The time has come to move. Work will pay for a moving company and the insurance will replace anything they break. So, I’m going to let them move my shapeoko2. But should I partially disassemble for better transport? I definately don’t want them trying to disassemble it if they won’t pack it whole.
It’s a good idea, and what I hope the movers do if I leave them to pack. But I also have everything gathered for an extension/upgrade so I’ll be disassembling soon anyway. I guess I should’ve included that in my dilemma.
You should disassemble it at least partially, esp. if you’ll be upgrading soon.
Shipping it assembled creates the possibility of the rails getting bent or twisted, or even dinged (when a V-wheel fails) under an impact strain.
If you choose to leave it assembled, then zip tie the carriage and gantry in place at one corner of the machine and add some blocking / padding around it to minimize the ability of things to move.
Wife’s NASA job moved us from Houston, TX to Huntsville, AL at the Marshall Space Flight Center. I moved a Shapeoko 2 and a large 21x37x8 custom mill in large crates I built for each one. We secured the gantry and spindle on the Shapeoko 2 then tied the whole mill down to the bottom of the crate with metal straps and a cutup silicone hot pad between the straps and the lower support o the mill. It was rock solidly mounted inside the crate and arrived perfectly fine. Now i did build the crate out of 2x4 and 1/2 plywood. it was heavy but it got the mill here in perfect shape. I just built an enclosure for it, unpacked it and had it running in a few hours. The larger mill was broken down into the bed for one crate and the gantry for the second crate. We also built a crate for the Rostock Max V2 delta 3d printer which is over 3ft tall and about 20 inches wide. The crate were large, but everything came right out and was working again within hours, no issues at all. Her work covered the costs of materials for the crates and most of them were then used to make the mill enclosures for the XC and the Shapeoko 2.
Moving was a pain over all and building the crate was a day long adventure. But everything arrive just fine and was working again in short order without a single issue. I think i have a few pictures if you want to see how we packed it all down. just let me know.