You Better Be Sitting Down When Asking the Cost of Moving a Machine

[projectnut]

I finished up assembling and testing the cold saw last week. I was getting a bit tired of dealing with it so I thought I'd contact a few moving companies to see what it would cost to move it to the shop. I'm glad I was sitting down when I got the prices. The least expensive quote to move the machine 30 feet through the house and down a flight of stairs was $550.00. The most expensive was closing in on $1,500.00 when I cut the conversation short and told the gentleman the price was more than I could afford at this time. Keep in mind this machine has a footprint of slightly less than 24"x 24" and weighs 600 lbs.

Prices seem to have increased drastically over the last couple years. The last time I had a piece of machinery of this size moved the cost was in the $200.00 range and took less than half an hour. It looks like I'll be disassembling it one more time, hauling it piece by piece to the shop, and reassembling it one more time.

 

[mmcmdl]

Everything is expensive these days . My move was $250 in diesel fuel alone but my son and I moved quite a bit of equipment . He made $500 . I paid and not made . If this or any of the equipment had to go thru the house and down steps I would forget about it , just not worth it to me . I'm doing just the opposite . Anything heavy that is in the basement is coming out at this point into the garage or other basement down my other place . Both are easily accessable and ground level . Getting older and looking ahead at this point . The heavy stuff gets heavier by the year now .

 

[projectnut]

Everything is expensive these days . My move was $250 in diesel fuel alone but my son and I moved quite a bit of equipment . He made $500 . I paid and not made . If this or any of the equipment had to go thru the house and down steps I would forget about it , just not worth it to me . I'm doing just the opposite . Anything heavy that is in the basement is coming out at this point into the garage or other basement down my other place . Both are easily accessable and ground level . Getting older and looking ahead at this point . The heavy stuff gets heavier by the year now .

I'm going in the opposite direction. Many years ago my shop started out in the garage. After a couple years of scraping windows and plowing around cars in the drive I knew things had to change. To further complicate things warm spring days and the cold concrete would cause the machines to sweat so badly water was dripping off them. The final tipping point was that it took a couple hours to heat the garage to a comfortable working temperature in the winter month, and nearly all the heat was lost when one of the overhead doors was opened.

About 20 years ago I finally had enough and moved everything to the basement. It wasn't a big move in that there was only 1 mill 1 lathe, a couple saws, and some smaller support equipment. The shop has grown considerably since then, but fortunately one piece at a time. I disassembled all the machines in the garage. Took them down the stairs in pieces and reassembled them in the basement. The only 2 pieces I needed help with were the column for the Bridgeport, and the motor cabinet for the Sheldon lathe.

I thought I was done with that phase, but every once in a while, a "must have" machine comes along. The cold saw was one of those machines. I disassembled it to haul it home 4 months ago and reassembled it in the garage. I was hoping it could go to the shop in one piece, but I can see now that isn't going to happen. For some reason I'm not willing to pay over 4 times what the machine cost just to have it moved some 60 feet. Call me cheap, but I'd rather spend the money on other machines, tooling, and of course a few more blades for the saw.

I'll probably start disassembling and transporting parts next week. There's no rush in that there are other saws that have been doing their job for years. This one is more of a convenience than a necessity. I'm looking forward to more shop time as the weather cools and the snow starts to pile up.

 

[rabler]

I moved my big machines a couple weeks ago, from one building to the next. Cost of renting a telehandler with delivery, had gone up by 1/3 in the last year and a half. Ouch. Hopefully they are there to stay.

Getting older and looking ahead at this point . The heavy stuff gets heavier by the year now .

Things do get heavier. I've only been doing machining for a few years (welding and woodworking since I was a kid). Now that I've retired I'm trying to plan on keeping at it as long as possible. A tractor with a loader, and several cranes for lifting, are part of that plan.

After a couple years of scraping windows and plowing around cars in the drive I knew things had to change. To further complicate things warm spring days and the cold concrete would cause the machines to sweat so badly water was dripping off them. The final tipping point was that it took a couple hours to heat the garage to a comfortable working temperature in the winter month, and nearly all the heat was lost when one of the overhead doors was opened.

I remember trying to heat a garage for woodworking in Duluth, Mn in winter with a woodstove. Yeah, two hours to get it up to something tolerable. Most of my shop time comes in less than two hour blocks these days. We've spent quite a bit of effort insulating the new shop. I'm hoping that pays off, not so much in dollars but in more, and more comfortable, shop time.

 

[matthewsx]

Moved myself back out to California in 2020 and have been building my shop up here. Still have the shop in Michigan but hopefully won't have to work there in the winter anymore. When I did the small natural gas infrared did just fine but the garage was well insulated.

Being able to move these things myself is the only way I could do this hobby, if I had to pay someone it would be totally different.

Have you thought of leaving the cold saw in the garage? Would be more convenient for cutting long stock and little stuff is easy to carry down the basement stairs. I love mine but don't need it all that frequently, it's more a batch type process for me than something where I need to do a setup and work on the same piece for days on end.

John

 

[MyLilMule]

The final tipping point was that it took a couple hours to heat the garage to a comfortable working temperature in the winter month, and nearly all the heat was lost when one of the overhead doors was opened.

Infrared radiant heat solves that problem. If all you are doing is heating the air, you lose your heat when you open the door. Radiant heat warms up the things in the space. A friend of mine has a pretty large home shop heated with one of those long tube infrared heaters. Opening the big overhead doors for a little bit does almost nothing to the heat in the shop.

 

[projectnut]

Moved myself back out to California in 2020 and have been building my shop up here. Still have the shop in Michigan but hopefully won't have to work there in the winter anymore. When I did the small natural gas infrared did just fine but the garage was well insulated.

Being able to move these things myself is the only way I could do this hobby, if I had to pay someone it would be totally different.

Have you thought of leaving the cold saw in the garage? Would be more convenient for cutting long stock and little stuff is easy to carry down the basement stairs. I love mine but don't need it all that frequently, it's more a batch type process for me than something where I need to do a setup and work on the same piece for days on end.

John

If it was up to the wife that's where it would stay. Unfortunately, it uses a water-based flood coolant for both cooling the blade and flushing out the swarf. I've tried mist and stick lubricant, but neither will keep the swarf from building up in the kerf. It needs the flood system and at fairly high volume to move the swarf out of the way. Without it I'm afraid I'll lose a tooth on the blade, and at $150.00 a blade I'm not willing to take that chance. Retoothing a blade runs around $30.00 plus shipping both ways which adds another $30.00. Plus, I don't want to take the chance of the coolant freezing and ruining the pump or reservoir

The garage has electric heat and it's minimal at best. Opening an overhead door for only a few minutes changes the inside temperature drastically even though the doors, walls and ceiling are insulated. Recovery time is more like hours than minutes.

 

[mmcmdl]

I'm going thru the same thing at this point , moving into a basement , although ground level . I've given up on the heating and condensation in the garage . It's a no win situation , I maintain more than I operate the equipment .

 

[Cadillac]

Have a friend that’s a disbatch for a trucking company. He said since pandemic their company has a 300fee on top of the transporting fee. Company’s are taking advantage of the times. Sad

 

[great white]

Have a friend that’s a disbatch for a trucking company. He said since pandemic their company has a 300fee on top of the transporting fee. Company’s are taking advantage of the times. Sad

True. I find theres more and more things I either don’t bother buying or that I’m just doing without.

Not that I don’t have the money to spend, I do.

I just don’t like the “predatory” tactics companies are using right now to gouge out as much profit as possible while the average person is struggling just to get by. I can’t do anything about that except “vote with my wallet” so thats what I’m doing.