Shipping finished WW projects

[Lee Ludden]

I am building some nice kid-safe kitchen stools for my nieces (modeled after these (https://littlepartners.com/products/original-learning-tower?variant=12998204686454)). All the parts are ready to assemble with glue and dominos. I live in Arizona, and they live in Iowa. I was originally planning a trip back there, but that had to be canceled, so now I am considering how best to ship them. Each weighs about 25 pounds.

If I leave them disassembled, they will each fit into a 35x12x6 box. Assembled they would be 35x12x16.

I'd prefer to ship assembled, as I have everything needed to do the work and to fix anything that might go wrong. I'm sure that will be more expensive, but not sure which carriers to even look at to get prices to compare.

Any input from people with experience in this would be appreciated.

Lee

[Clark Hussey]

I use pirate ship. There rates are very reasonable. They offer both UPS and USPS

[Jim Koepke]

Both the USPS and UPS will carry packages of that size. Not sure about the rates.

jtk

[Jamie Buxton]

That assembled box size and weight fits in UPS rules. I’d use them. Pack the stools well.

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Check with Fedex Ground. Our daughter just moved to their property in Hawaii and Fedex ground was several hundred dollars cheaper than other carriers. Check with the bus companies. In the past, I have had stuff shipped as freight aboard buses.

[Zachary Hoyt]

I second the vote for pirateship.com and UPS. I ship banjos all the time, mostly in 45x18x7" boxes, and UPS is from $30 to $80 or so depending how far away the other party is. I also have to pay for UPS pickup and for insurance, but those might not apply in your case, and they usually are around $20 total for a $6.50 pickup fee and $1000-1200 in insurance coverage.

[Jim Koepke]

FedEx used to allow shipping to one of their offices for pick up at a lower rate.

Not sure if they still do.

jtk

[Bruce Wrenn]

Have used Greyhound / Trailways to ship a bunch of things, bids to Corp of Engineers, signs, paychecks, anchor bolts for metal buildings. If it will fit in the bottom of the bus, they will ship it. They even ship the bodies of the deceased.

[Lee Ludden]

I appreciate the quick feedback guys. I've not been on here much the past few years - been doing more metal work than wood work, but I've got a bunch of projects queued up.

Greyhound got out of the shipping business in September 2022, so that is out. I'll check pirate ship, and go from there.

For actual shipping, I was thinking of making a crate from 2x2's and skinning it with thin flooring panels. Any thoughts there?

Lee