Ask yourself what sort , and to what degree, of packing woul
Trust no one but yourself. Absolutely! Pack it yourself as though you were sending it to yourself. Can't stress this often enough!
You want to physically isolate the the vacuum inside protective layers so no side or edge of the vacuum directly contacts the shipping carton sides, bottom or top. Then those separate bubblewrapped parcels must be secured in place in the carton so there is no possibility the loads will shift. Assume the carton will be vibrated, kicked, prodded, bounced, dropped off a forklift prong and left upside down and backwards as it makes it's way through warehouses and off shipping docks in transit.
Crumpled newspaper, no matter how tightly wadded, will compress even more around a large heavy item - it may be fine for stuffing box voids around toasters and such that have little weight inertia but a Mixmaster, iron or vacuum are HEAVY items that act like unstoppable boulders unless firmly 'locked' within their shipping cocoon.
Remember, be kind if you use styro peanuts - fill and tie individual bags of them in grocery bags...not only because peanuts tend to migrate inside cartons but also to prevent them flying all over the recipient's kitchen upon unpacking.
By any means, remove the handle pole - there is usually enough slack in the internal wire cording to permit this - and if sending to a fellow collector I would also remove the bail, as the recipient will know how to re-attach it. Unless you're packing includes injected expanding foam around the whole thing, there is always the possibility of the bail being bent from side pressures.
No need to spend big bucks on new materials - just ask or check out back of appliance stores and Mall Dumpsters for bubblewrap and peanuts to salvage. When one has to pack long items like Hoover Floor Washers, cylinder vacuums, floor polishers and uprights like a 1930s Air-Way a great technique is to use tightly supporting foam blocks cut to size, that so many appliances, audiovisual items and computers are packed in these days.
Long items require longer but no less careful preparation time than cylinder and tub canisters, which also need to be distanced from contact shock within any shipping container.
No one has ever complained about too much packing material to unpack.
Dave
see this thread from AW.org on packing up a vintage sewing machine.
http://www.automaticwasher.org/cgi-bin/TD/TD-VIEWTHREAD.cgi?27297_16
) I knew I could count on you!
