3 years off -- how to store?

[Never Enough Money]

I'm taking a foreign assignment for 2 to 3 years. The company is paying to store my household thing (which include my garage woodworking shop). Any advice on how to pack/store my valuable Lie- Nileson and Veritas tools, all my hand power tools (routers, jig saws, etc). How about my table saw, band saw, drill press, etc.

I suppose the movers will five me some advice when they come to scope out everything.

It's going to be tough not woodworking for 2 or 3 years but, hey, this assignment is a chance of a lifetime.

No, selling is not an option. No, letting you keep it while I'm gone is not an option.

TIA.

[Never Enough Money]

Plus, I have a lot of wood, some of it valuable. I'm sure movers aren't going to sticker it.

[Leuf]

Or bring some of them with you. With just a few nice hand tools you could still do some work, and after 3 years you might get half decent with em ;)

You could shoot an email to l-n and lv to see if they have anything to say. After all they have to store the stuff before it gets sold, so they would know.

Well if you sticker it and put straps around into reasonable sized groups I imagine it'll stay that way.

-Leuf

[B A R R Y]

Fog all the metal tops and hand tools with Boeshield, don't wipe it off. Pack the smaller hand power tools in dry boxes, silica gel might be worthwhile to include in each box.

Why not take a few hand tools any make some small projects while you're gone? Ideas:

- A mini lathe can work on a table top in an apartment to turn pens.

- You could neander small boxes (with hand cut joinery) after building a tabletop mini-bench to hold the work.

- You could learn to carve.

A good plan might be to pack and label some smaller boxes with hand and sharpening tools (by functional group) and store them with a relative, with the possibility of shipping some to you.

[bridgerfafc]

have the last project in your shop be building some crates- big enough that they each hold a whole category of things- say handheld power tools- but small enough that you can (barely) move them by yourself. pack them up tight, screw the lids on and have the last one closed be the one your cordless screwdriver goes into....

[Patriarch]

"Never Enough Money" wrote in news: [e-mail]:

So, you're going to Scandinavia, huh? Should be a lot of fun. Better than trying to start up a wooddorker's store, for certain.

I'm going to offer another idea for your tools. Sell them off, at least the stationary power tools and wood supplies. Hang on to your LN and Veritas where you're going to be, but let the table saws, etc. go to someone who will use them, and keep them up. Buy new when you get back.

Life changes in two to three years. If you're still interested, buy new, bigger & better. But the cost of the storage, even if someone else is paying it, is more than the value of the tools. BTDT.

And look for some of the really nice Euro hand tools while you're there. Glad you sorted this all out.

Patriarch, formerly an employee of the Finns...

[Upscale]

I have to agree with this 110%. When I moved from a house into an apartment, I put all my tools into storage. At $100 per month rental costs, five years later, I realized that I'd spent $5000 on storage costs and still had no idea when I'd be putting them to use. At that point I sold most of them off including my contractor's table saw to a close friend for a really low price.

I get to go over to my friend's place to use the table saw on occasion, I'm spending $100 less per month and I don't have the worry and hassle of going over to the rental place on occasion just to confirm that some miscreant hasn't broken into the room and ripped me off.

If and when I do get a place to work again, I'll be perfectly happy to spend money on a new cabinet table saw and enjoy the process of building up a workshop again. My father ingrained into me that 'you just don't ever sell your tools', but times change and there comes a point where it just doesn't make any sense not to change with them.

[Patriarch]

"Upscale" wrote in news:4baa0$45e24633$cef88bc5$ [e-mail]:

If these tools were for earning a living, then maybe that makes sense, not to sell. But I've got stuff from hobbies 20 years back, things I can't do any more, for a bunch of reasons. That makes no sense. Neither does the collection of band instruments hiding in a closet, since the last son graduated from high school 10 years back. I really don't care that, in five to ten years, a grandchild might play trombone and need an instrument.

We drag stuff around. A more educated psychologist probably knows what all this is called. I don't care. There are not sufficient closets or attics or basements for all this stuff.

Sell or give away what you won't or cannot use. Someone will love you for it.

Patriarch

[Never Enough Money]

innews: [e-mail]:

Thanks. It was a tough time and then the offer from Sweden came in....Ahhh. Just when I though I was running out of future....

[somewildmonkey]

I went through the same thing when I moved overseas, to Japan, five years ago (at the time I was only planning on two).

The first thing I did was sell off any tools which I figured I would be upgrading anyway. Then I separated all my tools (actually all the stuff in my house as well) into three basic categories:

1. Tools that I would be keeping in long term storage until my return to the States.
2. Tools that I would be keeping in mid to long term storage with the possibility of having them shipped to me overseas at some later date. This stuff was sorted specially and packed safely enough to be shipped.
3. Tools that I would be bringing with me right from the start.

The tools I brought were some of my most prized hand tools - planes, chisels and carving knifves, etc..

For the tools that got packed in storage I wiped over with camelia oil and packed them in boxes with desiccant packs. I bought a case of those packets from some company I found on the net. (Note I've found that camelia oil tends to harden a bit over the long term and can take some effort to remove.)

A corner of one room in my apartment has served as my "workshop" for the past five years and I dream of the day I'll have a real shop again. However, I've worked on some nice projects during this time and my hand tool technique has improved considerably since that's all I am really able to use in this situation.

[efgh]

Could you have a chat with my wife please? :)

[Never Enough Money]

Sell tools? Hmmm. My drill press, mortizer, and Laguna band saw are all less than 2 years old. My Unisaw is 15 years old. My jointer is 10 years old. My planer is really old -- Makita doesn't even make the model any more.

So maybe I keep the newer tools.......and Craig's List the others.

[Renata]

The movers are going to treat your wood like it's scrap 2x4s. Or worse. DAMHIK.

One suggestion is to hire someone (have your co. pay for it, hopefully) to properly stack and sticker the wood - in some fashion (groupings) that it doesn't take a crane to move it (I'd guess your co. won't extend their generosity as far as supplying a crane or other such heavy equipment. ;-)

Renata

[RayV]

Forget the desiccant. This stuff is dirt cheap and works great.

put some in one of SWMBO's old knee-his and put it in the safe to keep the papers from getting moldy and the steel from rusting.

[HotRdd]

Humidity will kill a lot of your tools. Look for climate controlled storage. Also all of your cordless tool batteries will be shot when your return. Don't even think about being able to recharge them. Sell them now and get what you can for them.

[Frank Boettcher]

Don't let them stack anything wooden on top of your cast iron tables, even with a corrugated layer in between. Will permanently stain your tables.

Best for table tops is vapor paper (most corrosion protection, least mess), however don't know where you can get it in samll quantities.

Frank

[Joe]

I slipped my movers a benjamin and they treated my stock (and my entire shop) like they were original Louis XIV's.

Joe

[J T]

Sun, Feb 25, 2007, 12:03pm (EST-3) [e-mail] (Never=A0Enough=A0Money) doth lament: I'm taking a foreign assignment for 2 to 3 years. The company is paying to store my household thing (which include my garage woodworking shop). Any advice on how to pack/store

Unless you're a museum, with their storage resources, they'll be a total loss. Instead I highly recomend a donation to an non-profit organication, in particular Joint Occupational Arts & Trades. I hold this organization in very high esteem, and the tools will be deeply appreciated, and lovingly used and maintained. Have a good trip..

JOAT When in doubt, go to sleep.

- Mully Small

[Allen Roy]

Most won't survive the storage. Motors on any bench or floor tools will have problems. Any batteries for cordless tools will be long gone. And the worst thing is, the movers when they put it in the storage locker, won't give a damn about what comes in contact with the tables. (Been there, did it to people.) You are probably asking for a big headache keeping most. If it were me I would keep the tools that are either: Discontinued and have very good value (except power tools) Were a sentimental gift (ie; first Christmas gift from SWMBO (or child), first real hand tool, etc.)

Otherwise sell them and put the proceeds in an investment account. At least with the interest you can add to buying some new ones when you get back. Also ask your company if instead of the storage fees if they will contribute half of the value to an account to recover the cost of replacements. You get the right accountant in your company and he will be more than happy to listen. Though this might take some work on your part in finding out how much it would cost to store just your tools alone.

And as far as the wood goes, I think you need to post your address and we all will come over to help you load it in our vehicles.

[Joe]

Commercial unheated storage will reduce your every unprotected tool to rusty junk iside of a year. I know this because I own and operate a storage business. The protection schemes available are well known from military and other sources, so you absolutely must go to that much trouble to protect your treasures. One novel way I heard of to avoid some of the hassles was finding a friend with some spare space and renting the room in his house at the same rate as the self storage company. Most folks don't mind having an extra $100 a month or so to do a buddy a favor. Talk it over and have some legal help to get it in writing. HTH

Joe