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Moving shop 2000 miles

gotham

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Joined
Jul 21, 2013
Messages
213
Location
Colorado
Looking for moving advice.

I'm moving from NYC to Colorado. I currently have ~1500 sq feet not packed but pretty full including some heavy stuff. I'll be moving to 1 - 2 bays of a garage until I can build a shop. Storage or renting space is a possibility.

I have a few things I want to take (Monarch 10EE, tig welder, snapon roller box) and a bigger group of things which I want but I'm not emotionally attached to so I could sell and replace/upgrade if that made sense (Bridgeport mill, hydraulic press, jump shear, arbor press, air compressor, surface plate, big vertical band saw, pullmax).

I'm in NYC so I can't buy a box truck / container and load as I please. What do I do? Skid and crate everything and send freight?

As a secondary question, how expensive are machine / fabrication tools in CO vs the east coast? Initial looking says 1.5x more expensive.
 
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matt_i

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Mar 14, 2008
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10,744
Location
SE Michigan
Avoid truck freight at all costs. 0.10/lb is the standard insurance. Imagine getting a settlement for $300 your wrecked 10ee....

What I would attempt to do is find somewhere that you could temporarily store things (moving + storage "pro-movers") comes to mind and load them all into a semi truck with a rented or hired forklift in 1 single event (tarped LTL load which would probably be around 1/3 to 1/2 of a semi truck's flatbed). I would crate anything you cared about, you can reuse the osb later for something or other, thru-bolt (note not lag bolt) to 4x6 timbers for the anti-tip-over and also so you can either use a pallet jack or forklift to move them around. Also have to carefully consider tie-downs in your crate building, for example the 10ee should probably have a padded strap go over the bed, so save old pairs of jeans and cardboard, cut slots or windows in the crates where needed. I also bought cans of LPS3 and sprayed down all of the bare metal surfaces because humidity can do strange things when you aren't looking.

I have sold machines before to move and always wished I didn't. Seems like they sold for 0.5x of what I thought I had and cost 2x to replace, or the replacements were equivalent cost but despicable condition. I'm not the worlds best salesman so that may have something to do with it. I don't know CO specifically but it seems like manufacturing is not "all around".

Also I built several crates on top of regular pallets, which were framed inside with 2x4s and had independently supported shelving for stacking up heavy stuff, iow your arbor press could go in there, chucks, steady/follow rests, steel stock, corded power tools, you name it. The independent shelves were for making it so the bottom items weren't bearing all of the weight of everything above. Center post on each shelf. Cut one "wall" of the crate in half so you can load from that side. I used a roll of brown kraft paper for packing material. Also made notes in a notebook of where every item was and in which crate in case I had a situation where I had to have tools *right now* and didn't have the luxury to unpack it all searching for something specific. I put all of the corded power tools on the top layers accordingly.

I would consider crating the roller box, in that condition it looks like a plywood crate and not a bling-y thing that all kinds of sticky fingers are going to want to have in their shop...

When you get where you are going, you'll need to rent a forklift and have it coordinated and waiting for the driver (get truck driver's cell and stay in reasonable contact with him) so you can take it all off the truck and he can go search for his next gig. Also may be able to use the services of a pro "moving + storage" and have them intake it all at once, then you just extract one piece at a time until its finished.

I moved the total of around 2-1/2 semi trucks of equipment this way, although some was with my own truck and gooseneck trailer. Some was dealing with monkeys from uShip, I seemed to find the worst of those. I've found the semi drivers to be so much more professional than those idiots who got a dually + gooseneck from their Dad so they'd get off the couch.

One thing that's helpful is to create a spreadsheet or list of everything you own and then attach a weight to it, even if its a SWAG or a google-lookup. Then when you start contacting LTL companies you can have an idea of the weight involved. It plus the square footage are the key components to setting up the deal. The nice thing about LTL is once the driver leaves with your stuff, its never going to be touched until it arrives again at your location. They might haul something else that's going the same direction. But not like truck freight where it could be loaded and offloaded, several times, by people driving forklifts at full throttle in both directions and doing 50% of the work like a bulldozer. Every time I go to a truck freight terminal I fear for my life....

Best of luck to you, its work for sure but its very nice when your shop is setup in your new space.

Some thought starters...just before the tarps went on. Transporting the forklift is another issue that I didn't specifically address....but I have ideas for that as well.


 
Last edited:

Shawn S

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Joined
Sep 24, 2012
Messages
249
Location
Brookings, SD
Do you have a truck? If so what is it?
If possible I would buy a used trailer, load it and haul your stuff out there. Then sell the trailer once you are done with it.
If storage in CO is an issue buy a heavy duty enclosed trailer. That could give you dome flexibility in NY also. Take it to a storage yard until you are ready to leave.
 

Strouty

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Mar 21, 2010
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Southern Maine
Sounds like it is time to sell a bunch of stuff. If I had to move that much, that far, I would sell the vast majority of it and buy it again. Half the fun is finding it anyways!
 
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Showkey

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Aug 9, 2014
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Wausau WI
^^^^^^^^ true........many people don't moved refrigerators, washer, drier and other appliances because it's by the pound by mile ..........when it's your dime moving heavy stuff or bulky stuff long distances does not make economic sense. Corporate transfer move you just say load it up.
 

619DioFan

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Apr 9, 2013
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3,617
Location
San Diego , Ca.
Some thoughts and ideas for you-

Pods or pack rat- convienent if you have a place for them to be dropped. be aware that the containers have weight limits and if you exceed the gross weight you will have to unload till you don't.

Rental truck- again these have cargo weight limits (26 foot penske has a cargo weight limit of 10,000 lbs - budget 24 foot cargo weight limit is 11,000 lbs ) easy to go over weight with tools. you may need more than one truck.

ABF freight uload/they drive service- this might work out as they charge by the cube you use and not by the weight. they provide a 26 foot semi trailer and you load it. might be challenging to get larger items into the trailer as you get a loading ramp not a lift gate. another challenge using abf is depending on were in NYC you are bringing a semi into the area may not be allowed. you can however ask abf if loading at the closest terminal is an option. you would need to rent a box truck with lift gate and shuttle your shipment to the terminal.

I work in the moving and storage industry. feel free to ask questions and I will do my best to answer them. feel free to pm me as well. what part of colorado are you heading to ?
 

matt_i

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Mar 14, 2008
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SE Michigan
I'd use a Bridgeport mill (and clones) as relative gauge of how hard or easy it is to find used metal-fab machinery. Search ebay, craigslist, etc to see what's out there.

Appliances...not sure that's an apples-to-apples comparison. WAG on how many households have a fridge. Id say 1:1. WAG on how many households have a Bridgeport, I'd say 1:1000, averaged out.

Enclosed trailers are a problem for machine tools. Have to have extreeeemly long forks and then there's the issue of strapping the machines down. Some have E-track but its not the same as a flatbed GN or semi. You can't roll a pallet jack in there on a wood floor because for something like an EE you'd crush 2 divots where the front rollers are and never be able to move another inch. "ground pressure" is too high for a low-yield strength material.

I'm going to guess half of an LTL semi is around $1500-2000 from NYC to CO. Let's double to $4k for other materials and expenses. I'd take the sum of what you think you could sell for in NYC, divide by 2 and see how that compares to $4k as a simple economic acid test ...... (difference between 1.0x and 1.5x = 0.5x) Thus if you have more than $8k worth of stuff it would probably make more economic sense to move it for $4k than have to buy it again for a sum of $12k. Oversimplified for sure, but at least somewhere to start.
 

cvairwerks

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Aug 12, 2016
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Within hearing distance of Texas Motor Speedway
Depending on which 10EE and what model Pullmax you have, you are looking at somewhere north of 20 grand to replace those two tools and the accessories you have now. That doesn't include the time to find suitable replacements and the cost to ship them to your new place. Even if you spend 10 grand to ship the shop, you are money ahead in the long run.
 
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