How to pack a bandsaw to ship Parcel Post?

damagi · Post by **damagi** » Fri Apr 20, 2012 12:19 pm

fgrule wrote:That is the spray-can stuff I was referring to.How much volume per can?

I know from previous use that this stuff is really messy and extremely hard to remove. Any experience with is for packing?

Thanks, Fred

tried it...didnt work well...not enough in the can to make it worthwhile

fgrule · Post by **fgrule** » Fri Apr 20, 2012 12:26 pm

damagi wrote:tried it...didnt work well...not enough in the can to make it worthwhile

Exactly what I was thinking.....not to mention the potential mess.

Fred

swampgator · Post by **swampgator** » Sat Apr 21, 2012 12:53 pm

Make sure that you apply it only to the plastic. Any overgrowth can be cut off after it dries in a few hours. I have re-worked all my windows and door frames. Left off the outside boards until it cure. Fishing line was pretty good at cutting off the excess. What didn't want to trim was cleaned up with a box cutter. Never had it to over expand. Did the house rework about 9 years ago and still quiet. Just have a roll of paper towels nearby to wipe off the tip of the applicator.

billmayo · Post by **billmayo** » Sun Apr 22, 2012 10:45 pm

I use a lot of 3/4" and 2" rigid foam insulation leftover from 4' X 8' sheets that really works well for packing. Trash bag whatever you are packing. No peanuts. I try to double the cardboard whenever possible. I have been able to double box most of the USPS flat rated boxes. I recommend a wooden box for shipping the thickness planer as the jack posts gets bent real easy.

derekdarling · Post by **derekdarling** » Mon Apr 23, 2012 12:08 am

Re-thinking my plan, the one time I did this I had access to an industrial foaming machine (the kind used in house reno work). If I was going to do it myself, I would still use the cans, but I would use the foam in a can to attach other pieces to each other, use bulk foam to make up the bulk of the space as dunnage, and use the foam to anchor it all together. Your Mileage May Vary, and no guarantees about what this stuff does to the various types and kinds of plastics available.

How about putting bulk popcorn kernels in the spaces, and turn a microwave beam on it to pop the kernels to expand to fill the space:D

fgrule · Post by **fgrule** » Mon Apr 23, 2012 5:01 am

I did some "dumpster diving" for cardboard and found some really heavy duty stuff at a "back store". Mostly it was for packing chairs (really expensive, heavy ones) and mattresses (foam). Then I went to a fitness store and found tons of styrofoam pieces used for treadmills/ elipticals, bicycles, etc.

I wanted to find flat-screen TV boxes for the sizes and shapes, but Best Buy and HHGregg both had huge inaccessible dumpster/crushers.

Anyway, there was plenty of free, good quality packing material behind various businesses.

Fred

robinson46176 · Post by **robinson46176** » Mon Apr 23, 2012 6:13 am

Don't forget the outer layer of welded 1/4" steel plate that it takes to actually protect the contents from postal handling...

Years ago I worked as a substitute rural carrier out of the local post office (community of around 40,000). On my first day on the job as I entered the back door I was stunned to see a rather attractive young lady who was pissed about something sorting the mornings rural route parcel post boxes. Proper procedure was to pull the 8 or so carts over to a huge table where it was all piled and sit the boxes in the proper carts. Instead she was standing at the table throwing the parcels from the table to the row of carts parked over against the brick wall. I was impressed with her strength since some of those carts were nearly 20' away. The parcels would hit the wall above the cart and then drop into it...

The rural route guys mostly functioned like gentlemen. Sadly a lot of the "in-house" workers and some of the city carriers had absolutely horrible attitudes.

The postmaster was OK but his assistant was an ass as was the guy below him. Horrible uncaring supervision by a couple of very shallow arrogant uncaring fools. Their attitudes rubbed off on the in-house workers. Worst place I ever worked. Fortunately I only spent a few hours a day inside sorting my routes (I subbed on 5 routes) and the jerks left me alone but it was easy to see why so many postal workers go "postal". I enjoyed the actual route delivery and It did pay quite well.
I carried one route out of a tiny rural post office in a little town and I loved the time I spent there. The postmaster there and I became good friends.

Our oldest daughter was scheduled a couple of months in advance to have major surgery at an Indianapolis hospital and I gave them that schedule as soon as I knew it and reminded them several times nearer the date. Still when the time came the twits refused to make any effort to give me the day off... All they had to do was ask another sub to cover the day but that would have required a minor effort from them and they refused quite arrogantly to make any attempt and threatened me if I did not show up. I decided that day that I was done. Life is too short... I carried that route but a lot of people didn't get their mail that day. I normally finished that route at 3 PM. That day I was back to the post office and on my way to Indy by noon. Still I was not there before she went into surgery.
Then they had the audacity to try to talk me out of quitting and couldn't understand why I was angry with them.

Pack it well... One of the guys that handle it may be as pissed as I was that day.

.