a trip without damage unless it IS put into a condition that it CAN be handled carelessly, without damage.

Really heavy stuff had better have slots under it for fork trucks, and all that may imply.

Good luck Ag

[randyjaco]

I moved from southern California to Houston TX in 2005. After doing my research I found it was cheaper to put my machine tools in the moving van. I just palletized them and rented a fork lift on each end to load and unload. My tooling and misc. valuable junk I moved in U-Haul trailers. The move was really pretty easy. The moving company had no qualms about hauling the tools, didn't have to worry about them getting caught in the rain and weather. The important thing was coordinating the fork lifts on each end. Waiting for them to arrive does cost you money.

[Oldbrock]

moving on the cheap

When I moved all my machine tools from Alberta to BC my friend had a car carrier trailer, wooden deck. He very kindly offered to help load them on the trailer and drive to BC with me following in the van. Helps to maintain good friends and do freebees for them. Peter

[Bruce Griffing]

I have moved several times using a private family moving company. They are much more flexible than the van lines. They moved my machine tools as discussed above, but I provided the forklift at both ends. Cheaper and easier.

[lynnl]

What part of Ala. are you moving to, Phil?

One of the advantages of a military career was getting to learn the packing and loading techniques from the Gov't provided professional packers and movers.

During that period I only had woodworking tools/machines, but I always prepared and packed most of that ahead of the moving date. dismantling as much as possible the larger machines, e.g. tablesaw, radial saw, etc.. Since damages were gov't insured, beyond a small minumum, per pound carrier responsibility, I always felt the carrier people had nowhere near the interest in avoiding damage that I did. But, as I recall I never had any damages to that kind of stuff. ...only furniture (wooden) and fragile (glass, etc.) items.

Nevertheless, I'd start with consulting the mover you've selected. They'll want to know ahead of time, of any large heavy items such as lathe, mill, shaper, or even piano, that requires special equiptment to handle.

[Phil_K]

Thanks everyone! I appreciate it. It's about what I thought anyway. We're moving from, just south of Boston to Centre, Al. Time to get back to real people.

[oldtiffie]

Ask Harold aka hwingo

Why not PM "hwingo" (Harold) as he has (had) moved all of his stuff (there is a lot of it) several times from and to all over the USA and Alaska as part of his job.

[doctor demo]

Getting ready to relocate to the south (Alabama) and get away from winter. Has anyone gone through a long distance move - how do I handle the large tool? any ideas would be appreciated. Using commercial movers.

ABF Frieght Lines will drop off a trailer that You can load with almost anything , when it is loaded they hook up to it and take it to where ever You want. IIRC You get three days to load and after that You pay more.

Pods is a outfit that drops off a container that You fill, etc.

I have no experiance with Pods just see em from time to time.

I helped a close friend move from Ca to Ark and used Abf and at the time it was the most reasonable choice.

Steve