Should I Move the Shop, or Start Over ?????

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EdM

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Dec 24, 2018
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Well, my wife and I finally decided to pack it in and move from Long Island down to SE Florida, Boynton or Delray Beach.
Listed the house 3 weeks ago, sold it for asking price in 3 days, and now planning to make the move mid August.
We had our first movers come in today and give us an estimate, and they want 3-4K just to move my shop, due to the estimated weight.
I don't think I paid more than 3K for my power tools and tool boxes.

So, what do you think ? Should I bite the bullet and move the stuff, or sell it off and repurchase once I'm down there ???

Ed
 
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jeff

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One issue I encountered when I sold my house and moved the shop was damage to my shop equipment. Furniture movers are not machinery movers. They hooked ratchet straps to the blade guide on my bandsaw (bent it) and a handwheel on my tablesaw (broke it). They broke the cast iron leg of a workbench, and stood my lathe on end and twisted the bed. Most stationary power tools are way heavier than any furniture, and it takes some knowledge and equipment to move them safely and without damage. I agree with @pshrynk that selling is the better option.
 

Curly

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If your tools are easily replaced or you want to take the opportunity to upgrade then flog and buy new. If you have special tools that are hard to replace like old iron 16" jointers or a pattern makers lathe you would want to crate them yourself and bring them. The other thing to consider is will you have the same sized shop/bigger/ smaller because if you move into a place that is smaller there may not be room for some of it? You could look into the cost of crating and freighting the tools separately. Hope the move is fun and works out for you guys.

Oh take the opportunity to get a Clear Vue or Oneida Cylone in the new shop before all the money is spent on useless things like furniture and lawn chairs. :)
 

randyrls

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*IF* you decide to move, look for specialty movers that can move machinery. I know from experience that there a special companies that move pianos and electronic organs.
 

GaryMGg

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It depends on what you own and what replacements would cost.

It'd cost me lots to replace my Unisaw and all the accessories it's paired with and I doubt the quality would match up at twice the price.

All this to reiterate: it depends.
 

leehljp

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When I moved back from Japan, I brought my Rikon lathe, and bench top radial drill press, my contractors saw, thickness planer, and a ton of other tools with me. However, I started about 6 months prior to leaving and made my own crates for each heavy tool and filled them with hand tools and parts. They were heavy but they were in movable crates. I didn't have any damage in the move from Japan to my MS home. We did not have any broken dishes either. I am kind obsessive and tend to overbuild or over use packing material. It worked. We packed boxes of things but the movers packed the furniture. They did as good a job as I did, but I still didn't trust them with our very delicate items or my tools.
 

Lucky2

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Ed, I just went through two moves in the last year and a half, and I kept my tools. They all were in to good of condition to sell, nobody would have paid half of what they were worth. For the first move, my brother and I packed and moved everything ourselves. It wasn't all that hard, and it made sure my tools were packed and protected the way I thought they should be. For the second move, I hired a professional moving company my girlfriend had used in the past. The owner of the moving company, wouldn't move my tools with our other furniture. He stated that I would need to have him make a second trip with the tools, he said that tools don't belong on the same truck as furniture. I didn't mind, because I didn't want everything on the same truck anyway. So he moved everything for me in two trips, which was fine as the move wasn't very gar from point A to point B. But, if I were moving any distance, I would purchase a vehicle and move my tools that way. I did that once in the past, and I had no problem selling the vehicle I bought for the move. But for that move, I didn't have the tools I now own. And most of the tools that I now own, are in next to new condition and have used very little. I lost everything in the line of tools, in a garage fire years ago. And I replaced everything with the insurance check, and have added other tools to the collection. So, maybe you could look into buying a truck or large trailer, and move your tools yourself. It would save a lot of money, plus it would give you a place to store your tools, until you bought a place. It's something to think about, and it's another option that maybe you didn't think about. Let us know what you decide, I'm interested in what you do choose to do now. Good luck.

Len
 

jttheclockman

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Probably something you should have given some thought to before you put the house up for sale. Do you have a house at the other end or is things going to storage?? Have to consider storage pricing as well. If you have a house and a shop do you have a place for the equipment you have now?? Would you want to keep your tools and no one can answer that for you. Easy for us to say yea go buy new. If you do not take with you will you try to sell and what time frame are you talking about?? Take some tools you really want and sell of others. Buy replacement down there as you find a need. Not an easy call and you will have to make that one. Good luck.
 

Sly Dog

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Seems like a no brainer. The cost to move your shop is more than the purchase price of your tools - tools that are now worth less, substantially less probably. If you have the money to move them, then save yourself one more moving hassle and, as Jeff pointed out, possible damage to your stuff.

I'd sell and buy replacements in Florida. Good luck with your move, Ed!

Russ
 

MRDucks2

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If the coat of moving exceeds cost of replacement, makes no since to move it. If value is greater than cost of moving, move it. Use a professional, bonded and insured mover. When I moved from Houston to Indianapolis, we had stuff damaged. It was all repaired or replaced. Stuff will be damaged, just expect it. Being there when they pack stuff helps, but our stuff was packed on a single semi, moved somewhere, unloaded, repacked into "vaults" (big plywood boxes that can be moved by forklift), stored for a period and loaded back onto two semi's and a 5 ton.

The stuff we expected to be damaged wasn't. Things like floor lamp, coffee maker, generator were.

My move cost my company $23,000 for 1 full semi and 1000 miles.
 

Rjweb

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I moved from Pennsylvania to Texas a few years back, sold big equipment saws, but packed up all my hand tools, wasn't to bad as far as cost, but that is true it can cost more to move than selling it and buying new, RJ
 

pshrynk

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If the coat of moving exceeds cost of replacement, makes no since to move it. If value is greater than cost of moving, move it. Use a professional, bonded and insured mover. When I moved from Houston to Indianapolis, we had stuff damaged. It was all repaired or replaced. Stuff will be damaged, just expect it. Being there when they pack stuff helps, but our stuff was packed on a single semi, moved somewhere, unloaded, repacked into "vaults" (big plywood boxes that can be moved by forklift), stored for a period and loaded back onto two semi's and a 5 ton.

The stuff we expected to be damaged wasn't. Things like floor lamp, coffee maker, generator were.

My move cost my company $23,000 for 1 full semi and 1000 miles.
I moved 63 miles and had a full semi. They tried charging me $26,000 and tried to add on an unloading fee of $6,000 after the fact. For an estimate of $14,000.
 

EdM

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Well, finally made the move to Boynton Beach last month, using a company that moved all shop items and my 9 guitars for $1500, which was well worth it.
No damage, and the shop is still boxed up in the 2 car garage while I work on getting my wife happy with the house setup.
Next step is to outfit the garage with proper electric, which raises my next question;
I have no lighting in this 20x20 space other than 2 bulb 4' florescent. What array of LED lights do i need to install to obtain the proper lighting for this new shop ???

BTW, thanks to all who added their 2cents above. Very helpful and appreciated!!!

Ed
 

Curly

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Congrats on the move.

Lighting is not really that hard. You either take the approach of putting the bright lights where you do the work (task lighting) and some general light for the rest so you don't trip in the dark. Not my preferred. Or you put lots of light over the entire shop which allows you versatility when you change up the layout. That's what I did.

From what I could find the accepted rule of thumb for detailed work in a shop was for 100 foot candles / 1000 lumens per square foot. So your shop would need 40,000 lumens of light. I used LED batten fixtures that I bought direct from China that are 4000 lumens each meaning if you bought similar you would need 10 arranged evenly across the ceiling and I would run them on two or more switches. If I had each on its own connection instead of linking them in chain I could have used a dimmer.

The other thing you want to consider is the colour temperature of the lights. If you like the warm colour of the old incandescent bulbs you want an LED in the 3,500K range (K = Kelvin a measure of temperature) and if you like it bright, like noon day daylight, then you are up to the 6,000K range which is what I got.

That should get you started. If you have any other questions I can try and answer.
 

pshrynk

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The 3500 K lights, in my opinion seem to add yellow to the colors around them. The 6000 K lights have quite a lot of blue, but are closer to sun spectrum. Again, IMO only.
 

WriteON

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Hi. I'm in Lake Worth. Flag me down if you see me wearing the IAP T shirt. Will be moving to Boynton next Fall.
 

Gary Beasley

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I put 5k leds in my shop. Got twice the light for half the power. 5k color temperature is the standard for daylight which it why I used it. The 6k is more in line with high altitude light and can be hard on the eyes. Use what feels best for you.
 

JimB

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I have 4' LED 5000 lumens from Harbor Freight. With a coupon they are as low as $20. I have 4 of them in my 18 x 10 basement shop. It is very bright in there and there isn't any outside light coming in. I do have some task lighting but that is only needed for some special times when looking at certain angles, inside a hollow form or fine detail.
 

WriteON

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Well, finally made the move to Boynton Beach last month, using a company that moved all shop items and my 9 guitars for $1500, which was well worth it.
No damage, and the shop is still boxed up in the 2 car garage while I work on getting my wife happy with the house setup.
Next step is to outfit the garage with proper electric, which raises my next question;
I have no lighting in this 20x20 space other than 2 bulb 4' florescent. What array of LED lights do i need to install to obtain the proper lighting for this new shop ???

BTW, thanks to all who added their 2cents above. Very helpful and appreciated!!!

Ed
Hope you're settled in and enjoying Boynton. Do you have a surge protector on your panel? Florida electric/power is known for surges. Can be brutal and damaging.
 
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I have dedicated work space/benches for each thing I do. I have a 4' LED light I picked up at Costco that I put each on it's own switch over each work station. I also use LED bulbs on swing light arms for areas where I need just a bit more light (like my lathe and band saw). Works well and doesn't run down the batteries (I live completely off grid).
 

JPW062

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Ohio
Hope you are enjoying the new shop.
I find the color of the light is much more important than the brightness.

For future reference on moving:
$3-4K makes me think they were doing the driving. One can save a lot of money hiring someone to load and unload a u-haul and drive themselves. At least half in my experience. Most moving companies offer this service even if they do not advertise it. I have had better luck with people off of craigslist. Most of the movers on craigslist work at a company and moonlight independently. Same people likely to move you going through a company, but at a higher price.

Everyone in my family owns 10-15 empty 27 gallon yellow and black tough totes available from almost every big box store. The different stores are not compatible although they look it.. Whenever anyone moves we just borrow them all.

Supervision is key even if you hire end to end service. You are hiring muscle, not brains. Last time I moved one of the guys was carrying three totes of dishes down the stairs. He couldn't see and I wouldn't try to lift that much, but they were cheap dishes so I let him do his thing. I moved the 150 year old Haviland limoges myself.
 

ebill

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........What array of LED lights do i need to install to obtain the proper lighting for this new shop ??? Ed

- I have been adding lights (4 tube floros) in my shop off and on. No matter how many I might need, there is always one more area that has shadows and less than adequate lighting. It could be my eyes are getting older <g> but then again, more light is better than less. My space is similar in size and I have 4. 4 more <total 8> would do the trick I think. Lots of guides and plans on the internet you can research but let your eyes and what types of woodworking you do determine YOUR needs, not the article writers ideas based on some generic calculations.

- another thing to consider, when I moved to this place I thought about epoxy coat for the floor. Wish I would have done it when I was thinking about it. Now I really would like to, but moving all my tools and other 'stuff' out for a couple of days to do it seems to be my holdup. Well, that and the cost ...... sigh.

- ebill
 

ebill

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- I have been adding lights (4 tube floros) in my shop off and on. No matter how many I might need, there is always one more area.......

- ebill

- I know, bad form replying to my own post, but I forgot to mention, my shop has a ceiling height of 10'-6". If you have lower ceilings you could reduce the number of lights I suggested.

rgds,

- ebill
 

EdM

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@ebill - Thanks for your input ! My ceiling is 9'
I purchased 4- 4' LED lights off Amazon, and will install this week.
There are some very cost effective ways to epoxy the floor. Last garage I did with the Rustoleum product, and was able to do half of the floor at a time by moving everything to the other side, as all my tools and cabinets are on wheeled stands or tables. Also, Benjamin Moore make some products designed for shop floor coating that aren't too costly.

Ed
 

WriteON

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@ebill - Thanks for your input ! My ceiling is 9'
I purchased 4- 4' LED lights off Amazon, and will install this week.
There are some very cost effective ways to epoxy the floor. Last garage I did with the Rustoleum product, and was able to do half of the floor at a time by moving everything to the other side, as all my tools and cabinets are on wheeled stands or tables. Also, Benjamin Moore make some products designed for shop floor coating that aren't too costly.

Ed
Costco on Southern Blvd has 4" LEDS that are priced right if you need more. As for the floor .... DIY floor paint works well and can always touched up. I had the garage floor done with epoxy. Parking car in garage ruined it. Never again.
 
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