Seeking Moving Advice

[Douglas Robinson]

My wife and I hope to put our house on the market by the end of August. We hope to move to the Cary or Chapel Hill area, where I hope to build a new shop.

I am seeking advice regarding moving my tools/wood/everything shop related.

Has anyone used a Pod to do this? If so any advice? Is there a preferred company for this?

Any advice on packing tools, wood, magazines, etc...?

I have bought a number of bins and will probably buy more, and plan to label them. I am thinking that the new house will probably not have a shop yet, so a Pod that I can keep my stuff in might be preferable?

I know a number of people here have moved shops before and I am looking to learn from you.

Doug

 

[Berta]

My best advice is Johnson’s Paste Wax. I moved from Ohio to NC in September through October, into storage units. (We lived with our daughter). We moved into our house in December. Put up a shop and moved that stuff in in February. No rust. I bought a bolt of cloth. Waxed everything, covered with cloth, stacked nothing on top of the tools. Everything turned out good.

 

[redknife]

I have a pod from Pack Rat for shop equip now, to be picked up in two weeks. We moved in to this house and then found problems so I have to clear the shop. Anyway, the container company says all of their storage locations are climate controlled. There isn’t much of anything inside the container to secure contents. I think I’m going to strap the tools together. There is one metal support on each side of the 8x12 (not designed for straps) that I think I’ll be able to sneak a strap behind. I find the cost to be pretty high but we were stuck with this option. I chose this company because I thought it was cheaper from the initial quotes, but in the end I am not sure I saved anything vs other companies.

 

[LastChanceWoodshop]

I moved my tools with pack rat last year.

The floor is wooden, so you can screw wood blocks to it. Additionally, there are metal square tube supports inside the containers you can ratchet straps to as well

 

[Brantnative]

When we moved last year I looked into Pods and Pack Rat. Not much difference in cost. However, I, like you, needed to store my stuff for a little while. The pods can get expensive if you need them for a few months. And keeping them on your property might not be allowed or inconvenient. And you can't get to stuff in a pod, depending on how much you have. I ended up taking all my workshop contents to a storage unit. Shop around as prices for these vary widely. I needed 4 months and it was definitely cheaper than a pod for that time. Plus, I could move it all slowly back to my new shop as I needed it. Most everything went into the back of my truck. The heavy things went by U-Haul. Luckily I have a son and son-in-law with strong backs.

 

[Wolfpacker]

If you are just moving the equipment from one house to the next without needing temporary storage, I used a Penske rental truck from Home Depot. I used ratched straps to tie everything to the walls and drove it over 100 miles. Will be doing the reverse shortly to get the equipment from my Mom's basement to the house we just bought.

 

[KenOfCary]

I used a POD to move my equipment into while I re-did the Cary shop floor - worked out well. I couldn't use them when we moved to Floyd as they don't service this area. I ended up using All-my-Sons moving to move the furniture and shop equipment. They did a good job and didn't charge an arm and a leg.

 

[Pop Golden]

If you have a tool storage system, take photos before you take everything down so you can get it back in the same order. Number and label everything, put like things together.

Pop

 

[ScottM]

When I moved to Lake Gaston I moved myself. Meaning I did not hire anyone. I borrowed a large tandem trailer with sides from a friend and invited my NCWW friends to help load at my Cary house. I had 10-12 wonderful people show up at 7:30 AM. Did I mention I had offered donuts. I had other friends and neighbors on the Lake Gaston side to help unload into my garage. My shop was built 6 months later. I was Blessed. Though it was hot as heck, mid August, I had no rain so it worked fine.

Should you need help give a yell. Have pickup will travel.

 

[Douglas Robinson]

Thanks for the feedback, keep it coming. I have no idea what our new house will be like. Those that have been to my shop know that I have a A LOT of stuff in a small area! I have been packing items into bins and sorting them by tool. I have a lot of heavy iron, (table saw, lathe, plus cyclone dust collector, band saw Belt sander, Jointer/planer, Drill press, air cleaner, etc.)

 

[Bas]

I had the same white glove experience Scott did. Hordes and hordes of NCWWers showed up with trailers to haul boxes, equipment, and lumber. I didn't even have the walkway to the back of the house ready so the unloading was not trivial. But there was no storage involved, load/ unload on the same day. I used a lot of cardboard moving boxes, better to have a bunch of small flimsy boxes filled halfway than a small number of sturdy tubs too heavy to lift.

I prepped some of the heavier equipment with partial disassembly. It's a bit hard to see, but if you look in this picture on the right, you can see I created a carrier out of plywood (with some handles out of pine) to carry the jointer bed. And I put two plywood boards at 90 degrees plus a bottom so I could strap the bandsaw to it. That way, you can secure the wood to the trailer/ pod, not the equipment, so it doesn't all go out of alignment.

Taking off the cast iron wings helps significantly with the table saw, but I probably would not take off the drill press head from the column. It'll be a different story for each tool. The main thing to consider is not so much the weight but how awkward it is to move. My main concern with a moving company would be how they treat the equipment. If they lift your jointer/ planer by the bed that could be trouble. The dust collector on the other hand would not be a major issue. Supervision and a written (!) plan beforehand can prevent a lot of problems.

This is also a great time to get rid of stuff you no longer need, including scrap, magazines, etc.

 

[chris_goris]

Thanks for the feedback, keep it coming. I have no idea what our new house will be like. Those that have been to my shop know that I have a A LOT of stuff in a small area! I have been packing items into bins and sorting them by tool. I have a lot of heavy iron, (table saw, lathe, plus cyclone dust collector, band saw Belt sander, Jointer/planer, Drill press, air cleaner, etc.)

Douglas,
Im going through the same thing right now. I have all industrial grade equipment in my shop. I found a house without a building, So ill have to build one. My plan is this: pack all my wood and other non fragile items in a POD and have them move it. Rent another POD or 2 at the new house, move my equipment myself (about 6o miles) and load it into PODS on the property and store until building is complete. Pods load rating for a 16 foot unit is only 4200 pounds, thats not much industrial grade equipment for shipping but weight is no object if its just local storage. Good luck!

 

[Douglas Robinson]

I am thinking of skipping the POD and renting a truck, moving everything to storage until the new site is found and ready. Then renting another truck and moving it all again.

 

[chris_goris]

I am thinking of skipping the POD and renting a truck, moving everything to storage until the new site is found and ready. Then renting another truck and moving it all again.

Im only planning on moving it once, other than final relocation into the new building. Im not sure how much a 16 x 8 x 8 space is to rent, but it seems like the least amount of hassle to me.

 

[NOTW]

I just recently moved and used Units Storage container to put stuff in during packing and then a uhaul to move the main furniture. It is nice having the container so the house doesn't get cluttered while packing but it also makes it feel like you are moving forever. Also, I could have rented the uhaul truck 4 times for what I paid for the UNIT for a 1 month rental.

 

[luckyGoose]

I shipped most of small to medium sized tools via our 28' trailer rental, but hired Gentle Giant moving company to move the bigger stuff. This worked out for me since they were also moving my wife's grand piano and our bigger furniture pieces. However, this was a cross state move, so we saved by splitting our move. The trailer company was kind enough to offer a discount for one month of storage.

For the big stuff, I took apart the dust collector and packed the motor and the body myself, shipped via trailer. All of the small tools went into moving boxes in the trailer. Gentle giant took care of the bandsaw, the jointer and the table saw.

 

[red]

I just did what you're planning on doing. I moved my entire shop myself with family help. I rented a small Enterprise box truck ( no special license ) with a liftgate. Worked like a champ!! Moved it all to a storage unit non-climate controlled. I sprayed all cast iron with a good coat of LPS 3. Not a single problem in almost two years of storage. Cleanup with a little WD40. Sweet! New shop now is up and running. Good luck.

Red