Moving the shop is royal PIA! Wish you luck.
Have moved 8 times in last 20 years. Twice had to put things into interim storage, so I guess that makes 10 moves? This has resulted in my entire shop being on wheels. Can honestly PACK & LOAD everything in 2+1 bay garage shop into moving truck in < 2 hours, except for lumber and chemicals.
Tricks that make moving easier:
1) Purge.
Why?
Cost of move/store/move .vs. sell and buy new. Every time you move junk you increase ownership cost. In a professional moving scenario, costs roughly $1 lb to move stuff between homes without storage costs. It is often cheaper to sell big/heavy stuff than move it.
So:
- Dump everything that is not used monthly/quarterly, and can easily be replaced after you move.
- Sell any poorly preforming tools, and buy new/better tools for next shop.
- Limit amount of nuts, bolts, household repair bits (electrical, plumbing, etc); each to ONE manageable sized tote box with only most important stuff. Most of that old stuff will never be used if building a NEW home.
- If you own common 3-5HP power tools, and local CL often has similar tools listed; sell the big tools and save yourself hassle of moving them twice. Do suggest that you keep common accessories that can not be replaced with similar used items. Used saw blades don't return a lot money, yet can cost hundreds to replace. Same goes for custom fixtures/jigs.
2) Use bins/totes/crates for storage of seldom used tools. Can open the bins, stuff in some packing if needed, and instantly ready to move.
3) Store bins/totes on wire rack shelves with wheels. When it comes time to move, forget handling every item; wrap the wire rack with plastic shrink wrap, and roll then entire stack of stuff onto the truck. This also helps keep stacking weight from crushing your wimpy plastic tool boxes.
4) Unless your mobile bases have 4"+ diameter wheels, plan on using furniture dolly when moving cast iron tools. First, the standard wimpy 2" wheels will not roll over edges of ramps, corrugated metal trailer flooring, or door thresholds. Second, you will learn just how sub-par the normal mobile base casters can be. I end up breaking multiple plastic casters in every move, and stopped trying to use mobile bases for moving heavy tools in/out of moving vehicles.
This topic has been discussed on LJ several times. Search and you find more cool ideas.
http://www.lumberjocks.com/search_results?cx=017914489645407774653%3Agwwk-zif3wk&cof=FORID%3A9&safe=high&q=moving+my+shop&sa=Search&siteurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.lumberjocks.com%2F