Hi All,
I hope to get some suggestions/ideas on how to best move my basement shop to our new house with a separate ground-level shop building. Any thoughts? The movers come in 2 weeks. It should only take about a day to move all the stuff in the house and the shop (luckily a local move).
I have been thinning down my scrap pile and most of the lumber stock is in a POD already. I have started to clean up and pack small tools and supplies.
My big concern is the power tools. How do I take them apart in such a way to get them out of the basement but not lose any parts? I would hate to think that my Delta tablesaw would end up like “Mike and the Steam Shovel” and be permanently stuck in the basement.
Once everything is to the new shop space, I’m guessing that will be a good time to plan on a tune-up of every tool even if it didn’t get taken apart.
Helpful suggestions on the been there/don’t do this or do this instead would be greatly appreciated.
Craig
Replies
Moving to a new shop is a great time to re-think your whole layout. My last move (and oh-man there have been many) was from a ground floor to a basement. (I started on a third floor and have been descending ever since) the move gave me opportunity to build new worktops and tool cabinets and install a dust collection system. Well worth the time. I had to forfeit a subfloor due to ceiling height however.
My whole shop, materials and tools fit into a 24' cube van. About 50% was wood. The machines required some breakdown as most are too heavy to move in one piece. I suggest you bag fasteners and fasten them into the machine cabinets or get a dedicated tool box for just those parts and the wrenches sized to remove them.
Don't thin out the woodpile too much. You always need scrappy stuff to get things set up.
An overhaul of each machine is a good idea on the other end. Once everything is tuned up, you'll be ready to fly with no problems.
I've made a point to start putting time into improving all shop furniture piece by piece. The latest was a good layout table. Check out the Wood Whisperer for his torsion box layout table project.
Mark Reuten
http://www.nomadboatbuilding.com
Hey don't use the M word. Or that other word U-h**l (these days more like U-FixIt). Makes me twitch and my tick starts up. When ever my partner and I are out and we see someone with a U-h**l we look at each other and smile; 'cause it aint us ! ! !
Get some mechanic's tie wire so you can run it through loose parts that go together and twist the ends. Get some of those tags with a stout reinforced hole to put on the wire when needed.
Use a magic marker (pencil may become too light to read) and some paper to label the zip lock bag contents. I have built entire sports cars taken apart by someone else this way. It works great.
If there are shims or gibs involved be especially careful to bag and label (take notes).
Where castings go together in pairs if there is any question about alignment or multiples you can make two punch marks across from each other, one on each half, to help realign later; called "witness marks". Especially if you will be cleaning them in solvent or painting them before reassembly. Or you may just want to run some magic marker lines across the parts before you separate them but the marker may just get wiped off greasy dirty surfaces.
Take some pictures with parts laid out as they came off.
I find an automobile engine hoist comes in handy. You know . . . has an extendable beam with a hook on top with big long fork like legs on the bottom and a hydraulic jack/ram in between. Best to find someone who has used one to help you. This is an excellent opportunity to break allot of expensive stuff fast so think it out before hand, be careful and go slow. Best to back track than to "Go For It" and be sorry.
Load bearing chain and stout cloth straps capable of pulling a car come in handy so the chain does not beat up the edges of your tools.
Several strong people may be a quicker substitute for all this but I wind up moving at three in the morning by my self so what do I know.
Put the tools in the moving van so they cannot shift and get damaged. A big old heavy tool that is hard to move in your shop can easily topple or slide across the moving van floor when the truck starts and stops.
I have seen an apparently hard to slide 600 lb block of bronze sculpture fall right out on the street while some one in the truck carrying it drove right out from under it. They had failed to strap it down and did not bother to close the tail gate. "It aint goin' no where" were the famous last words. Yah; now that it is in the middle of the road and not in the truck; "It aint goin' no where".
And last but not least get several lengths of 3/4" pipe and a crow bar. You can just lever up a machine, put a few pipes under it, parallel to each other and roll the machine across the floor, as if it were on a dolly, replacing pipes as they roll out from under the machine. Thank you Scott of Iotta Woodworks!
To quote a Cat Stevens song: go slow, think allot; think of all the things you've got for you may be here tomorrow but your tools may not. Or something like that.
Edited 10/21/2008 3:29 am by roc
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