Anybody here move and take their shop with them?

[Jesse Espe]

As some of you may know, I'm in the service. After verbally negotiating a great set of orders to stay in the Hampton Roads area months ago, I am being voluntold to report to DC in less than two months to fill an emergent job opening. :(

SO....it looks like I'll be moving in the next few months. I see a lot of threads about people selling off their shops because of moves, but how about some tips or warnings about those who moved their shops?

[Steve Clardy]

Well. I really don't have any tips or warnings, but I did a complete shop move in 1995 when we bought this place.
We only moved 25 miles.

I rented a 16' U-haul truck, made 2 trips just for the shop. :o

If you do something like this, just breakdown whatever you can [remove tablesaw fence and rails. etc.] as machinery packs, stows better this way.
Get a truck that has the inner tie straps on the walls.

And bring lots of friends for help. ;) :D

[Brent Dowell]

Well, I have just about completed my move, only took a year to do it... :rolleyes:

In order to move the house, it took one big moving van load.

I've moved my shop piecemeal. I've gotten real good at getting heavy things up into my truck. Basically I just use a chain hoist, a ramp, an appliance dolly (thing with two wheels) and a furniture dolly (small platform with 4 casters).

I'd strap the appliance dolly up on the (air compressor, cabinet saw, etc). Strap the furniture dolly to the top of the appliance dolly. Then hook the chain hoist to the front of the truck bed. Roll the 'thing' to the ramp to the back of the truck. Then I'd just pull the dolly until the 'thing' would tilt back on to the ramp, then hoist it up into the truck.

The only thing it didn't work on was the gun safe (900lbs +), and I used an engine hoist to tilt the thing on its side and lifting straps to lift it up in to the truck.

Depending on how long you are going to be gone for, space in the new place, I'd say you CAN do it. Question is do you want to go through the work, and then have to rebuy everything later...

[Wes Bischel]

A friend recently moved his shop. His one piece of advice - rent a truck with a lift. Ryder has them for not much more than a U-haul with a ramp.

FWIW,
Wes

[Jim Becker]

The lift gate is a good idea...

I'm not one of those folks who would sell my tools because I had to move. I'd find a way to move them, either myself, or by a professional...unless the cost to move was more than the replacement cost of the equipment, that a particular tool was intended to be replaced soon anyway or I was moving to someplace that the tools wouldn't work. (Overseas, for example)

Oh, I like the "voluntold" word...I'll have to try that one out on my daughters!

[Nancy Laird]

We moved across the country, from VA Beach to New Mexico, 14 years ago. We had a 14' step van that we were using in our business, so LOML packed everything he could into the van (we had sold the radial-arm saw and the contractor's saw) and drove it across. He just moved everything on a dolly (fridge-type) up a homemade ramp into the van and strapped it down. Everything made it fine, even the 750# jointer-planer combo. The reason we sold the RAS and the CS was that we had those machines waiting for us here--inherited a newer DeWalt RAS and he already had a purchase order in for the Unisaw. Otherwise, it all came with us. Then all we had to do was to find a place where we could set up shop again!! The Navy paid for that move as a partial self-move--mileage at the going rate at the time.

Your move is much shorter--if the Navy won't move it or it would you put you overweight on a van, you might look into the self-move option - a U-Haul won't cost that much from Norfolk to DC.

Nancy (107 days)

[Art Mulder]

As some of you may know, I'm in the service. After verbally negotiating a great set of orders to stay in the Hampton Roads area months ago, I am being voluntold to report to DC in less than two months to fill an emergent job opening. :(

SO....it looks like I'll be moving in the next few months. I see a lot of threads about people selling off their shops because of moves, but how about some tips or warnings about those who moved their shops?

Jesse, I'm seeing all kinds of "do it yourself" stories in the replies.

However, I'm betting that since this is a military/gov't move that you're going to have professional movers. Is that true? If so, you might want to specify that, as that is a whole 'nuther ball game as compared to doing it yourself.

My brother is in the Canadian Military, and he's been moved across the country 4 times in the past 15 years. (BC -> Ontario -> BC -> Ontario). He is also a woodworker, (TS, BS, DP, Jointer, lunchbox planer etc) and I have never heard any issues from him about the move. The movers come, and load it all up, and away they go. Now, one thing to note is that he has always had his shop in the garage, so it usually is just a matter of rolling things up the ramp into the truck and then stowing them.

My own shop is in the basement, and I dread the thought of ever trying to move out all that iron. From reading other people's stories, the one thing that I would be concerned about is the jointer. You want to be sure that they move it using the base, and don't yank on the tables. And that they don't stack heavy stuff on the tables in the truck. Even so, you may need to re-tune it when you get where you're going.

best wishes
...art

[Matt Meiser]

I moved my shop twice in a few months a few years ago--once into storage and once to the new house. One thing I did that made moving bulking-but-light things (like dust collection parts) easier was to get some pallets, bolt big casters to them, and attach 3/8" plywood sides to make big rolling bins. Harbor Freight has some nice casters that are inexpensive and you cna reuse them later for shop carts.

We moved everything to storage about 5 miles with our minivan and 5x8 trailer and a lot of trips. We moved everything from storage to the shop, about 5 miles again, with a big moving truck with a lift gate. That took 2 trips on a Saturday and we spent most of the morning screwing around waiting for the truck we reserved to show up from a "more important customer" (their words.) We didn't really pack the truck like we could have since we were close. If I had to move further, it could easily have been packed much tighter, which also would be better because things couldn't move around as much.

Another thing that worked out nice was that my wife works for a hospital and we were able to get a lot of nice boxes all the same size. Some kind of surgical "kit" comes in them. That made stacking much easier and they also had handles.

Wood is the hardest thing to move IMHO because it weighs a lot, is bulky, and you can only carry a little at a time. I burned ALL my cutoffs before moving. They replenish quickly.

To protect surfaces in storage, I coated them liberally with Boeshield. When we pulled everything out, it looked like there was a little rust on everything, but it wiped right off with the Boeshield.

Make sure you pack a tool box with stuff you'll need at the new place so you don't have to dig through all your shop boxes to find the thing you need.

We had major work to do on my shop to make it habitable so we left everything in storage for an extra month over the house stuff. I just took things like the compressor and miter saw to the shop. That made the work go much quicker because everything wasn't in the way.

[glenn bradley]

I'm assuming Uncle Sam will move you or help to offset the cost (at least some of my tax dollars will go to good use ;-))

I'd pick up some junk ply and 2x4's and make my own crates. Remove motors and tables where appropriate and crate them securely. As mentioned; any large tools that are scheduled to be replaced might be sold and replaced a bit ahead of schedule to save room.

I moved myself 600 miles and preferred a ramp truck BUT, I had sloping driveways at both ends which allowed me to position the truck as to make the ramp pretty much level (more like a bridge from truck to shop).

[Mark Patoka]

Jesse,
I've made several military moves and have had no problems moving my garage shop. At the time the largest items were my tablesaw, jointer and benchtop DP. Everything else was handtools or small items that could be packed in boxes. If you have the movers move you, the truck driver will actually dictate how he wants the big stuff loaded and wrapped in blankets to protect it. I was also present when the packers were there and was able to oversee the packing of the small stuff.

Without knowing what you have to move, you could also go the Do-it-yourself route and move the big items if you're concerned about them. And don't forget pictures or video to document the "before" state of everything in case you need to file damage claims. If you can have them load the truck and take it straight to your new house, that will minimize handling and potential for damage. If they have to put it in storage and then deliver it to your new house, it just increases the odds of something happening or going missing due to the extra handling and a totally different crew and company.


FYI for everyone else - yes, the gov't does pay a moving company to move military members if you are on orders to move. If you want to do it yourself they will also pay you a percentage of what it would cost to have it done professionally. There are also weight limitations based on your rank so anyone that has lots of iron could easily bust those limits and have to pay that difference out of their pocket.

[Jesse Espe]

Your responses have all been very helpful. It's been a hectic week, as you can imagine. While nobody in this house is looking forward to the move, there are very many positive aspects. One of the biggest is that one of my wife's dearest friends will be moving to the area about the same time we will be, and odds are good that her husband and I (also good friends) will work near each other as well.

Uncle Sam will indeed move most of my household goods. After shedding some pretty heavy items, we should make the weight limit (hopefully :p ). My inclination is to do a door-to-door move, just because of what Mark was saying - letting the trucking company put it in storage significantly increases the odds of something getting broke. I'm also inclined to move my garage/shop myself, so when something breaks or goes wrong, I have nobody to blame but myself.

The question is, "Where am I going to put all this stuff?"

A tangent:

LOML came to bed last night, nearly in tears, frustrated over a non-productive search for houses on the internet. After asking her what was wrong, she said that she couldn't find anything with a garage.

"A garage?" I asked. "You haven't used any of the garages that we've had in any of our homes..."

"Baby, you need a place to put your tools..."

She's a keeper.

[Steve Clardy]

She's a keeper.



Thats great ;)

[Art Mulder]

She's a keeper.

Tomorrow, buy her flowers.

Hope you find something with a garage...

[Bruce Volden]

I just finished a local move (50 miles +-) and see that everyone has given great advice for the BIG stuff!!!!! HOWEVER I seem to be missing lotsa my frequently needed small jigs, tools, rags, finishes, nut/bolts.......that I was certain I placed in a perfectly labelled box somewhere:D :D I have to stress labelling stuff! Then again 99% of the population on earth is much more organized than myself, (ADD ?):eek:


Bruce

[Brent Dowell]

Bruce, I know what you mean.

After a year, I just recently started making sawdust again.

Things are still in boxes, and this is really just a temporary shop in my garage until I get real one built, someday.

I spend more time looking for things than I do putting things together, it seems... :rolleyes:

[Tyler Howell]

In the process right now. A little bit every week. It will take a year and 4 mo to complete.:o