Biggish tools - sell or move?
#21
At 750 miles, give or take, I'd load up a trailer and move them myself.  Even if I had to dismantle them to tiny pieces.  I've had my big stuff for a long time, have it all working the way I want, and wouldn't want to start over on any but a couple of marginal tools.  I'd have to drive anyway, so might as well pull a trailer.
Tom

“This place smells like that odd combination of flop sweat, hopelessness, aaaand feet"
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#22
Just moved my shop - easier than I thought it would be. I equipped myself first - engine hoist, ratchet straps, trailer, and lift straps. I rolled my Unisaw out to the driveway on it's mobile base, put lifting straps to each corner of the mobile base, then made 2x4 stretcher bars to hold the straps from sqeezing the saw and lifted the whole thing with the engine hoist - base, saw, overhead guard, fence, Jessem slider - the whole darn saw - then backed my pickup under. Lowered it onto the truck deck and pulled it into position with a come along, tied it down with 8 ratchet straps and drove to the new place.  Took the engine hoist along in the trailer. reversed the procedure at the new place, wheeled the saw into place and plugged it in -done. No dissassembly required. Done in an hour plus driving time.
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#23
The other guys are right. You don't have anything to big or heavy there. When I moved my shop I had nearly 10,000 pounds just in tools. If you try to sell and repurchase them you will have several problems. For starters selling a whole shop will be a reall PITA especially when everyone come in and offers to a fraction of their value because they are trolling for a deal. If you do manage to sell everything then you will be way short on money when you start to set up your new shop and will likely do without until you can sneak the new tools in under the radar. Just remember it is a lot easier to replace a tool you already have under the radar than it is to sneak in a whole new tool. After all, who is to say how much you sold your old tool for and how great the deal was you got on the new one. Don't ask me how I know that.
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#24
I live right outside Charlotte. The CL for Charlotte is less then stroller IMHO. I buy and sell from the Raleigh one. It's a couple hours away....point being is that if you like your tools move them....unless you just want to buy new again.  

The guys at Woodcraft in Matthews have always been nice too in case you are wondering.
"Life is too short for bad tools.".-- Pedder 7/22/11
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#25
Another vote to move them, you don't have anything that would be a problem to move, I moved a lot more from Charlotte to NJ about 15 years ago!
Credo Elvem ipsum etiam vivere
Non impediti ratione cogitationis
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#26
We are making the move from Fort Worth to somewhere near Charlotte in a little over a year(not soon enough for me). I will be taking most everything. Its cheaper to move everything than it is to sell and then replace at twice the price or more. The sooner we are away from the weather here the better... 

     Once all the house remodel work is done and all the outside projects for others everything will be crated and boxed up and ready to go. Some lumner will go with me as its cheaper to haul it than to sell and replace just like the tools.
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#27
I have flipped tools for almost 50 years. I can tell you finding good quality used machines is a LOT harder to do now than even 10 years ago. I sold all my big tools before a move 8+ years ago, and have just recently finished replacing, and some I had to go new because there were no suitable tools available at a price I was willing to pay. People have gone nutz since auctions are out of style, used stuff is really close to retail.

John had good advice, if you really like it, and use it, move it. If not sell it off.
Worst thing they can do is cook ya and eat ya

GW
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#28
Thanks, all for the replies and advice.  Gives me a lot to think about.  I went out into the shop this evening and started boxing some things up, and it is beginning to look less complicated than I first thought.  May pick up some of the HDX bins at Home Depot to put some things into.  I have been wanting to replace the tablesaw, band saw, planer, and drill press eventually, so maybe I'll look at selling off some items that I'm not too attached to.  Wrong forum for this, but it might be a good time to thin out the handplane herd too.

For the local North Carolinians, any recommendations on areas to live in and around Charlotte?  I just need to be within reasonable driving distance of the airport.

-- John
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#29
I moved my whole basement shop 5 years ago to another basement shop. In short, it really stunk. Taking apart machines and then having to reassemble and dial them back in took substantial time. The thing I disliked moving the most were all of my clamps and wood.

That said, I wouldn't even of thought about selling a tool if I still liked and used it. I bought a 17" General International floor model DP 15 years ago $300 plus tax new. It would probably be close to double today.

I agree with the others--your shop tools aren't huge and they're in the garage. I would consider using pallets, a pallet jack and renting a lift gate truck. My next shop will be ground level for these reasons and I'm not looking forward to moving my machines which seem to mostly run on 220V nowadays.


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#30
Just another data point - I moved form upstate NY to Winston Salem NC a year ago.  I had a walk in basement shop in NY and basically the same thing in NC.  A lot of my stuff is vintage and I knew a fellow in the SC area who advised that should I move - bring everything with me as vintage tools were hard to come by in this area.  So far my experience is that CL in NC does not offer much in terms of tools and even less regarding vintage tools.  What is avaialble is priced pretty high.

I had lots of stuff from hand tools to large work bench to bridgeport milling machine, wall cabnets, 20" drill press, 16" band saw,  700 or so board feet of lumber, etc.  I ended hiring a rigger to move the shop who also moved the household items.  I packed up the small stuff in boxes and disassembled things like machine tables and stabilized things like radial arm saw arms - in opther words everything I would have done if I was moving it myself.  Riggers came in and loaded everythong, drove it to NC and unloaded into a two car garage.  Total cost was about double for just the household goods would have been but it sure was nice to sit back and watch someone else move a 2000# bridgeport.  The cost was actually part of the decision to move and built into the financial picture.

Rick
Rick

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