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Moving a Shizuoka milling machine from Utah to Washington

crtten

Aluminum
Joined
May 10, 2017
Hello all,

I'm acquiring a Shizuoka vertical milling machine from a shop that's closing down in Utah. The mill weighs about 4800 lbs. and will be moved to my home shop in Washington. I will have access to a forklift on the Washington end, but will not be present on the Utah end.

I've never had anything freighted before and really have no idea where to get started. A few questions:

1. Are there any videos or blog posts describing how to freight machinery out there?

2. Anyone have any trusted freight companies that they recommend for the move? (UT to WA)

3. What would be a reasonable price for hauling a load like this?

4. Do freight companies load and unload or is that a separate process? Do I need to have the machine crated up and loaded up by another company?

5. If you were in my shoes how would you go about doing this? Looking to get it moved safely and affordably. (affordable is a relative term here)

Thank you for your replies.
 
Carriers do not load and unload except as an accessorial service, such as a rigging and hauling company.
If I were in your shoes I would get a reliable load broker to get a flatbed LTL rate . I would check local riggers to load. Thus insured loading. Get an inland marine rider on your insurance to cover it in route.
 
A typical LTL (less then load)freight company is not what you want for this job. Most LTL companies pick up cargo with a local truck and take it back to a warehouse and sift it to a long haul truck and depending on the routing it may go through a couple more warehouses before arriving at the haulers warehouse near the destination and then shifted to a local truck for delivery. Most LTL companies do not load or unload except what can easily be moved with a forklift or pallet jack. Most importunately they do not have provision to strap a load down. Typical what ever goes into the van trailer is on a pallet and is placed on the floor of the trailer with no other restraint then gravity and friction. There have been many posts over the years where a machine tool was shipped LTL and tipped over in the trailer and smashed. The poster is outraged that the trucking company did not tie the machine down but really almost all the fault is with the shipper for choosing the wrong type of service.
What you need is a company that does point to point deliveries and that will typically be a Flatbed service or a rigging company. A rigging company will do the whole job for you from loading to delivery but will likely be far more expensive than hiring a rigging company to load the machine on another companies flatbed for delivery
 
I would love to know what Shizuoka mill is worth moving from Utah to Washington.

I owned an ANS for a short bit. I moved it on a drop deck trailer behind my F250. That mill was ancient and far beyond outdated 15 years ago.
 
I would love to know what Shizuoka mill is worth moving from Utah to Washington.

I owned an ANS for a short bit. I moved it on a drop deck trailer behind my F250. That mill was ancient and far beyond outdated 15 years ago.

That was my thought. Having done time on a Shizuoka w/ bandit control, I said to myself, why stop at Washington? :cheers:
 
I would love to know what Shizuoka mill is worth moving from Utah to Washington.

I owned an ANS for a short bit. I moved it on a drop deck trailer behind my F250. That mill was ancient and far beyond outdated 15 years ago.

I've admittedly never used a Shizuoka before. It is a manual vertical mill from the 70s, I forget the model of it (it's sitting in Utah right now) but it's got a 4hp motor, a #40 taper, powerfeeds, ways are in good shape and tight, and it also comes loaded with tooling, collets, SPI vise, Cincinnati dividing head, brown and sharpe rotary table.

I was under the impression that Shizuoka manual mills were nice?

Price is $6k all said. Your thoughts are welcome.
 
$6k seems high for a manual machine of any kind, but I don't know.

I'm currently moving a similar sized machine from California to Illinois. $600 for the rigger to pick it up. $1200 to ship to my shop on a flatbed truck.
 
I've admittedly never used a Shizuoka before. It is a manual vertical mill from the 70s, I forget the model of it (it's sitting in Utah right now) but it's got a 4hp motor, a #40 taper, powerfeeds, ways are in good shape and tight, and it also comes loaded with tooling, collets, SPI vise, Cincinnati dividing head, brown and sharpe rotary table.

I was under the impression that Shizuoka manual mills were nice?

Price is $6k all said. Your thoughts are welcome.


We have a 90s era shizuoka bed mill 7.5 hp about 9K lbs. Excellent machine on the iron side, but the control is pretty old 9-260 AB. Still doing cavity work in our tool room every few weeks. Jap quality man...!
 
If its like mine, manual with 40 taper vert variable speed spindle and a geared 50 taper horizontal spindle and built in power feeds on every thing, price is more than fair. They are heavy (mines about 5k lbs) and smooth and a huge step above a smaller lighter Bridgeport in my opinion. I love mine and it will probably be a cold day in hell before I give it up. The Newall DRO is also very nice and will not be going anywhere either.

I moved mine around with a 5500 lb pallet jack, and that wasn't the easiest but it works on flat smooth concrete short distance.

Before it got to its final resting place and properly leveled
View attachment 212543
 
I've admittedly never used a Shizuoka before. It is a manual vertical mill from the 70s, I forget the model of it (it's sitting in Utah right now) but it's got a 4hp motor, a #40 taper, powerfeeds, ways are in good shape and tight, and it also comes loaded with tooling, collets, SPI vise, Cincinnati dividing head, brown and sharpe rotary table.

I was under the impression that Shizuoka manual mills were nice?

Price is $6k all said. Your thoughts are welcome.

I figured CNC, but manual garage size makes more sense I guess. I guess if it's what you need then it's worth what you are willing to pay for it. I sure wouldn't buy it without a DRO.
 
Hello all,

I'm acquiring a Shizuoka vertical milling machine from a shop that's closing down in Utah. The mill weighs about

Thank you for your replies.

I don't know where you are in Washington, but I have a mill that you might want to look at if you haven't closed that deal. It's a mid- 80's ENCO (Taiwanese) variable speed with DRO, Y axis power feed and air powered draw bar fitted. I set it up with a VFD to run off of 230 1Ph power. It's in pretty nice shape and I'm setting up something bigger. PM me if you want to talk about it
 
I have a rigger that I always use, and if I had to do this, I'd ask him for recommended haulers if he didn't want to do the whole job himself. He's loaded, transported, and unloaded equipment for me many times.
I've also used a 1-man rigging company - he has the right equipment, and he's loaded, hauled, and unloaded equipment for me

Ask around - there are riggers out there who can do the whole job turnkey.
 
7 years ago I had the Seattle area riggers Check Mate Industries pick up a fadal VMC from an island in Puget sound, and take to their warehouse. I used RedhawkGolbal to find a LTL conestoga (a covered flatbed) to pick it up and deliver to Peoria IL.

It cost $925 to truck ship. It tool less than a week to arrange. I forget the riggers cost... another $1K? there was a ferry involved. and storage and loading the truck... seemed quite fair.
 








 
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