[Hallicrafters] Shipping boatanchors

[WA1KBQ at aol.com]

http://i104.photobucket.com/albums/m191/wa1kbq/sx88.jpg

Preliminary  packing... carefully pack inside with wadded paper to secure 
tubes and tube  shields in place. Wrap with several layers of plastic stretch 
wrap to protect  paint finish. Glue styrofoam corner protectors in place to 
support the cabinet  in the shipping container. The corners of a cabinet 
are the strongest points on  a cabinet to adsorb and distribute forces from 
drops and shock impacts. Cut and  glue a double wall box for an exact fit 
using hot glue for high strength if you  have to but the right size box is 
essential with this method. Place the primary  box inside a second double wall 
box lined with foam rubber for energy  absorption. Double wall boxes glued 
with hot glue and much stronger than using  tape. The most common problem I see 
in shipping boatanchors is using a box with  a weight rating less than the 
item being shipped and depending on styrofoam  peanuts to do all the 
protecting. Peanuts shift easily and will not support the  shape of a box. Often 
boxes shipped with heavy equipment packed in styrofoam  peanuts will not 
retain their square shape but rather will usually be beat into  a round shape 
through routing handling and conveyor belts in the sorting  centers. I have had 
some arrive here as round as a beach ball because of  styrofoam peanuts 
where you could roll it down the drive way. 

If you get  a piece of equipment in and discover it was packed in peanuts 
tape the top back  down and turn it over and open the bottom instead. This is 
the quickest and best  best way to know if the equipment had migrated to 
the bottom of the box because  of shifting peanuts where it could have 
received a direct hit from a  drop.

The second most often encountered shipping mistake is shipping  something 
big, expensive and heavy with the chassis retaining screws missing  from 
underneath or in back. This is so common because screws are often left out  and 
put aside by a well meaning previous owner in order to make it easier to  
remove from the cabinet the next time. Mr. previous owner becomes a SK and the 
 estate gets sold and shipped and whoever is in charge of liquidating it 
didn't  know about the screws or know they are important. UPS (FedEx too) 
drops the box  while it happens to be upside down and the chassis bends the 
front panel and  crashes the cabinet because it was not screwed down.

73, Greg