Selling off Test equipment - Bay Area , possible shipping inside US

[HighVoltage]

Thew rear bezel frames easily break, especially when they are older.
It is a good idea to always buy a few extra from Keysight.

I think bubble wrap is by far the best shipping protection for these heavy power supplies.
But ... You have to use many layers and each layer has to be taped with packing tape.
If 5 to 10 layers are used, the PSU is well protected and can move around just enough to
dampen any hard impact.

This way, I never had any shipping damage, even with heavy and sensitive test equipment.

[Zucca]

I agree, but what I found was a flat bursted bubble wrap. Clearly it was not enough.

[free_electron]

that was the flash memory rattling around ? yikes ...

These are the reasons i did not want to ship anything initially .. shipping test equipment is a crapshoot. If it's not the customes  , then its shipping itself that becomes problematic. unless you are a company and have access to one of the custom foam creation machines ( where you squirt self-expanding liquid in a bag that turns into foam) it is nothing but trouble.

[IDEngineer]

For a one-off, I wonder if it would work to wrap gear in a sealed plastic bag and then use the low-expanding version of that "foam in a can" stuff. One can should fill the voids in a small-medium size box and cost about $5. Lay down a bottom layer first, then put in the plastic wrapped item and top off.

[CatalinaWOW]

Packing test equipment for shipping is a pain.  You don't need the pro foam injector to do it, but it is a fair amount of work.  What has worked fairly well for me is:

1.  Construct a custom box with three to four inches of clearance around all sides of the unit to be shipped.  Use heavyweight corrugated cardboard.  The boxes Uhaul and similar people sell is marginal for this.  Better to raid Lowe's/Home Depot/Appliance stores for empty appliance boxes.  They are usually glad to get rid of them.  Or you can contact Ulead and buy new.  $$$

2.  Line the box with rigid foam sheets.  I happen to have a large supply of a product called Atlas board, half inch thick.  This step guards against punctures and adds rigidity to the cardboard outer layer.

3.  Put a layer of bubble wrap inside this.

4.  Use rigid foam, corrugated blocks and other similar materials to support the body of the unit.  This keeps gravity and inertia loads off of knobs, screens, bezels and anything else delicate.

5.  Put the unit in a large plastic bag.  TE gear should not be static sensitive so it can just be garbage bags or whatever is large enough and durable. 

6.  Set the unit in the box on the rigid supports and fill all open volume firmly with bubble wrap, air bags, excelsior or other material.  You can even use the expanding foam crack sealer that comes in aerosol cans but you have to be careful not to put too much in.

7.  Finally tape the box closed.  Tape around the whole box at least two places on each of the three axes.

I have had one failure with this method (one Fluke handle broke on an international shipment).  It may seem like overkill, but that failure, plus one instance where I shipped the wrong item and had the buyer ship it back and it arrived alive and undamaged, but in packing material that was much worse for wear shows me that it is about as little as you should do.

This method adds about 20-25% to the shipping weight so costs are noticeable in both materials and shipping cost.

[thinkfat]

IMHO, the biggest threat to heavy test gear is other heavy test gear in the same box. Bubble wrap is probably fine if you pack tightly enough so that nothing can rummage around while the boxes are thrown around by handlers. Inertia is heavy items biggest enemy. Stop them moving and gaining momentum and you will be mostly set.

Anyway, I'm optimistic about the final outcome, I just could have gone without all the drama 😉.

[IDEngineer]

Our solution was to center the power supply in a large suitcase and surround it with lots of dirty laundry from the trip.    Worked perfectly!

The lighter weight items just went into my backpack, again surrounded by sweatshirts and stuff, so I could carefully coddle them as carryon luggage.

Of course, this option only works if you're flying home....

[rsjsouza]

Regarding boxes, very few beat the sturdiness of diaper boxes (free if you have friends with kids). They are usually dual layer; even the single layer ones are extremely sturdy. Also, my wife ordered a few cooking pans from Staub and Le Creuset that came in dual layer cardboard that I can almost stand on them. I saved all these under the pretext of storing things from the lab. If push comes to shove, I can ship something on them. Oh, I also saved Keysight 's power supply box for the exact same reason.

I am fortunate to have a packing store near my house, which sells those boxes, as well as those tapes with woven fabric inside them, thick foam, bubblewrap of several types, etc.

I did a video about that a while ago (in portuguese, sorry) when I was shipping an Anritsu 2711D to a friend in Brasil. It was not as heavy as a PS, but it has long sticking N and BNC connectors and a large and fragile TFT screen. Fortunately the box arrived beaten but not enough to damage the equipment.

https://youtu.be/7PoQHilON9s

[Zucca]

Double box is also a nice solution.

[guenthert]

  Well, this thread was about test gear in the S.F. Bay Area, as I think free_electron (understandably) dreaded the outlook of shipping equipment.  I picked the Keithleys up locally and they're fine (not perfect, but after 30+ years they aren't expected to be and they were priced accordingly).

  Earlier I received test equipment from others which apparently broke in transport, many others did too.  I'd think, unless you have the leverage of Amazon and the like, transport agencies just don't give a darn.  When shipping, the equipment needs to be packed fool-proof.  Don't pack it 'reasonably'.

  Only tangentially related:  have you ever watched suitcases being loaded on or off a plane at an airport?  Do yourself a favor and don't.

[IDEngineer]

have you ever watched suitcases being loaded on or off a plane at an airport?  Do yourself a favor and don't.

Agreed! But you also said:

When shipping, the equipment needs to be packed fool-proof.  Don't pack it 'reasonably'.

...and I was definitely thinking about that when packing stuff in the suitcase. I had planned for this ahead of time when packing for the trip. I used a hard-sided suitcase and every bit of clothing possible to snug it inside, without risking "bursting" the zipper. Clothing is compliant but doesn't crush like bubblepack. When I opened it back home, nothing had shifted at all. As you said... fool-proof!

[PlainName]

A while ago I bought a microserver off Ebay and the chap cut a cardboard box to size and sellotaped it on. No packing, no air, nothing. Just a thin cardboard skin over the raw enclosure. Seemed surprised when I negged him for it arriving broke.

[Hexley]

Packing test equipment for shipping is a pain.  You don't need the pro foam injector to do it, but it is a fair amount of work.  What has worked fairly well for me is:

4.  Use rigid foam, corrugated blocks and other similar materials to support the body of the unit.  This keeps gravity and inertia loads off of knobs, screens, bezels and anything else delicate.

I have had good luck using "pool noodles" -- those long tubes of closed-cell foam that are sold as kids' pool toys -- as building blocks for supporting heavy gear. The tubes can be cut to length and used as padding around the sides of the gear, or, if one is feeling adventurous, the tubes can be notched and made to sort of snap onto the edges of the case.

It is not hard to hot glue the fabricated bits into a nice support frame that locates the item 3" away from the shipping box on all sides. This protects knobs, etc., and gives a pretty good safety margin for abuse in transit. If you want it to be completely bullet-proof, then add yet another box around the whole thing, with additional padding between the inner and outer boxes.

I used the pool noodle technique to send a heavy yet fragile Tektronix TDS644B to Hawaii, and it arrived undamaged.

[CatalinaWOW]

Good idea.

[EHT]

FYI - I'd just like to mention that I bought one of the items on sale here. It was in very good condition and free_electron delivered it locally to me whilst I was visiting the Bay Area. Very good

[opa627bm]

is items still available ?

[free_electron]

nope . all gone. i still have some reference diodes, but that's all. There may be more stuff later this year. i will decide what to 'drop' once i move my lab to the new home.