How To Ship 70 Saws Overseas...

[bulletpruf]

Fellas -

At last count, I have 59 saws and one year left before it's time to move back to the states from Italy. I'll have at least 70 to ship, perhaps a few more.

A moving company is responsible for moving us and all of our stuff back to the U.S. If I let them do all of the packing, they would probably box up each saw individually and then stack the boxes on top of each other. And then the boxes would go into a crate, and then the crates go into a shipping container.

I think a better way of doing it would be for me to put the saws on pallets, cushioned by cardboard, and then stack the pallets on top of each other. The movers will have pallet jacks that they can use to move the pallets.

As you can see from the picture below, I can get about 9-10 medium sized saw (these are all Jonsered 60, 601, 62, 621) on a pallet. And I think I can add another pallet on top of this one; should be easy enough to do using 2x4's as a frame and plywood or pallet wood for the sides. Figure total weight (2x pallets with 20 saws and bars) would be somewhere between 400-500 lbs. Looks like a basic pallet can handle up to 3 tons, but if you stack them 3 high, I think that would start to get a bit unwieldy.

All the saws will be clean and no oil or fuel, of course. Bare metal will have a light coat of oil, Boeshield, or something along those lines. The containers can be a bit humid, so if I wanted to be picky, I could also wrap the outside of the pallets in plastic and put some sort of desiccant inside but that might be overkill.

If you're curious to hear how they all got over here, I only had 2 saws when we arrived in Italy in 2015. I've accumulated 57 more in the past 6 months...

 

[jackjcc]

Something like this would be useful, I've shipped lots of heavy stuff in these while stacking and strapping them.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[GrassGuerilla]

Are your saws serving you, or are you serving your saws? Just asking... went through a divorce two years ago and have begun to think differently about collecting, storing, moving and trying to protect things in my care. Do what makes you happy, but from now on my things serve me not the other way around. I'd sell the majority to make my life simpler and worry free. To each his own though.

 

[undee70ss]

A new saw every 3-4 days, you got CAD BAD!!!

 

[Pioneer]

Wow, CAD in the worst way. I actually reversed the trend and sold a few off this spring.

 

[Sportfury70]

What's up muscle car/diesel truck/gun/chainsaw buddy!?

Being in the military, I wouldn't do a dang thing. Let the moving company pack and ship 'em. You can always file a claim if there's any damage. I've dunnit before with nothing more than pictures and a receipt/ or current retail ad.

Custom pack the special ones, but save yourself the trouble for the rest.

You and I both know there's so much other crap to worry about during a PCS, don't make a weeks worth of cleaning, packing, and crating chainsaws one more of those issues.

 

[raumati01]

I've been wondering what the total was after reading your posts.

 

[ChoppyChoppy]

Are your saws serving you, or are you serving your saws? Just asking... went through a divorce two years ago and have begun to think differently about collecting, storing, moving and trying to protect things in my care. Do what makes you happy, but from now on my things serve me not the other way around. I'd sell the majority to make my life simpler and worry free. To each his own though.

My exact thoughts too.

I mean shoot I cut wood for a living and I own 4 saws.

 

[ChoppyChoppy]

What's up muscle car/diesel truck/gun/chainsaw buddy!?

Being in the military, I wouldn't do a dang thing. Let the moving company pack and ship 'em. You can always file a claim if there's any damage. I've dunnit before with nothing more than pictures and a receipt/ or current retail ad.

Custom pack the special ones, but save yourself the trouble for the rest.

You and I both know there's so much other crap to worry about during a PCS, don't make a weeks worth of cleaning, packing, and crating chainsaws one more of those issues.

The .mil won't move several hundred lbs of chainsaws. I always had to fight with them to even move my toolbox, which is just a standard sized unit, maybe 5ft tall, 4ft wide.
Will they move them at an exorbitant cost? Maybe. One move they tried to charge me $3000 to pack and move the toolbox. It was empty too.

Plus only had 10,000lb allowance.

 

[blsnelling]

That is some SERIOUS CAD! However, you did it in a calculated and planned way. My hat's off!

 

[Sportfury70]

The .mil won't move several hundred lbs of chainsaws. I always had to fight with them to even move my toolbox, which is just a standard sized unit, maybe 5ft tall, 4ft wide.
Will they move them at an exorbitant cost? Maybe. One move they tried to charge me $3000 to pack and move the toolbox. It was empty too.

Plus only had 10,000lb allowance.

Ive never had this issue. As long as I stayed within my weight allowance, I've been able ship all my tools and gear without penalty. I would talk to the HHG Coordinator to make sure the moving company isn't trying to stiff you.

I usually do a "partial" with the important stuff getting moved by me here in the states. Weigh the truck empty, then again full and get reimbursed for the difference. On top of them moving all my house furnishings, I got a couple hundred dollars to move about 700lbs worth of my stuff from Seattle to Long Island.

 

[ChoppyChoppy]

Ive never had this issue. As long as I stayed within my weight allowance, I've been able ship all my tools and gear without penalty. I would talk to the HHG Coordinator to make sure the moving company isn't trying to stiff you.

I usually do a "partial" with the important stuff getting moved by me here in the states. Weigh the truck empty, then again full and get reimbursed for the difference. On top of them moving all my house furnishings, I got a couple hundred dollars to move about 700lbs worth of my stuff from Seattle to Long Island.[/QUOTEheThey have a long list of stuff that isn't shippable, stuff like 70 saws I'm quite sure would make that list! I have no reason to talk to anyone, I was medically separated 4 years ago after 12 years of service. Im a disabled vet now.

 

[bulletpruf]

Something like this would be useful, I've shipped lots of heavy stuff in these while stacking and strapping them.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Those are a bit spendy, from what I can tell. And shipping them here wouldn't be cheap. Might make sense if I could find some local.

Thanks

 

[bulletpruf]

Are your saws serving you, or are you serving your saws? Just asking... went through a divorce two years ago and have begun to think differently about collecting, storing, moving and trying to protect things in my care. Do what makes you happy, but from now on my things serve me not the other way around. I'd sell the majority to make my life simpler and worry free. To each his own though.

I'm enjoying it at this point, and the hobby isn't an enormous time suck. I spend some time on the net during the week, just an hour or two in the garage during the week, and several hours in the garage on the weekend or when I take time off from work. Still plenty of family time, family travel, etc. I'm also fortunate to have a good job so not putting me in the poor house, either.

 

[bulletpruf]

A new saw every 3-4 days, you got CAD BAD!!!

Guilty. I spent the last 5 days in Africa (Ethiopia) for work, and when I got home today, there were a few boxes waiting -- one with a sweet 084 from a member here, an 045 from another member, and a few very hard to find saws from Solo and Jonsered...

 

[bulletpruf]

Wow, CAD in the worst way. I actually reversed the trend and sold a few off this spring.

Yep. I need to unload a few oddballs and focus on Stihl and Jonsered.

Have really slowed down recently; still running across some great deals, but on stuff I already have so I'm passing.

 

[bulletpruf]

I've been wondering what the total was after reading your posts.

Around 60 right now.

 

[bulletpruf]

What's up muscle car/diesel truck/gun/chainsaw buddy!?

Being in the military, I wouldn't do a dang thing. Let the moving company pack and ship 'em. You can always file a claim if there's any damage. I've dunnit before with nothing more than pictures and a receipt/ or current retail ad.

Custom pack the special ones, but save yourself the trouble for the rest.

You and I both know there's so much other crap to worry about during a PCS, don't make a weeks worth of cleaning, packing, and crating chainsaws one more of those issues.

Figure I'll start crating now. I need some place to put them anyway; running out of shelf space.

Nervous about letting the packers do all of this. Not worried about the $$$, my main concern is that majority of my stuff is old and hard to find parts for.

 

[bulletpruf]

My exact thoughts too.

I mean shoot I cut wood for a living and I own 4 saws.

There's a big difference between needs and wants. Definitely don't need 60 saws, but I sure want 'em.

 

[bulletpruf]

The .mil won't move several hundred lbs of chainsaws. I always had to fight with them to even move my toolbox, which is just a standard sized unit, maybe 5ft tall, 4ft wide.
Will they move them at an exorbitant cost? Maybe. One move they tried to charge me $3000 to pack and move the toolbox. It was empty too.

Plus only had 10,000lb allowance.

Our weight allowance is 18,500. We're there or past it now. If you go over, they supposedly charge you about $1 per pound. But I've never heard of anyone actually being charged. Whatever the case, I've got an old Alfa Romeo (72 GTV) that's in a million pieces in the garage. I plan to put that in a shipping container to get it back to the states. I'll pay for it out of pocket, and plan to put a bunch of tools in there, too.