It has become obvious to me that there are good ways and bad ways to pack equipment for shipping.
There are some basic goals that one needs to achieve in the packing.
- Protect the equipment from excessive shock and vibration
- Keep the equipment solidly centred within the outer box(es)
- Keep the equipment safe from small object impacts
- Prepare it to be dropped
First of all, the last thing one wants to use for packing is Styrofoam peanuts. These do a horrid job because the both compress and shift. This leaves your equipment flopping around inside the box, often with a trail of peanuts coming out one corner, and often resting right against a box wall.
Second of all, avoid all Styrofoam in sheets or peanuts because with heavy equipment, this stuff cracks into individual tiny beads or flakes and will get inside equipment (even bagging has its limits) and is a nightmare to unpack and dispose of without contaminating the equipment and besides, it’s not good for the environment.
What do I do for packing?
I’ve had good success with two approaches. The more compulsive one (for items like Nakamichi Dragons and other medium-weight, high-value items is this:
- Wrap the machine in several layers of 1/4-inch foam sheeting. This comes in rolls and does not flake. It’s wonderful. This protects knobs and stuff.
- Wrap this in several layers of rolled corrugated material. This is like 2/3 of cardboard box roll and has one wall and the corrugated centre.
- Wrap this in about two inches of bubble wrap–For this stage I generally use smaller-cell wrap.
- Put this in a box–it should fit tightly.
- Place two inches minimum of large-cell bubble wrap in another box, place the first box in that, wrap bubble wrap tightly around the box on all six sides (two inches at least), seal and ship
For heavier items, I sometimes have used 4-6-inches of bubble wrap alone.
Items must be prepared for shipment. There are many possible damage points and tricks:
- Head assemblies (use an inverted cardboard box over this area prior to placing any other packing.
- Meter bridges (especially critical with Sony APR-5000s — After boxing the head assembly, I then place other light but stiff items in the box to make everything rigid with protection (foam/bubble wrap plus cardboard) over the meter faces. That dead area can be used for shipping other items.
- Use double-wall cartons for anything over about 25 pounds. Double wall means paper-corrugated-paper-corrugated-paper. You’ll find computer makers usually use these. That should tell you something.
- I wouldn’t want to think about shipping a turntable/arm combination without original packing, but if you must, disassemble and protect as above.
- FOAM: Old foam DIES and forms a gooey mass. This seems to happen when exposed to differing pressures experienced in shipment (this even happens in surface shipment as the train/truck goes through 7,000-10,000 foot passes in the Rockies. Do not rely on old foam. Bag anything that is near old foam. This also pertains to many coated “ballistic” nylon bags. I had a lens bag die on me last summer where the coating disintegrated. Brand-name expensive bags are not immune to this. The bag this happened to me with was an old Domke and I’ve had the same thing happen with a Tumi cargo bag. This polyester-polyurethane fabric coating is a close relative of the polyester-polyurethane tape “binder” that we know is failing in many later mastering tapes. In particular, the foam in Tentelometer cases is prone to this (I’ve seen two instances).
- Reel spindles: Studer (especially) reel spindles are fragile and the screw holding the cine twist-lock is easily bent. I always remove the upper part of Studer cine spindles and bag them. I would do this with any two-part spindle and then protect the top of the machine in that area with several layers of foam padding.
In general, I wouldn’t use mattress pad foam or anything like that for packing as it’s too soft and will allow the contents to shift. That was how the Sony APR-5000 that ended up with a broken neck to the meter bridge was shipped.
Don’t forget, that heavy packages tick off the package handlers. They just might accidentally drop it. Also, I’ve heard that a normal package in the UPS system may see 30 miles of conveyor belts in sorting centres. Also, UPS tends to load trailers and drive them from sorting centre to sorting centre and they get unloaded so it’s hard to know how many times your package will be handled.
If something is really valuable, don’t ship via UPS or FedEx (ground or air package services). I’ve had good luck with the electronic/high-value shipping departments of major moving companies. I used North American Van Lines (NAVL) for my move from Glendale, California, to Aurora, Ontario, in 2004, and I called the Toronto agent who provided the driver when I needed to move two instrumentation recorders from Victoria, British Columbia, to Aurora. My client wanted it quick, so with lots of trepidation, NAVL subcontracted the long-haul to Purolator Air Freight, but handled pick-up, packing, palletizing, and delivery to me. The equipment arrived in fine shape — 500 pounds worth. I can’t say the same for 715 pounds of equipment from New York to Aurora via UPS — but I can’t really blame UPS as some of the above rules weren’t followed by the packer. I can’t complain, however, as the machines were sent to me as much for parts as for working machines and a surprisingly large amount of stuff survived despite the widespread use of Styrofoam and Styrofoam peanuts. The machines that survived the best were tightly wrapped in several layers of bubble wrap. Even carrying cases didn’t fully protect the machines.
I saw a lot of damage in this shipment due to softening of the boxes (partially due at least to night being tightly packed) and the machines shaking inside the boxes, acting as battering rams. In some instances, the peanuts seem to bond to the metal.
While I like cardboard for protection against dings, it should not be the only packing material. You do need the foam and/or bubble wrap to cushion the item from the inevitable shocks and to protect controls and connectors. I have BNC connectors that still (even after vacuuming) have Styrofoam beads inside them (from the sheets).
Use NEW boxes in most instances. As cardboard is used, it softens due to repeated flexing. If it’s already supple at the corners and edges, recycle it and get new. You’ll be glad you did.
I am presenting this not as a critique of any particular service but as a guide to how to pack for survival. UPS will claim poor packing in many instances and disallow your claim if the above isn’t followed.
Good luck!