Moving a Mercury/Pinnacle laser

[Tom Majewski]

Hi all,
Got a great new job 3 hours away so we're selling the house and moving.
The company is paying for movers to move all the household items and I'm not sure how to make the laser mover safe. I put hard foam on the bed and raised it up until it pinched tight, put the head at 0-0 and zip-tied it secure, and then I will tape about 3 layers of corrugated board to the top to protect the plexi lid.
Any other suggestions are most welcome. My other option is to move it myself in my pickup, standing upright and strapped down.

Thanks,
Tom

[Dee Gallo]

Hi Tom,

I don't know if this helps, but I took a picture of mine when it arrived before I unpacked it so I would know what to do if I ever had to repack it.

The bed was all the way down, there was a zip tie on the head holding it to the 0/0 side. The box in the center held accessories and the foam on the sides was just wedged in there. The door was taped closed.

The whole thing was in a box with shaped foam pieces so it wouldn't shift around. Then it was in a second box.

cheers, dee

[Dave Johnson29]

I don't know if this helps, but I took a picture of mine when it arrived before I unpacked it so I would know what to do if I ever had to repack it.

Dee, you are my hero. I usually think I should have taken a pic when I am about to pack it!

[Dee Gallo]

And I almost didn't post this picture because I though you guys would laugh at me. Or are you?

[Tom Majewski]

Thanks Dee,

Here's the best part...
After keeping the wood packing crate in the garage for 2 years, I got tired of tripping over it, so I cut it up and threw it out this past summer.

[John W. Love]

Hey Tom, Last year we bought a new house and moved about 40 miles. I have a Mercury/Pinnacle laser as well. We followed a lot of the same procedures you are describing. We zipped tied the head and then packed foam inside. We lowered the bed as that was how it was shipped to us originally. I placed a piece of thick cardboard over the top and then wrapped it in bubblewrap and then covered with a tarp just to protect the lid. I placed the laser at the front of the truck to avoid any unnecesary jostling. Make sure that nothing is stacked on top of it, or that anything could accidently fall on it. The biggest challenge was unloading it, as it weighs about 400 lbs I believe, and we had to ease it down the ramp and into our garage. Gravity tried to overtake us, but in the end we won. To ensure that it eased down the ramp, we tied a rope around the bottom of the laser and then ran it through two pulleys allowing two of us to ease it down the ramp while a third person held the rope and doled out the length to allow for a smooth ride to its new home.

Once it was set up we went through the process of making sure the mirrors were aligned properly and that the laser fired. We ran the diagonistic procedures that were in the orignal manual (think this was on a cd). Everything worked fine. Thankfully we didnt have to move across the country, but In reality I think the packing preperation, and then the care of loading and unloading were of the utmost importance in the safe move.
I am sure that if you check with your sells rep he can provide more useful information in the proper packing that will insure a safe and happy move for you baby.

[Frank Corker]

Dee mine was packed in exactly the same way as your picture. When I moved my machine from the small upstairs bedroom to my cabin, I put everything back in the same way. Gentle handling and a lot of heartbeating but no damage. I would only suggest you pack it like a baby and check it every couple of hours to see if it needs feeding.

[Mike Null]

Both of the machines I've had had removeable carriages. On delivery we installed the carriage and rolled the machine to it's location in the basement.

I would remove the carriage if your machine has one then I would put it on a pallet or other support to cushion it from the bed of the truck.

[Richard Rumancik]

Tom, I'd probably remove the laser tube and pack it separately, maybe transport it in a "cushioned" condition so it doesn't get bounced around. It is not that difficult to remove the tube; a bit of hassle perhaps. You will likely have to re-align from scratch anyway after transport so this won't add a lot of extra work. Removing the tube also makes the machine a few pounds lighter.

[Mike Burroughs]

Hmmmm, I had to move mine 2 times. Only about 10 miles each time. (long story). Being new to the whole laser thing at the time, I just dropped the table all the way down and made sure the 'head' was at 0,0. Thats all. Loaded it in a cargo trailor and off I went. Now that I've read these post I'm thinking 'WOW' suprised I didn't end up with any serious problems. But, at this time everything seems to be working just fine, other than user error..

mike.