The costs of moving a workshop

[Dan Gaylin]

Hello all,

As a person who has dabbled in woodworking for a long time, but am only now (in my fifties) getting a little more serious about it, I am slowly acquiring larger and heavier power tools. My wife and I think it is quite likely that we will be relocating when we retire in the not too distant future. I worry a bit about the cost of relocating all of these tools. I have never had a lot of "stuff" before in our previous moves, but looking around my shop it is clear that this is no longer true. So for example, right now I am considering an upgrade from a benchtop lathe to a heavy freestanding lathe. This tool alone weighs about 500 lbs.

The simple question behind all of this: for anyone who is (or is considering) moving a shop full of heavy tools to a new location, is it cost prohibitive? Are there some things to keep in mind before digging the hole deeper?

Any thoughts appreciated.

--dan

[Jim Andrew]

When I was younger, would not have thought much about it, but in my late 60's, don't want to have to move. Took me quite a while to get my machine layout just right, and my DC setup the best way. Let alone, getting the shop fixed up to suit me. When I was young, would load a heavy table saw in my truck by myself, just tilt it in and slide it on the rear bar, no way I could do that now.

[sean meltvedt]

Dan I wouldn’t sweat it. If you don’t want to move it yourself, hire some movers. I’ve moved my shop twice, and helped the neighbor move his. Skid steer with forks makes the move trivial, but an engine hoist will do as well albeit much slower.
Cheers
Sean

[Robert D Evans]

I suppose it depends on how far you are moving and can you move most of the stuff yourself. At least the smaller stuff. If you have to hire movers, it's going to be expensive. I haven't moved in 22 years and I don't think it's going to happen again. The wife is pretty entrenched here.

[Mark L White]

How far you're moving will affect the answer. Interstate moves are based on weight, and the farther you're going the more it will cost. Local moves may be priced by the hour, so the heavy machines won't add tremendously to the cost. I went through a similar thought process beginning about 15 years ago. I had another limiting factor though - my "workshop" was half a 2 car garage, and I had to put a car in that space during the winter. Our plan was to move across the country when I retired, so the cost of moving machines would have been quite high, and there was no practical way to move them myself. Because I had limited space and time for woodworking while I was still working, I decided to hold off on buying most of the heavy machines I wanted. I retired about two years ago, and the total household moving cost worked out to be about a dollar a pound in round numbers - the machines I've bought since then would have added a couple thousand dollars to the total cost.

[Darcy Warner]

Yeah, about 500k pounds of stuff, took 3 months, still not set back up after a year.

[Bill Dufour]

Consider buying a one trip container and loading it at your pace. Then hire someone to haul it to you new place. It becomes a shed at the new house or it gets sold to the next sucker.
My plan is to load a lot of stuff on pallets and Gaylord boxes on pallets. Buy a pallet jack and rent a truck with a lift gate. My lathe weighs 1750 pounds so it will go by itself in the back of a pickup just the way I brought it home.
Bill d

[Terry Wawro]

U-Haul has a feature online were you can rent the truck and also hire a crew in city (A) to load it and a different crew in city (B) to unload it. All you do it drive the truck between homes. I moved my shop this way five years ago. If you have some super heavy monster tools, I'd advise using pallets and a pallet jack.

[Pete Staehling]

Dan since you don't say how far you are likely to move or whether you are willing to do any of the moving yourself it is hard to answer. My last move I moved 1000 miles myself with only a little assistance with the shop portion. I made a few trips over a month or so to move the household and shop. We had 38 years of accumulated stuff to deal with. I didn't have too much of a shop at that point, mostly bench top tools and a 14" delta bandsaw, but I did have to move it all from a basement shop with a narrow awkward stairwell. I have since moved a full complement of stuff into my two car garage sized shop and would say that loading and unloading a truck or container would be pretty easy with a pallet jack if there is good ground level access via a concrete driveway or walkway. When/if I do it again I am not sure if I will move everything myself or not, but I think I am still inclined to move the shop myself even If i decide to use movers to move the household.

[Jim Becker]

There are quite a few threads here at SMC from over the years about moving shop. Some folks have used it as an opportunity for upgrades, unloading some tools before moving and buying new ones after arriving at their destination. Some folks do the move themselves; some hire a mover or rigger, depending on the nature of their shop and equipment, the distance of the move, etc.

There's a good chance I'll be looking at the same here in a couple year or so once Professor Dr. SWMBO decides to retire. This property is large and requires a lot of work to maintain. Moving my shop is a given...and I do have big stuff. For that reason, I'll need professionals involved.

[Dan Gaylin]

Everyone: thanks for all of the helpful replies. This really helped me get my head around it -- like anything else, there are always options and you can make it work.

[Zachary Hoyt]

I am looking at moving my shop 125 miles in a year or two, but I don't have anything super heavy and I should be able to do the move with a 5x8 trailer with a ramp that rides pretty low to the ground. My biggest awkward load will be an 18" Jet bandsaw, but I moved it in by myself with a hand truck so I expect I can move it out the same way. I put wooden taller legs on my Shopsmith so I'll have to either find a helper to lift that with me or take the head off, but either way should be pretty easy. I have a SuperMax 19-38 on a plywood cabinet but it's on casters so I should be able to roll it into the trailer.

[ChrisA Edwards]

It can seems a bit daunting, the thought of moving heavy stuff, but it's nots so difficult.

You can rent vans/truck and help when needed.

We had moved 5 times, as corporate moves to different States, so no cost to us other than the inconvenience.

In 2015, we retired and decided to move from Dallas TX to just outside Nashville TN, 700 miles.

I had a decent number of woodworking tools, plus a 8 motorcycles and a lot of stuff that goes along with them.

I bought an enclosed trailer and moved everything myself, the whole 5000sq/ft house of furniture and all my garage stuff.

It took me 14 round trips. I could drive from TN to Dallas in 11 hours, spend the night, load up my trailer, about 3-4 hours, and drive back. Each trip was 2 days.

For the heavy items, I enlisted a couple of friends on each end to help, but I found most of the stuff I could do myself.

Being retired, I had time on my hands, but not an income. Yes I put 20K miles on my truck, but I don't drive much and still only have 64K miles on it after 5 years and I just put new tires on at 63.5K.

So don't let it scare you.

[David M Peters]

Last year with a moving company I moved a basement shop full of heavy tools, no problem. I'm very glad that I didn't have to lug everything up my narrow exterior stairs!

[Jim Becker]

One very important thing relative to using movers, etc...do NOT rely on the default insurance coverage. It's by the pound. You need to declare value for everything that's important and that includes your tools. Also, when you box the smaller items up, don't write directly on the box what's inside. Setup a code system that you can cross reference from a list that stays in your possession. That can help reduce theft issues with movers, especially if it's long distance and involves time and/or storage.

[Jack Frederick]

I moved from MA to CA using a national mover and took most of my shop equipment. Should you use a moving company, get quotes from a number of them. You pay by weight/distance. They will send a guy out and he will Guess/estimate your loads weight. Upon delivery, they MAY attempt to say the weight was X+ and you are required to pay the piper. In my case that represented almost 40% over the quote. Now, I'm not unreasonable and could handle 10-15%, but 40? It was a hell of a row and you are arguing with people who are used to this discussion. My suggestions is that after packing and loading it is weighted. If there is going to be a problem get it on the front end so you can negotiate based upon "their" professional miscalculation. In my case, I was in business. I like to be square with folks and expect it in return. I quickly went to the kinda "millions for defense and not one cent for tribute" frame of mind. It got ugly and so did I. Neither side was happy, but that is usually the way it is when the attorneys get called.

[Scott T Smith]

I have literally over 300 tons of tools and equipment. If and when I ever move, I’ll make a determination of what to sell and not replace, what to sell and replace after moving, and what to keep. Probably all of the hand tools and smaller equipment will be kept, and most of the cabinet equipment too (except for the really big stuff).

What is kept will most likely be banded (or bolted) to pallets or skids, and then loaded by me (or supervised by me) into a shipping container. The pre-banding to pallets is to help keep things from shifting around during the move, and also to facilitate unloading. I can sell the empty containers after moving and help recover some expenses.

Most of my commercial and industrial equipment will probably be sold before moving and not replaced.

[Bill Dufour]

I looked into U-haul small moving containers. Cost as much to move one, 6x6' as to rent their biggest truck for a few days including mileage. No discount for multiple containers to and from the same location on the same dates?
ABF looked good where they drop off a trailer for a few days and you load it. Saw one in my neighborhood. They do not do my 250 mile move within state. It may be trucking laws that move has to cross state lines?
Stretch wrap can be bought from the bay for less then 25% of the borgs price. Put stuff on pallets and stretch wrap it or use Gaylords or picking bins.
Bil lD

[Pete Staehling]

One thing I'd suggest if you do the moving... Especially if moving stuff by yourself don't hesitate to break machines down into smaller sub-assemblies. I know that a bandsaw or a lathe that is a beast as a whole machine can usually be moved as three to five much more manageable pieces. Not all machines break down so nicely, but some of the most awkward ones do.

[Thomas Canfield]

I moved about 8 years back from a 22x24' shop with quite a few tools and wood including a Powermatic 3520B lathe, table saw w/ 52" table, etc. I got a POD to move most of my shop and store it for a couple of months while building a shop. I took 2 weeks to load the POD that was picked up for storage before moving van. I had it delivered and unloaded in less than 2 days having shop and 2 car garage to unload in for temporary while organizing shop. Sure beat having shop moved by moving van, unloading at a storage unit, and then picking up and moving from storage. Using a U-haul would also require double handling, multiple trips, etc. I did make a pretty detail spread sheet with approximate "cube" and weight for equipment to fit within the limits of the POD. I did end up being weight limited with some free space above material. Actually got pretty close on weight.

[Bill Bukovec]

Dan, We moved from Minnesota to Tennessee four years ago. We used U- Pack. It worked out really well for us. They drop off a 28 foot trailer. You have 3 days to load it. The trailer comes with a very good ramp. I bought a two wheeled dolly to get things up the ramp. I had help with the heavier stuff (bandsaw, tablesaw, furniture), but loaded everything else myself. We used only 24 ft of the trailer, so we were charged for 24 feet.
You can arrange a time for the trailer to be dropped off at your new place. You will then have 3 days to unload it.

[Tom Dixon]

One thing to consider, if you don't own any vintage machines you absolutely couldn't part with, is to just sell most or all of your heavy stationary tools. Chances are wherever you move you won't have a ready to move in shop. The shape won't be the same as what you have and you will need to plan your workflow layout, install dust collection, etc. The cost of moving and storage will offset any difference from selling to buying again. This is what I did when I moved from Minnesota to TN.

It took some time to build a shop and when I did buy again I was able to upgrade a few tools that I probably wouldn't have done If I had moved all that I had. The only tool I kept was my Unisaw since I figured I needed that for building the new shop but really I'd have been better off to sell it too and upgrade to a Sawstop. (I'm still procrastinating on that one now.) I went from a 8" jointer to a 12" spiral jointer as one of my upgrades and from a straight knife 20" planer to a helical head 20" planer. Really weigh the cost of moving vs selling/re-buying and you honestly may come out way ahead. My 2 cents.

[Pete Staehling]

One thing to consider, if you don't own any vintage machines you absolutely couldn't part with, is to just sell most or all of your heavy stationary tools. Chances are wherever you move you won't have a ready to move in shop. The shape won't be the same as what you have and you will need to plan your workflow layout, install dust collection, etc. The cost of moving and storage will offset any difference from selling to buying again. This is what I did when I moved from Minnesota to TN.

It took some time to build a shop and when I did buy again I was able to upgrade a few tools that I probably wouldn't have done If I had moved all that I had. The only tool I kept was my Unisaw since I figured I needed that for building the new shop but really I'd have been better off to sell it too and upgrade to a Sawstop. (I'm still procrastinating on that one now.) I went from a 8" jointer to a 12" spiral jointer as one of my upgrades and from a straight knife 20" planer to a helical head 20" planer. Really weigh the cost of moving vs selling/re-buying and you honestly may come out way ahead. My 2 cents.
I sometimes think about what I might choose if I had the chance to rethink all of my tool purchases. A move would be a chance to rethink all of those purchases if done that way. It would actually be fun to start over. I couldn't give up a few of the hand tools, mostly just a few items that belonged to my dad. That said, I'd probably move most of it again unless moving really far and the cost made it look like moving wasn't smart. OTOH, a move might mean a downsize or a lot more space which might mean different choices would make sense.

My wife has said she wondered if we would have been better off to just buy all new furniture rather than move what we had. I don't think she could have actually let some of the old stuff go, but I can see the attraction.

[mreza Salav]

Five years ago we finished building our new house and moved. Moving my basement shop with lots of heavy equipment (some 800+lb) was daunting. I spent quite some time breaking the machines into smaller/manageable pieces and wrapping them to protect them while moving. Lots of other tools (hand planes, power tools, etc) were also packed in a span of two weeks into smaller boxes. The big items were a 24" bandsaw, a large powermatic lathe (broken down), a 14" J/P, a 37" double drum sander, shaper, tablesaw, large DC, and various other stationary tools. The same movers that I hired to move the household stuff (3 big guys) moved the shop too. The shop alone plus all the wood I had was as much work as the rest of the house. I hope I don't have to move again anytime soon but planning ahead and packing items ahead helps alot

[Jack Frederick]

We moved from MA-CA ten yrs ago. I had a moving company do the packing, loading, move and unload, so a traditional all in move. Get multiple quotes and ask for some guarantees on the weights as they will present you with an “over-weight” bill on completion. Be very clear with your choice and how they handle that. With what is happening in the shipping world today it is difficult to advise. You end up making some difficult choices on what stays or goes. These types of retirement moves are generally categorized as “down-sizing.” Talk to Jim about that. Are you going to have the room for what you are moving. I had to store a lot of my gear until I got my shop built in ‘15. I don’t know what gear you have, but in my case some of what I moved I have since replaced, which is to say, I could have handled it all better. To late smart. Check out the used machine market in your proposed new home area. That could be a guide.