Moving my workshop

[Josh Davidson]

I just bought a new home like a mile away with a much larger garage. I've been having a hell of a time finding a moving company. Most of the specialty piano movers won't do the job (only insured for pianos) or simply don't respond. I found a company that is willing to do it, but I'm concerned that they don't have a lift gate on their truck. My jointer/planer and table saw are probably the heaviest items, and I can't really envision how those will be safely lifted into a truck. Anyone ever have their shopped moved by movers without a lift gate? The owner of the company says he's moved a number of commercial shops and lack of a lift gate isn't a problem.

[Mike King]

Some info on what items need to be moved would be useful. Are you talking about machinery weighing a couple of tons or a few hundred pounds? There is a big difference. Like equipment weight more than 1,000 pounds really shouldn't be moved with a lift gate.

Have you thought about moving it yourself? A drop deck trailer and a pallet jack can do amazing things...

Mike

[Jim Becker]

I ended up doing my recent move myself, using my utility trailer, ramps and a winch. Local rigger wanted $4K "for the day" and other resources like you mention were not interested. The machinery took three trips with two helpers; one another 'Creeker and one my daughter's BF. I did the benches and boxes myself.

[Josh Davidson]

Some info on what items need to be moved would be useful. Are you talking about machinery weighing a couple of tons or a few hundred pounds? There is a big difference. Like equipment weight more than 1,000 pounds really shouldn't be moved with a lift gate.

Have you thought about moving it yourself? A drop deck trailer and a pallet jack can do amazing things...

Mike

Heaviest item I have is my jointer/planer which is listed at 610lbs. Then it's probably my 80 gallon compressor or table saw. Then just other largish tools (band saw, drill press, floor sanders, etc). I just want the machines moved and will handle everything else myself.

Only other complication is my driveway is quite steep. Only 28' long or so and paved, but steep enough for vehicles to slide into the road in the winter.

[Ron Selzer]

good mover would have no problem with what you listed.
lift gate not needed

[Eugene Dixon]

Rented a Penske Lift gate truck for my move from NC to the condo in GA (300+ miles) and from the condo to SC (25ish miles). Had strong people on both moves, a plethora of furniture dollies, one HF handtruck and an appliance hand truck. Most of the shop tools were on wheels and piano (upright) has wheels which I refuse to use inside the house (sliders for floor from blue box). The piano went down 6 or 7 awkwardly shaped brick steps. We used brute force and HF AL ramps, mostly the former. Four people moved the piano in NC, 3 in SC.

The Penske truck was expensive even if it was 'local' (yep drove it back to NC), as it was day rate and milage. Still, I was responsible for any and all damages. We have found only two broken glass shelves so far and are still unpacking.

The biggest shop tool was the lathe, about 750 lbs. The legs/feet were pre-drilled and accepted double lock casters. Second hardest was probably the 17" bandsaw but its just disgustingly awkward to handle; two wheels and a roller lift handle. Second heaviest or maybe most heaviest was a pew-pew cabinet. Used 1" PVC conduit and PVC pipe. If we needed to jump a concrete joint we had a couple of larger diameter pipes. Once it was on a smooth surface, just pushed it.

FWIW, my SIL has friends who are competitive and so just a little tease and they are trying to outdo each other. Just kept an eye on them for safety concerns.

Hope this helps.

And I'm pushing 7 decades, if you care. The two moves happened in the last 13 most.

[Jaromir Svoboda]

I moved my shop by myself few years ago. I rented truck with biggest liftgate at Enterprise. They had 3 sizes. I strapped everything to pallets and used pallet jack. I moved sliding saw, shaper, lathe, 20' planer, 16" jointer, edge sander plus lot of other tools. Jointer was about 1,500lb

[David M Peters]

I had a normal moving company move my shop out of my basement. My old shop had a very narrow exterior door (29") so disassembled my tools as much as possible. Also, I figured lighter tools would mean fewer accidents!

The heaviest thing they had to move was likely my sliding table saw base, perhaps ~300 by itself. But they also had awkward things to contend with like a the bandsaw (Laguna 1412) and drill press (17" floor model). I think I moved my AB lathe myself 'cause it's my baby :-)

Their truck did not have a lift gate but just a series of ramps. They did the shop along with the rest of the house in one trip with no extra surcharges.

[Tom M King]

For a one mile move, I'd use the tractor, with loader, and not even bother with a trailer. What you want to move is pretty simple. Even the Uhaul trucks have ramps for the back.

[Randall J Cox]

My son (a fireman) and a friend moved my shop a couple of miles with a pickup and a horse trailer, couple of dollies, and a hand truck. I have old Delta 15" planer, Unisaw, Rockwell 15" drill press, and 18" MiniMax band saw and a 10" Delta band saw, 2 hp dust collection system, Delta center pivot radial arm saw, 12" chopsaw, 6x48 belt sander, and an old Delta lathe. They did the work and made it look easy, all moved in one trip. The lathe was the heaviest at about 550 lbs. No special equipment used. I packed and moved lots of boxes of misc stuff ahead of time. Been in the new shop (three car garage) now almost a year and just now getting fully set up. Had to wire it for 240v and just also installed a mini split for heating and cooling. Randy

[Michael Schuch]

Rent a drop deck trailer and move them yourself while saving a ton of money:

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[David LaRue]

I used a PackRat with a very small ramp to move cross country. I also have a "StairCat - Esculara" to that has the fork lift option to move items up and down stairs. I used a local moving company on both ends, 1/2 minimum 3 movers about $450. I agree the drop deck would work too, just have to have good weather and a vehicle to pull it.

[Leigh Betsch]

I've moved my shop twice, once into a storage shed and once out of it, withy drop deck motorcycle trailer. I just bought a pallet jack for moving things around the shop. I was renting one.
it's really pretty simple with a drop deck and pallet jack.

[Jim Becker]

Rent a drop deck trailer and move them yourself while saving a ton of money:

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I looked into one of these when I was preparing for my shop move a few months ago. Rental drop deck required a 3/4 ton truck/equivalent or the rental place wouldn't rent it. Those are extremely heavy trailers.

[Mike Rugg]

I moved my shop about a mile last year myself (with the help of my 16 year old son). I rented an open trailer with a ramp at U-haul and went at it. Hardest thing to move was my slider/combo (1,500# or so), but it had a mobile base so I just used a Harbor Freight come-along and some plywood (ramp wasn't solid/smooth and needed the ply to allow the mobile base to roll) to get it up on the trailer. I also rented an appliance dolly (the type you move a refrigerator with) to move some things. For my lathe, I bought two of the Harbor Freight moving dollies (like $13 each) and bolted them to each end of the lathe and was able to use the come-along to get it up on the trailer just like the slider/combo. While I took off all accessories and prepped the machines for the move beforehand, me and my son had things moved pretty quickly. Getting straps, the dollies, and prepping the machines beforehand was key to making for a relatively quick move. If your J/P has a mobile base, that should help a lot. Also, if your table saw is a standard cabinet saw, it shouldn't be bad to move with an appliance dolly once the extension table and such are removed (I moved one that way for my previous move).