Relocating my shop - advice wanted

[kevin]

In the next couple of months I will be selling my house and moving to a new home 150 miles away. Along with the usual misery of moving all my furniture, etc., I will also be moving the contents of my home shop - 3 lathes, a benchtop mill, workbenches, tooling, grinders, table saw, bandsaw, power tools, garage tools, lumber, raw metal stock, etc.

Some of the stuff is in my basement, so moving that stuff will be fun. At the new house, I'll be moving metal shop stuff into the basement (has a ground level walk in, so that will help), and wood shop stuff into the garage.

No doubt there are others out there who have gone through this before, so I'm asking: What lessons did you learn from relocating your shop? What worked well? What didn't work? Any and all advice welcomed.

 

[DougD]

Unfortunately I have moved and had to reset up my shop too many times. You are lucky it is 150 miles not thousands!
To respond to your questions without a dissertation on the possibilities I need to know more.
Are you moving yourself or a moving company? Are you doing all the packing?
Do you have overlapping times? In other words do you have time to move sections and set up before you have to be totally moved?
Sounds like you are complicating it too by separating/dividing to two shops (yep did that too).
I'd be glad to offer opinions, but at least know you will be between an adventure and nightmare.
doug

 

[Groundhog]

Only thing I learned from a 1,000 mile move is that "I'll never do THAT again!"

Good help (a musician who moves his Hammond B3 organ weekly), right tools (dollies, jacks, etc.), heavy plywood over any sod/ground.

 

[DHarris]

While not actually for the move itself, make sure you have all of the AC power, lighting & actual machine layouts finalized before your move - - - that way you only have to move the heavy stuff ONCE - - - wish I'd thought of that on the last move - - -

 

[kevin]

Doug - Good questions, here is my plan so far:

I will hire a moving company to move the household stuff (furniture, etc.). I will probably hire some help to get the heavy stuff out of the basement; I may also have them move the stuff to the new location. I plan to move toolboxes and "loose tools" (which I will pack) myself, as well as tooling and accessories.

The old house and the new house will both be available for a while, so I don't have to move everything at once. I'll be going back and forth a few times while I get the old house ready for sale, so I can take a trailer load each time.

The reason I have two shops is that I do the wood shop stuff in the garage - I don't have a dust collection system so an open garage door is the next best thing to keeping air-born dust levels down. Unfortunately this limits wood working to the warmer months (I'm in Michigan). All the metal shop stuff goes in the basement, so I can work there year-round.

 

[CluelessNewB]

Move what you can yourself. 99.9% of the employees of moving companies don't have a clue about moving machines, expect them to lift machines using crank handles and pulleys. If you can, do any wiring and painting before you move the equipment in. Tools are heavy, movers charge by weight, let them handle the light household stuff, move the heavy stuff yourself. It may be cheaper to buy a used enclosed trailer and use it for several trips, you can typically sell it for what you paid for it. You can't have too much lighting in your shop. Have a yard sale before you move. Have another yard sale after you move . If you don't need it and you can't sell it donate it (Habitat For Humanity, Goodwill, Salvation Army).

 

[brino]

Yep, I gotta echo the "move the machines yourself" comment above.
I read too many stories here of either incompetent or just unqualified (so called) "moving companies".
Sure the good ones are ensured but all that means you are on still the hook for getting a fair quote, chasing the company, buying the replacement, etc. If that all goes well, then its just a PITA and a big delay.......if it goes wrong then it's much worse.

If you really need to hire a machine move then you need to find an experienced machinery mover, set expectations about weight and top-heaviness, and build crates around the machines thus forcing them to lift it properly.

@Ulma Doctor did a video about building a crate around a lathe(or was it a shaper?).....I'm still trying to find it......will post back when I do....

Good luck with the move.......we all feel your pain!

-brino

EDIT: it was a lathe, here's a link to the videos:

 

[rrjohnso2000]

I would add.

Heavywall small cardboard boxes do a decent job with tools.

Milk crates are relatively cheap to purchase for some of the heavier/larger items. They stack well and are easy to secure.

Good luck and start packing up now

 

[dennys502]

When I bought my mill I bolted it to 4 x 6 lumber that fit between the sides of the trailer. This keeps it from moving around.
I used carriage bolts from the bottom up and then strapped it down.
I used them again when I bought my Lathe.

 

[dlane]

I'm with Groundhog on this one , I recently moved about 200mi , I hired a well known moving co that had a hd (heavy duty) lift gate truck . They charged by volume not weight
The movers were basically clueless about moving machines /equipment
After we got the heavy things in the truck I did all the tie down , braceing , screwed 2x4 into floor around machine bases and braced off walls with more wood then used hd ( heavy duty) ratchet straps to wall rails, The machines / equipment I tied up were fine . It wasn't cheep but most everything made it ok, I don't plan on ever having to do this again.
Everything went into a ground level shop and I'm still trying to organize things
I used mostly heavy produce boxs and milk crates, HD (Home Depot) boxs are wimpy
Hope all goes well with your move