Shipping cast iron
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Registered User
Joined: Dec 2011
Posts: 7,286
Shipping cast iron
Got an intake today
another 398662 victim, mwah-ha-ha
The feller that sent it bolted some lumber to the carb face as I requested
put some STYROFOAM chunks around it as sort of I requested
put that in a box adequate for... packing peanuts only.
It pretty much at the box during the trip.
It was one notch better than tossing a loose piece of cardboard on top of the intake and sending it.
I guess it's time for Packing 101 youtube video so folks can be directed to it for an instructional.
Styrofoam- anything that breaks into 1,000,000 tidbits when you touch it is NOT packing for cast iron.
Newspaper is NEVER a packing material for anything. Ever.
Wood, used properly, is great. It does, however need to extend to the edge of that to be protected.
Remember the abuse that the pkg will be subjected to.
It appears to have survived more or less intact, I did not see any damage in a cursory inspection. If the fittings survived I will be surprised.
another 398662 victim, mwah-ha-ha
The feller that sent it bolted some lumber to the carb face as I requested
put some STYROFOAM chunks around it as sort of I requested
put that in a box adequate for... packing peanuts only.
It pretty much at the box during the trip.
It was one notch better than tossing a loose piece of cardboard on top of the intake and sending it.
I guess it's time for Packing 101 youtube video so folks can be directed to it for an instructional.
Styrofoam- anything that breaks into 1,000,000 tidbits when you touch it is NOT packing for cast iron.
Newspaper is NEVER a packing material for anything. Ever.
Wood, used properly, is great. It does, however need to extend to the edge of that to be protected.
Remember the abuse that the pkg will be subjected to.
It appears to have survived more or less intact, I did not see any damage in a cursory inspection. If the fittings survived I will be surprised.
Just an Olds Guy
Joined: Jul 2008
Posts: 24,528
From: Edmonton, AB. And "I am Can 'eh' jun - eh"
Ah ha ha ha ha ha ha. This is funny! I guess the concept of packing is NOT using common sense or good judgement to some peeps. Lucky for you he didn't just tape your address to the intake and send it 'as is'.
Could be wrong but I think most peeps will do it right. On the other hand, I also get the feeling that once it's out of their hands at the shipper they could care less.
Glad you got it ok Chris. Hope the fittings are fine too.
Could be wrong but I think most peeps will do it right. On the other hand, I also get the feeling that once it's out of their hands at the shipper they could care less.
Glad you got it ok Chris. Hope the fittings are fine too.
Old(s) Fart
Joined: Mar 2007
Posts: 50,697
From: Northern VA
Aw, c'mon Chris. Do you really think you can hurt that intake? The bigger danger was to all the other packages on the truck!
And speaking of "proper use of wood", here's a great example of how NOT to use it. I recently bought some unobtanium parts for my 62 wagon from a seller in Wisconsin. This included a straight and rustfree tailgate, clutch pedals, a windshield, and the tailgate glass.
Repeat the word "glass".
I paid extra for the seller to "crate" the parts. I contracted with Fastenal directly for the shipment from WI to VA. Here's what the "crate" looked like when I arrived at Fastenal to pick it up:
Yeah, that's plastic wrap, the heavy kind used to wrap pallets. There must be all of $10 worth of 2x3s and scrap wood in this "crate". The thing wrapped in cardboard is the windshield. The other flat item to the right in the first photo is the back glass.
But here's the amazing part. NOTHING was damaged! I cannot heap enough praise on the folks at Fastenal for this. Not only was it the cheapest shipment method, but they absolutely handled this, er, crate, with kid gloves.
And speaking of "proper use of wood", here's a great example of how NOT to use it. I recently bought some unobtanium parts for my 62 wagon from a seller in Wisconsin. This included a straight and rustfree tailgate, clutch pedals, a windshield, and the tailgate glass.
Repeat the word "glass".
I paid extra for the seller to "crate" the parts. I contracted with Fastenal directly for the shipment from WI to VA. Here's what the "crate" looked like when I arrived at Fastenal to pick it up:
Yeah, that's plastic wrap, the heavy kind used to wrap pallets. There must be all of $10 worth of 2x3s and scrap wood in this "crate". The thing wrapped in cardboard is the windshield. The other flat item to the right in the first photo is the back glass.
But here's the amazing part. NOTHING was damaged! I cannot heap enough praise on the folks at Fastenal for this. Not only was it the cheapest shipment method, but they absolutely handled this, er, crate, with kid gloves.
Registered User
Joined: Feb 2010
Posts: 1,587
From: West Michigan
One of my pet peeves is people who OVER pack fragile items. They stuff the box so full of packing material that they've actually diminished its effectiveness. They've turned the whole box into a brick with the fragile item under compression.
One of the best things anyone can do when packing stuff is to double-box it, with a layer of padding (bubble wrap, Styrofoam, etc) between the two boxes.
One of the best things anyone can do when packing stuff is to double-box it, with a layer of padding (bubble wrap, Styrofoam, etc) between the two boxes.
same but different
Joined: Jun 2007
Posts: 2,958
From: Central Missouri
That crating job is decent but could of been better. It should of had more plastic around it.
Stuff more valuable than old car parts gets shipped everyday just like that. Its true. I'm not joking.
Stuff more valuable than old car parts gets shipped everyday just like that. Its true. I'm not joking.
Thread Starter
Registered User
Joined: Dec 2011
Posts: 7,286
Shipping a valuable cast iron intake w/o damage.
Should work equally well for the AL intake.
Intake is shipped upside down. Crucial top is well protected, bottom is pretty hard to damage.
Round up (4) 5/16 x 1.5" flat head screws. Or some leftover rocker bolts.
3/4" thick 1x3 or 1x4's work great.
Use 1x6's maybe for the sides uprights and ends? All 5 Long Sticks, even.
Cut some wood (4+ pcs) 2" longer than the intake is wide [17" is suggested], and
some (5+ pcs) 2" longer than the max length of the intake [25.5" suggested].
...note that 16.5 and 24.0 are shown
First two shorter (17") pcs go crossways, secured to intake at carb holes using the 5/16" screws. A carb gasket makes a good template for spacing the holes right. Center the gasket lenghwise, which may differ from the 6-1/8 dimension shown. Drill at 4.25" spacing 1.5" from one edge of the wood is shown. 3/8" holes provide a good fit to flat head screws and a generous allowance for your hole spacing being less than perfect. The wood ends up centered, with 1" sticking out past each side of the intake, providing space where your protective foam will go later.
Other two short pcs are ends cross pcs, soon.
Secure four of the LONG pcs in an L fashion to the ends of the first two cross pieces, forming the sides and side-bottoms of the crate. Use the 5th long piece down the middle for more support and protection. "Cabinet" screws are suggested for minimal wood splitting and the large washered low profile head. Drywall type screws also work, just not as well.
Ensure that none of your crate pieces interferes with the intake's protruding features such as the PCV boss.
At this point you can unbolt from the intake, add the last 2 short pieces as ends, and fully screw all joints. This is a good time to oil and/or bag the intake in plastic just in case it encounters water during its trip and future life until unpacked. Your crate to intake screws will go right thru the plastic bag.
You can then bolt the crate to the bagged intake. This is a good time to add 3/4 or 1" house insulating foam or cardboard or corruplast or thin wood in the gaps between your crate boards, to better protect its top surface.
Flip it over and add foam board in the 1" gap all around the intake
Cut it tall enough to go up 1" past the highest part of the intake's bottom bulge... which is now at the top.
Fill in around the bulge and whatnot with smaller pieces. Tape it all in place.
Wrap the crated manifold with double wall cardboard. Your local GM or other brand car dealer probably has LOTS of free heavy cardboard boxes that work well for this. Leave a few inches sticking out each end. Cut the excess cardboard to flaps and fold them in. Tape securely. Add fiberglass packing tape for an extra secure package- that stuff is indestructible.
.+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Another good method, especially if the value of the part is more like $100 instead of $1000, is to wrap 2x around with cardboard, well secured, then place that cocoon in a larger sturdy [not single wall cardboard] box, with foam board or packing peanuts all around for at least 1". Styrofoam IS NOT packing material for cast iron. Anything that disintegrates in tiny particles is bad. And, bagging any part before packing is a good idea. It is disappointing to get a part and have to dig styrofoam particles out of all its passages.
I would add photos but that feature does not appear to be working today, after I spent hours finding the right photos...
Should work equally well for the AL intake.
Intake is shipped upside down. Crucial top is well protected, bottom is pretty hard to damage.
Round up (4) 5/16 x 1.5" flat head screws. Or some leftover rocker bolts.
3/4" thick 1x3 or 1x4's work great.
Use 1x6's maybe for the sides uprights and ends? All 5 Long Sticks, even.
Cut some wood (4+ pcs) 2" longer than the intake is wide [17" is suggested], and
some (5+ pcs) 2" longer than the max length of the intake [25.5" suggested].
...note that 16.5 and 24.0 are shown
First two shorter (17") pcs go crossways, secured to intake at carb holes using the 5/16" screws. A carb gasket makes a good template for spacing the holes right. Center the gasket lenghwise, which may differ from the 6-1/8 dimension shown. Drill at 4.25" spacing 1.5" from one edge of the wood is shown. 3/8" holes provide a good fit to flat head screws and a generous allowance for your hole spacing being less than perfect. The wood ends up centered, with 1" sticking out past each side of the intake, providing space where your protective foam will go later.
Other two short pcs are ends cross pcs, soon.
Secure four of the LONG pcs in an L fashion to the ends of the first two cross pieces, forming the sides and side-bottoms of the crate. Use the 5th long piece down the middle for more support and protection. "Cabinet" screws are suggested for minimal wood splitting and the large washered low profile head. Drywall type screws also work, just not as well.
Ensure that none of your crate pieces interferes with the intake's protruding features such as the PCV boss.
At this point you can unbolt from the intake, add the last 2 short pieces as ends, and fully screw all joints. This is a good time to oil and/or bag the intake in plastic just in case it encounters water during its trip and future life until unpacked. Your crate to intake screws will go right thru the plastic bag.
You can then bolt the crate to the bagged intake. This is a good time to add 3/4 or 1" house insulating foam or cardboard or corruplast or thin wood in the gaps between your crate boards, to better protect its top surface.
Flip it over and add foam board in the 1" gap all around the intake
Cut it tall enough to go up 1" past the highest part of the intake's bottom bulge... which is now at the top.
Fill in around the bulge and whatnot with smaller pieces. Tape it all in place.
Wrap the crated manifold with double wall cardboard. Your local GM or other brand car dealer probably has LOTS of free heavy cardboard boxes that work well for this. Leave a few inches sticking out each end. Cut the excess cardboard to flaps and fold them in. Tape securely. Add fiberglass packing tape for an extra secure package- that stuff is indestructible.
.+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Another good method, especially if the value of the part is more like $100 instead of $1000, is to wrap 2x around with cardboard, well secured, then place that cocoon in a larger sturdy [not single wall cardboard] box, with foam board or packing peanuts all around for at least 1". Styrofoam IS NOT packing material for cast iron. Anything that disintegrates in tiny particles is bad. And, bagging any part before packing is a good idea. It is disappointing to get a part and have to dig styrofoam particles out of all its passages.
I would add photos but that feature does not appear to be working today, after I spent hours finding the right photos...
Last edited by Octania; Apr 9, 2015 at 11:39 AM.
Thread Starter
Registered User
Joined: Dec 2011
Posts: 7,286
Photos? evidently I can do exactly ONE at a time today
here is an example of a beat up weakly packed intake as I received it
the first pic is a box that arrived quite some time ago. pretty tattered.
2nd pic is the one that arrived this week. Box has holes and a corner split open. What styrofoam is left is doing nothing.
Adding the 2nd photo was done via the POS iPhone 5, only took 20 minutes, and 20% of the battery. And then, it lost / failed to add this here text explaining the photos. AWESOME.
I would LOVE to show the photos of the proper crating, which I put about 2 hrs into yesterday, but absolutely cannot add photos here from my computer now, not even ONE. The photos do not exist on the phone. Posting photos here has, for me, gone from fairly painful to just not even possible.
here is an example of a beat up weakly packed intake as I received it
the first pic is a box that arrived quite some time ago. pretty tattered.
2nd pic is the one that arrived this week. Box has holes and a corner split open. What styrofoam is left is doing nothing.
Adding the 2nd photo was done via the POS iPhone 5, only took 20 minutes, and 20% of the battery. And then, it lost / failed to add this here text explaining the photos. AWESOME.
I would LOVE to show the photos of the proper crating, which I put about 2 hrs into yesterday, but absolutely cannot add photos here from my computer now, not even ONE. The photos do not exist on the phone. Posting photos here has, for me, gone from fairly painful to just not even possible.
Last edited by Octania; Apr 10, 2015 at 08:00 AM.
Registered User
Joined: Jul 2013
Posts: 1,815
From: Mo-Ray-Al, K-Bec.
Oddly enough ... this often is the best way to ship something like this. Since it's obviously heavy, sharp and dangerous to all other packages, it will be handled separately and usually by hand. Nobody will risk throwing it ... not for any respect of it, but for fear of damaging their equipment when it lands on it.
Thread Starter
Registered User
Joined: Dec 2011
Posts: 7,286
Only twenty minutes and 20% of my phone battery and I was able to add ONE photo!!! Awesome.
The 2nd pic is the protective wood bolted to the top of the latest intake.
Said intake is now back from the machine shop all clean and oiled to ward off rust. Ready to extract broken Tstat bolts and make molds of its J and numbers.
It's date is about 261 in case anyone needs one with that date either stock or modified. This is the W30 intake. :-)
Last edited by Octania; Apr 11, 2015 at 06:45 AM.
CH3NO2 LEARN IT BURN IT
Joined: Jul 2010
Posts: 5,621
From: Land of Taxes
The lesson I've learned is to have the seller take said part to a professional packer...FedEx, USPS, UPS etc...and include that in the price of the part. I had a guy ship me a tail gate for my new Super Duty. He said he packed it real well. Uaha right. It looked like FedEx dropped it out of a plane at 35K feet!. It was unusable and I had to fight to get reimbursed. It should have been "properly" crated. Running boards are next. Ill let you know how that goes.
Thread Starter
Registered User
Joined: Dec 2011
Posts: 7,286
11:44
Well 2 hrs later i got ONE photo onto flikr
I thought they did not allow interaction via computer, only phone.
This intake is bolted to the center two cross pieces at the carb mounting holes.
Remove intake from crate, fasten crate well at all joints, bag intake, reinstall crate, pack foam BOARD around intake, then wrap in DOUBLE wall cardboard and tape with fiberglass tape.
I would have photos of all this, but, alas, it would take a week to do that with the current misbehaving computer/ connection.
12:02
photobucket now appears to show me that some of the "failed" uploads did in fact work. Let's see...
5774d14b-6748-4b9d-aaf3-18303ec1a9c2_zps7vs5ad0m.jpg
15000_CRATING_95%20foam_zps74pgswsa.jpg?1428680243452&1428680247462
15000_CRATING_99_zpsoiszjfzs.jpg?1428680243452&1428680247462
Now THAT is a properly packed intake!
Well 2 hrs later i got ONE photo onto flikr
I thought they did not allow interaction via computer, only phone.
This intake is bolted to the center two cross pieces at the carb mounting holes.
Remove intake from crate, fasten crate well at all joints, bag intake, reinstall crate, pack foam BOARD around intake, then wrap in DOUBLE wall cardboard and tape with fiberglass tape.
I would have photos of all this, but, alas, it would take a week to do that with the current misbehaving computer/ connection.
12:02
photobucket now appears to show me that some of the "failed" uploads did in fact work. Let's see...
5774d14b-6748-4b9d-aaf3-18303ec1a9c2_zps7vs5ad0m.jpg
15000_CRATING_95%20foam_zps74pgswsa.jpg?1428680243452&1428680247462
15000_CRATING_99_zpsoiszjfzs.jpg?1428680243452&1428680247462
Now THAT is a properly packed intake!
Last edited by Octania; Apr 10, 2015 at 09:15 AM.
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