How to ship a project. help please

[Bill Wyko]

I've been working on this cabinet humidor for quite some time. Now that I'm close to the end I called about a price to package it and ship it. HOLY COW CRACKERS.!!! They want $1800,00 to crate it and ship it. That's outrageous. Have any of you shipped a piece of fine furniture? I need to find some other way or I'll drive it from Tucson to Illinois myself. Help please.:(

[Bill LaPointe]

Call one of your local moving companies. They will be a lot less than that. They wanted to charge $1100 round trip for my Harley between Atalnta and Sturgis, SD. I got a different company for $800. (That's all they move is bikes.)

[Steve Costa]

Depending on your project's size try this:


Wardrobe box from HD or Lowes;
Wrap project in quilt, soft blanket or thin foam wrap to keep from scratching;
Wrap project in large bubble wrap;
Line box, sides, top & bottom with blue Dow foam board;
Tape well & try UPS or FedEX Ground.

[johnny means]

try Uship.com. Works great for me.

[Stew Hagerty]

Try contacting an independent mail & shipping company. Around here we have Pak-Mail. Of course there is the UPS Store and FedEx-Kinkos, but the independents can use any of the shippers though so they will have more flexibility.

[Jerome Stanek]

we ship cabinets and other large items like Honda boat motors all the time. Just have to have a good crate and skid blocks so they can move it with a forklift or pallet jack. 225 hp Honda motors are heave and cost about $16500.00 so we have to be careful how we crate them. We use Roadway or other common carriers to ship about $300 to ship a motor.

[John Downey]

I shipped a 450# woodstove to Illinois for about $400 IIRC. Set it up through freightquote.com. Why pay someone else to crate it? You built it, a crate is well within your capabilities - and you're going to do a much, much better job :D...

I've never tried "blanket wrap" from the moving companies. Two shops I worked for (in Tucson ironically enough) did that all the time. My impressions at the time were that a.) you had to keep asking around until you found a reasonable person at one of the companies with whom to deal. b.) Be prepared for occassional damage if you ship this way a lot. Its not as good as a crate. We had one really bad one when I was working in one of these shops, fork lift driver destroyed about $10k's worth of chairs - and then the company tried to deliver them - total fiasco. The instances were fairly rare, but they do happen.

[Roger Benton]

i have used freight companies in the past with horrible results, learned the hard way when i was told a forklift had taken out the leg of a table i shipped from ny to chicago. one truck driver actually looked at a pair of night stands he came to pick up and told me flat out he didn't think they would survive the journey. he explained that generally he drops the items at a warehouse where they go on another truck, get driven to some other hub, head to the general vicinity of the delivery city, switch vehicles again before delivery. all that handling takes it's toll, and increases the chances of damage.

i now shell out the extra cash for white glove service from reputable furniture movers like adam crease or plycon. they take their time carefully wrapping each piece while you watch and they do a very good job. they also offer insurance at very reasonable rates.

better safe than sorry when it comes to something we spent so much time and energy creating, and that someone has spent good money to own.

[Thomas Hotchkin]

I build a low cost 1/4" plywood box, with 1 1/2 x 3/4 pine doubler on all edges. Line inside with 1/2" white form board, wrap project with masking paper or clear news print. Place piece into box. I take it to FEDEX, SHIP FEDEX GROUND ONLY, insure for full value.This is the lowest cost shipping I have found. Have moved close to twenty items this way, with no damage or claims yet. This shipping works best if destination is a business address.
Tom

[Leigh Betsch]

Call one of your local moving companies. They will be a lot less than that. They wanted to charge $1100 round trip for my Harley between Atalnta and Sturgis, SD. I got a different company for $800. (That's all they move is bikes.)

Shipping a motorcycle! There is just something wrong about that. ;)

[Joe Jensen]

I agree on FedEx as the shipper instead of UPS. I bought a set of very expensive stereo speakers and the seller shipped UPS. Each box weighted about 100lbs. When they arrived, there was a forklift size hole in two sides of one box. I had the delivery guy wait while I unboxed and found that someone ran a forklift completely through the box, and two sides of 1" thick MDF. The forklift must have been flying to have enough momentum to do that.

In the high end stereo world there are tons of stories of expensive gear being badly handled. The #1 recommendation is that if the item is heavy put it on a pallet so they won't try to move it without a forklift. Apparently some drivers purposely abuse the heavy packages in hope the shippers stop sending them. If it's fragile make sure the crate is strong enough to protect what's inside if you say pushed it off the back of a semi onto one corner.

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Joe,

I tried to ship a Jet 1014vs lathe to another Creaker via FedEx. The Mini lathe was screwed to a sheet of reinforced plywood..placed in a UPS double-walled cardboard box reinforced with plywood.

FedEx destroyed it and reinbursed me for it's value once I proved what it orginally cost.

Problems can happen with any shipper.

BTW....I get hundreds of parts for medical systems devices annually via FedEx. They are my shipper of choice but even a great as they are, they have an occasional problem too.

[Joe Chritz]

Call one of your local moving companies. They will be a lot less than that. They wanted to charge $1100 round trip for my Harley between Atalnta and Sturgis, SD. I got a different company for $800. (That's all they move is bikes.)

ROAD TRIP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I assume this is a really large cabinet of UPS / Fedex would be easy.

For the humidor I would build a form fitting plywood case. It would require the finish to be fully cured but you could wrap it is some soft cloth (scrap from a fabric shops works well) and then build a form fitting styrofoam "holder" for the plywood case. You can get the white foam (like a giant flat styrofoam cup) from the borg's.

Double protect the bottom and screw a couple scrap 2x4's to the bottom for pallet forks to slide under.

Joe

[Jerome Stanek]

how big is this item?

[Glenn Vaughn]

Shipping can be hit-or-miss. I shipped a 5' tall 120 lb wood statue from Fiji to Colorado - took a month to cfumigate crate and get moving. Came via DHL (air) and 3 separate trucking companies. Total cost was about $400. It arrived in perfect condition. The drived told me they were given instruction to treat it with "kid gloves" - had to open the crate so he could see what the fuss was all about.

I once had some 12' polycarbonate panels shipped via truck from Florida. They were rolled up and packed in cardboard. The truck arrived and when the driver opened the door I could see that they had set a large back-hoe bucket on top of the roll. Luckily it did not crack the panels.

[Lee Schierer]

I shipped a dresser from Erie, PA to Tucson a few years back. I built my own crate, took it to a freight company and they shipped it to Tucson. The cost was about $200. Make sure you pack it well and protect it on all sides with ply wood and an air gap of at least 2". Tie it down to the pallet. Check to see if they charge extra for lift gate delivery to the driveway. Most won't take it inside. FedEx, UPS, Yellow, Roadway etc all will ship single pallets as common freight.

[Bill Wyko]

Thanks everyone. What scares me is I just spent a year building this project. It weighs around 300 lbs and the finish would give any hot rod a run for its money. If a shipper were to damage it, no insurance would be suffice. I'm actually considering driving it with a friend.
HMMM good way to meet some Creekers on the way:D

[Scott Kuykendall]

I have never used this company or know anything about them
.http://www.uship.com/
Scott

[Al Navas]

...Now that I'm close to the end I called about a price to package it and ship it. HOLY COW CRACKERS.!!! They want $1800,00 to crate it and ship it...:(

Bill,

I wonder about the size of this cabinet. I ship prayer kneelers all over the country; I crate them myself, using 1x3s in the corners, and 275-lb double-sided cardboard from ULine (I buy these in 25-unit bundles). In this photo I am starting the crate, with the first cardboard piece stapled to the "Ls" made using 1x3s:

http://sandal-woodsblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/05/start-crating.png

The bubble wrap comes in a large box - it has a "sticky" side that sticks only to itself, not to wood. It basically creates its own "bag".

This is how I make the Ls using pocket screws:

http://sandal-woodsblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/the-new-way-leigh-clamps.png

After creating the front wrap with cardboard and 1x3s, I connect the front and the back with shorter pieces of 1x3 using pocket screws. Then I wrap the entire ting with the 275-lb cardboard. This leaves an air gap the thickness of the 1x3, and provides added protection from impact. The cardboard bends perfectly after you score the line at the corners lightly with a carpet knife.

I then use transparent shipping tape to seal all nooks and crannies, and prepare the UPS label for shipping.

NOTE: Do NOT use Duct tape to seal all the corners and nooks and crannies. The shipper will likely reject the package, as the Duct tape absorbs moisture and the package might fail.

I have yet to receive a complaint from clients to whom I ship these units. No damage to date, at all. No nicks, no scratches, nothing reported to date... :)

I learned this technique from Peter Galbert, chair maker. Search my blog using the term "crate", and you will find my technique to start making the custom crate for each kneeler.

.

[Owen E Wheeler]

There is packing, and there is packing. Some of it will be sheer luck in how the package is treated; you never know. Crating will protect to some extent the exterior of the box, and might protect the cabinet from being dinged in a corner. However, if the forklift spears it, or if the box is dropped 6' off the back of a truck, there is little you can do to protect is no matter how good the crate is.