How Should I Pack Larger Shop Items For Movers?

[Julie Moriarty]

These guys will be moving a baby grand piano too. So hopefully the shop tools won't present a challenge.

[Tim Offutt]

I didn't read the complete thread so I am not sure if this was said. Make sure to document EVERYTHING with photos, video, etc to prove the pre-ship condition. I am sure you know this, just wanted to mention it.

For large, heavy boxes and packing materials try U-line, You can order online and they have very large and heavy boxes, even wood crates. Any type of packing materials you could need and they will ship right to your house.

[Steve Milito]

I didn't read the complete thread so I am not sure if this was said. Make sure to document EVERYTHING with photos, video, etc to prove the pre-ship condition. I am sure you know this, just wanted to mention it.

For large, heavy boxes and packing materials try U-line, You can order online and they have very large and heavy boxes, even wood crates. Any type of packing materials you could need and they will ship right to your house.

Seems heretical to buy wooden crates to pack wood working tools. Just sayin'.

[William C Rogers]

Julie, one thing I did was to put color dots on the boxes. One color for the house and one for the workshop. It made it easier to tell where to tell the movers where to put the boxes.

[Val Kosmider]

When I did a corporate relo with real movers and packers they blanket-wrapped all of my bigger tools and handled it just the same way as they did the furniture and pianos. They bundled wood using film in bundles that were in the 60-80 lb range (they did have to navigate stairs with them).

This ^^^.

Assuming you are using a "real" mover...not Billy Bob's Three Guys and a Truck.....this will not be their first rodeo. They have moved everything from table saws to lathes to mortisers to multi machines...and everything in between.

Steinway piano or Powermatic Table Saw.....it is all the same to them. As suggested, YOU might wish to get things down to manageable pieces.....100 pounds or less, where possible....and then THEY will bubble wrap, blanket wrap, cardboard wrap and then plastic/shrink wrap everything so there is no chance of a scratch or other damage.

Professional movers are a pleasure to watch. You name it, and they have seen it/moved it. Moving shop tools/machines is a regular event. I moved houses a couple of years ago....including my shop tools and lumber. Everything went fine, nothing damaged/lost/injured. What YOU are sweating is an everyday occurrence for the pros. Have soft drinks, lunch and tips ready...... You'll be fine.

[Bill Ryall]

This ^^^.

Assuming you are using a "real" mover...not Billy Bob's Three Guys and a Truck.....this will not be their first rodeo. They have moved everything from table saws to lathes to mortisers to multi machines...and everything in between.

Steinway piano or Powermatic Table Saw.....it is all the same to them. As suggested, YOU might wish to get things down to manageable pieces.....100 pounds or less, where possible....and then THEY will bubble wrap, blanket wrap, cardboard wrap and then plastic/shrink wrap everything so there is no chance of a scratch or other damage.

Professional movers are a pleasure to watch. You name it, and they have seen it/moved it. Moving shop tools/machines is a regular event. I moved houses a couple of years ago....including my shop tools and lumber. Everything went fine, nothing damaged/lost/injured. What YOU are sweating is an everyday occurrence for the pros. Have soft drinks, lunch and tips ready...... You'll be fine.

^^^ This. Especially the part about drinks, lunch and tips. Never underestimate the power of a box of assorted donuts or a tray of sandwiches.

I just moved 3/4 of my woodshop 1400 miles. I have used professional movers in the past, but this time I did it myself. Having the movers move my shop would have cost 2x the rest of the house move just because of weight...

I shrink wrapped the wood into manageable bundles. I took all the machines off their mobile bases, shrink-wrapped anything loose and tried to keep the box with harfware attached to the machine it came from. In the truck, I used shipping blankets to cover and wrap all the stationary tools. For hardware and hand tools without their own individual cases and loose stuff, I bought flip-top bins and labeled each one with the contents prior to zip tying it shut. The movers were impressed with my shop machine prep/packing when they came to load the rest of the house. Asked me if I had been a professional mover in the past. Hired a couple bodies on each end to load and unload.

I however, have a lot of my own moving stuff- couple dozen heavy moving blankets, several furniture dollies, a couple appliance dollies and hand trucks, since I do a fair amount of big, heavy commercial specialty furniture.

[Mark Patoka]

I've done a few military moves and only had a few large equipment pieces during those times. Pretty much echo what everyone else has said. Box up all the loose pieces and parts as they will get lost if you leave them on. The truck loaders know what they are doing and will pack stuff around your large tools to optimize truck space and protect the tools as best as possible. They even wanted me to leave my workbench assembled since it created the perfect stacking space in the truck.

Where you will have the most problems, and this happened to us, is because you are not doing a door-to-door move, but having to store in a warehouse. The warehouse guys that load up the truck to bring it to your final place will NOT be the same guys that pack the semi-truck for the long-haul move. That happened to us and the warehouse guys just basically threw everything into a semi-trailer, did not pack it in properly, so they could get it to our house and unloaded. That's the only time I had more stuff broken or lost, mostly household furniture items, than any other move. The warehouse guys and local delivery guys for this particular place were not the best. The long-haul shipper guys did their job well but once it got to the warehouse, it's not in their control anymore. If you can, have the shipper crate it up and then maybe the crates can be stored whole, not all your stuff loaded/unloaded multiple times as separate items.

[Alan Rutherford]

I'd be nervous about letting the movers touch anything they had not packed if it can possibly break. And as someone said, they pack the truck to the gills. They don't like things that won't let them do that.

You're also going to pay by the pound for the actual weight unless your contract is different. Not the estimate. The last move we did with movers cost 50 cents/pound. Some stuff isn't worth it.

Anything you can put on a pallet can go separately by a LTL (less-than-truckload) shipper and some of them are a pleasure to work with.

Our last move was with UPack. They gave us an empty 29-foot trailer and we filled (and paid for) the front 19 feet of it. They bulkheaded that off and did whatever they wanted with the rest of the space until the trailer showed up on the other side of the country and then they parked it for two months until we were ready for it, very reasonably. If you could do something like that - or one of those moving pod things - with your shop stuff, it might be cheaper, safer, and little or no additional work.

[Edit: One important thing about UPack and some similar systems is you pay for VOLUME, not WEIGHT. That can make a huge difference.]

[Julie Moriarty]

Two moves and a storage in between are going to cost us about $1.00/lb. It's surprising how much stuff isn't worth $1.00/lb. Family, friends and neighbors have been the recipients of some of that stuff. The garbage man, the rest.

Right now I've got over 70 boxes and bundles ready to go. There will probably be another 10-15 before I'm done. Movers are coming Friday. It's going to be a close finish. The shop is starting to echo.

[Jim Dwight]

We moved using professional movers (company, not me paid) from Philadelphia to Kansas City to Omaha to Pittsburgh and finally to Lexington, SC. I was gradually accumulating tools along the way but still don't have nearly what you have. I never worried about the tools other than them possibly going missing. I don't think I ever lost anything. My late wife supervised these moves. She watched them pack and load each box or other item on the truck. My tools were treated the same as the furniture. We had some damage in every move but not to my tools. They survived fine. It probably helped that none were terribly heavy. I think the riskiest item would be something heavy or otherwise hard for them to manage with something fragile about it. They were careful but when it's just plain hard to move something it is harder to be gentle at the same time.

The last move I hired a couple guys and a truck to move the big stuff but moved all my tools myself. First into storage and later into the new shop. They survived that too. I was much less careful but was only going about 10 miles so that helped.

Anything you can do to organize the boxes will help. There will be several people wanting to load at the same time and unload at the same time. So dots on the box and/or clearly written destination will help you a lot. Otherwise you will have to double move things. It is also great to know what must go in the house immediately and what can go into the garage to be unloaded later. It isn't realistic IMHO to think everything can get into its home on move in day. We always planned to have beds set up and clothes in bedrooms, hopefully in dressers, and basic kitchen stuff in the kitchen. But the garage was full of boxes when the movers left and it was a couple weeks until it was empty of boxes. My late wife liked that a lot better than trying to decide where EVERYTHING went in 12 hours of move in. Just too much going on.

The kind of damage we had was mostly scratches on furniture. I don't look for scratches on my tools. They have some but I totally don't care. I wouldn't spend a long time worrying about tools. But if you have some little things that might get legs, those should be boxed up. I always moved the guns myself, for instance.

[Wade Lippman]

Two moves and a storage in between are going to cost us about $1.00/lb.

That's why I sold all my tools, except the ones I could put in my car, when I moved. I downgraded my BS, but upgraded everything else.

[Julie Moriarty]

That's why I sold all my tools, except the ones I could put in my car, when I moved. I downgraded my BS, but upgraded everything else.

I considered selling the table saw and lathe and buying a new table saw when I got in the new place but I would have gotten so little in the sale of those items that the new TS would have been substantial. And I would have lost the lathe. I don't use it a lot but I like having it when the need arises.

[Thomas Canfield]

Reading through all the posts, I saw finally that the tools would need to be stored for a couple of months. You might want to check using PODS. I got a 16' Pod to move the majority of my shop and had it stored for a couple of months while building a shop when I moved 3+years back. I did have some friends help load the Pod over a 2 week period, but was able to unload in a day into the shop. I made a list with estimated weight to be sure to not exceed max weight. That allowed me to also pack lumber and other material. My shop was not in a basement, but did require coming up 7 rock steps over about 60' from shop to pod. My move was all my $ so wanted to save and also not have to go to local storage at new home. I did pack some items, but tried to pack solid, with limited padding, and block or tie down and brace load. My move was 300 air miles, but pod went about 450 road miles with no obvious damage. Maybe I was lucky with my packing.

I had a Powermatic 3520 that I did break down, but my contractor saw with 52" commercial fence on moving base was kept intack, as was 14" bandsaw and 17" upright drill press.

[Charles Lent]

It's a very sickening feeling when you watch the truck drive away with almost everything you own. Hopefully, everything will arrive at your new home in perfect condition. My move went very well, but I'm NEVER moving again.

Charley

[Andy Fox]

I have similar-sized tools. I moved my garage shop into a storage garage for 3 months, then into the new house garage, then into the house basement. I used an appliance dolly, ratchet straps, and a helper to move the heavier tools down the stairs.

I rented a Ryder truck with a liftgate for both road moves. One of rentals also happened to be refrigerated. I had no choice what I got. I was able to load and unload the truck almost entirely by myself by just rolling the tools on and off the liftgate, but it's better to have a helper to run the liftgate so that you can hold the tools steady with both hands. The last liftgate was a bit lopsided and jerky, and I nearly lost my 14" cast iron bandsaw to it.

For dealing with stairs, I took the drill press off of its post and removed the upper arm of the bandsaw to help with stability.