Buying equipment long distance

I have always bought all my equipment and tooling local. But in my quest for new equipment, I am finding what I want and what I need at longer distances away. I'm looking for information on shipping equipment over a few states.

I have been doing most of my searching on eBay and the classifieds here on PM. Has anyone here bought any older style CNC mills and dealt with shipping and rigging? I'm curious to know the average cost of doing this. I understand there are a lot of variables in this, but at this point I just need an idea. This way I can add in the cost of shipping and rigging to my total budget.

Not CNC, but this was in NJ. Had it checked (running) by a friend passing thru from RI. Seller loaded it for free on LTL, straps, no chains, tarped. About 8300 lbs. $935 freight March 2012 (Imok Freight). Offloaded in Houston by Naegeli Transportation, who stored it inside over night and delivered it to my shop tilt bed / roll back for $590

http://www.practicalmachinist.com/v...ical-shaper-243485/?highlight=Vertical+shaper

Thanks for the reply. I was thinking it would be a little more. Since your machine is much larger and heavier than what I am looking to get, I can bet the high side of $1500 to move a machine. Not bad really if the deal is right.

A handful of times. You source a local rigger, he charges high but usually knows someone who can haul it for a high price. You need to know what your getting into.

Freight handlers are brutal, and they won't reimburse you much if/when it gets trashed. And no crate can withstand a stab with a fork.

I ordered some expensive leaded glass windows once and they were shipped via freight lines halfway across the country. The glass was standing upright on a pallet, strapped, but with only a small wood frame around the edge. The pretty glass was right there in plain sight. There wasn't a scratch on any part of it!

I was told by a long haul trucker recently to figure about $3 a loaded mile for a standard semi and flat bed.
Don't know how accurate that is, it's just what I was told.

JohnO must know the special password or something because my experience with Neageli was not as favorable.

buying where you can't inspect is always a crap shoot. when I was looking for my pacemaker I did a lot of searching and calling different guys, both dealers and guys off eBay. one thing I noticed is that most dealers have never seen what they are selling ( they will tell you it's in great shape though). they just buy out factory's and sell the items from there that way they don't have to pay transporting to there location. the guy I ended up buying from was on the east coast about 2800 miles from me. I talked to him a few times and every machine he sells goes to there warehouse and get inspected. every time I called and had a question about the machine he would walk out and check while I was on the phone. there was none of the "let me call you back" while they call someone else to check.

as far as shipping goes, the guy sent me pics as it was getting loaded and shipping was about $0.90 a mile which I didn't think was too bad given the weight and the space it took up. plus have to drive 3/4 of the way across the USA and Montana really isn't along the major trucking routes.

I'm in the same boat.
Perhaps we could all talk about the quality of our riggers and shippers.
For my part, if you need something looked at or arranged in Colorado drop me a note.

P.S.
Anyone out north of Richmond VA (Milford) willing to look at an American lathe and perhaps coordinate loading?

I would guess riggers to be in the $600 to $1000 range depending on how heavy, how difficult. Single pick machine with fork pockets all on level concrete is low end, higher for more challenges or if its far from their shop. And that would be on each end. It would probably make sense depending on size/weight to temporarily acquire and store the machine at their shop and ship from there, rather than trying to coordinate them to come out and wait for the truck.

LTL flatbed is the way to go, there is some kind of bid system similar to uShip where truckers can bid to move this load, obviously they are willing to bid a little lower when they are already coordinated in that general direction. I'd stay far away from terminal-style truck freight companies and really anything with a dry van when it comes to machinery. uShip would work up to the point where the pickup and gooseneck guys don't have any real tarps and would need guidance about how to tie stuff down safely without damage. Haven't trucked anything in awhile but I'd go with 500-2500 depending on how far away its coming to you.

The experience I described probably isn't typical in 2014. I had used Naegeli for years prior, and they were willing to pull an old guy off something else to drive the TB/RB (which he happens to own and leases to them). IMOK was a first time deal for me and she was interested in getting a new client and thus the under a buck a mile deal.

I've had horrible luck arranging my own shipping...

I've tried, figuring I could get a good deal.... WRONG... I've had 3 big things, VMC size shipped cross country, one even came out of Canada,
and the pricing the dealers got for me was less than 50% of what I could find....

Maybe I just don't know what I'm doing, and that is a very real possibility.

As for rigging, on this end, I think we have one guy in the entire state... I've had him load my trailer in ABQ while he was doing some other work, not
a bad price.. I've had him store some stuff and move some stuff around in ABQ for a reasonable rate... Then when I needed him to drive 200 miles
with a 12k lb machine and a 21k forklift... It got expensive.. over $2k....

Next machine that was coming we looked at renting a forklift out of El Paso... Over $2k for a week, delivered and picked up....

So we said "screw it", our local junk man had a 15k clark with a blown motor.. $2400, and he threw in a working motor (notice I didn't say good, just
working), and he did some of his horse trading and got it delivered to us for $300.. No more rigger needed on this end.

Shipping is a pain in the ass, arranging a rigger is a pain in the ass... Coordinating a rigger and a truck driver is enough to make your hair fall out..
Throw an idiot broker in the middle and you may just have a small stroke... I've found it to be incredibly stressful, and writing the checks is just down right painful..

I have thought about shipping but because of all potential hassles I have always just driven myself. However, my brother has a large diesel truck and trailer I can borrow. Always been lucky enough to buy from someone who had the ability to lift it up.

I have used freight quote. Com for the ltl end of things. Luckily everything I have bought the seller was able to crate or palletize and get on the ltl truck. There is a mill that I think I have finally gotten a hold of a decent one at a reasonable price but I'm driving 500 miles each way to get it.

I used Dimon and Bacorn from Elmira, NY to prep an HLV and a T.M. milling machine in May. They did a great job building a skid, bracing, strapping, bolting down and shrink wrapping the equipment. Both items shipped on the same trailer through feightquote.com to a Yellow freight hub in Nebraska and arrived with no damage, the lathe skid had one board smashed on the end but nothing to the equipment. The total was a little north of $1300 for everything.

I did get the insurance (not that it would pay if something happened) and gambled with the LTL, I feel lucky I don't have one of the many shipping horror stories. I paid more for the rigger than shipping. I think the reason it worked out is mostly because of the way it was prepped for shipping. I was at the terminal before they opened the trailer to unload and had them load them straight on to our straight truck, so the fork truck driver missed the opportunity to crash them around the dock.

I don't think I would do it again-it's not worth the gamble to own 3000# lbs of scrap metal and check from the freight company for $265 or whatever the max value is limited to after paying 5k. Although it would probably cost twice as much to have picked it up myself, that would be the route I'd go if I could. Depending on the size, I'd start my budget at $1000 and go up from there.

On a side note Fedd Exx quoted me $8900 for the same shipment, they were able to discount it to around $4k I think? I think I had a bad estimator-I thought something was off when he offered overnight as an option.

20% of the equipment cost until you reach a full truck load?