Shipping DEC Qbus Gear

[Twylo]

Hey folks,

I'd like to hear from anyone who has experience shipping Qbus DEC gear. I have my eye on a PDP-11/23 in a BA23, third party RX02-compatible drive (same form factor as a BA23), and VT100, but it's on the opposite side of the country from me.

I've never shipped any DEC stuff. Everything I've ever had come through my hands has been a local (or nearly local) transaction that involved pickup. This stuff is just too heavy and bulky to go through FedEx or UPS, so I assume I would need an LTL freight service, which I've never used.

If you've had experience in this area, would you mind dropping me a line, or replying here? I'd like to know more about how it went for you, what to avoid, etc.

-Twylo

 

[Qbus]

I have shipped stuff by Roadway Motor Freight. We use to have a Roadway terminal in town and several items I sold that were too large or heavy for UPS I sent that way. The best method was to take the item to the truck terminal and secure it to a shipping pallet and shrink wrap that pallet. Then the whole mess goes onto a truck and is sent to the freight terminal nearest to its destination. If it's under five or six hundred miles will drive there myself but beyond that truck motor freight is the cheapest alternative, but beware that if you want it picked up or delivered to a address as opposed to going terminal to terminal it will cost way more, think door to door was at least three times more than terminal to terminal. Where the stuff you bought located?

 

[RetroHacker_]

A BA23 is not very big or very heavy, really. You can definitely use FedEX or UPS. See if you can acquire a box from a modern 2 or 3U rackmount server - they're roughly the same form factor, and the cardboard boxes they ship in are double walled and sturdy. (A BA23 is 3U). If you can't re-use the packing material from the server (or it's not available) you can buy sheets of styrofoam (4'x8') at the hardware store, and cut it to size. Wrap the PDP in a heavy garbage back first to keep styrofoam bits out. I'd probably also remove the faceplate and pack it in separately, so it won't get broken.

I've used FedEX to ship a very heavy/delicate 8" platter SMD interface drive (3U high, half width, full depth) in such a box, modified to be narrower and packed with the above mentioned foam, and it arrived in perfect condition.

-Ian

 

[jackrubin]

I like the idea of using a server box but you may not have much control over how much time/money/effort the shipper is willing to spend. If all else fails, Craters and Freighters will pick up the system, package it and then deliver to your door (or depot). Not cheap but really, really good. Just as a reference, I had a 250 lb system picked up at the donor's farm in Oklahoma, packed in a custom-built box (double wall cardboard with styrofoam cushioning) and palletized, then delivered to me at work in Chicago for about $500. The payload was an 11/05 and an HP2114 so I considered it well worthwhile. Might be a little pricey for an 11/23, but that's your call.

Jack

 

[Lou - N2MIY]

I agree with the strap it to a pallet, shrink wrap it, then motor freight approach. We ship a lot of fragile material where I work. Strapping something to a pallet makes something a lot less likely to get thrown and damaged. The BA23+DSD440 (probably what your non-dec RX02 is)+VT100 is heavy enough to warrant a small pallet anyway. Some foam between the layers and around everything, then shrink wrapped (or stretch film) should be pretty good.

Lou