The worse piece of cast iron cook ware to ship....

[Greg Stahl]

I have bought and sold a lot of cast iron in the last 20 years.  By far, I think the worse piece of cast iron cookware to ship, packing that is, was the #20 skillet.  That was up until today.  I'm packing a #9 Griswold oval roaster with full markings and trivet to ship to a WAGS member.  The #9 is a beast.

I always double box everything, but to find two boxes that would fit this beast was a challenge.  I had my recent cold air intake for my FORD F150, cut that in half, taped back together to make a new box that was 24 inches long and just high enough to fit everything that was wrapped in padding at least 2 inches thick on each side, top and bottom.  THen put into a microwave oven box with original styrofoam bottom still in place that fit the inside box to a tee.  Another two inches of crumbled paper on the sides and top and more styrofoam on the sides.

If this thing breaks in shipping, its because some one dropped it from the Empire State building.  My worse piece of cookware that I have ever shipped, including that #20 skillet.  The #9 is a beast!!

[Valerie Johnson]

I ship a lot of old sewing machines, most are cast iron and weigh in the 32-37lb range unpackaged, I buy my boxes direct from Uline and I purchase styrofoam sheeting that comes in bundles of 3/4" thick x 13 1/2" x 48", I line the box with the sheeting and then cut individual pieces to fit as needed, when I need thickness I will sandwich as many pieces as necessary together and then wrap them with plastic wrap and then plastic wrap them to the machine until I get it so the machine can not move around in the box, any place where there is a projection I fold cardboard over it so it does not punch thru the styrofoam, I have been very successful with this method

[Greg Stahl]

Loving that Uline.  We'll be buying a bunch of stuff from them to ship our household internationally to Fiji

 

I ship a lot of old sewing machines, most are cast iron and weigh in the 32-37lb range unpackaged, I buy my boxes direct from Uline and I purchase styrofoam sheeting that comes in bundles of 3/4" thick x 13 1/2" x 48", I line the box with the sheeting and then cut individual pieces to fit as needed, when I need thickness I will sandwich as many pieces as necessary together and then wrap them with plastic wrap and then plastic wrap them to the machine until I get it so the machine can not move around in the box, any place where there is a projection I fold cardboard over it so it does not punch thru the styrofoam, I have been very successful with this method

[Greg Stahl]

BTW, the #9 came in boxed at 42#

[Valerie Johnson]

Yes I love Uline, However I only buy certain boxes from them, other smaller boxes I have found it is less expensive to source from WalMart, The styrofoam comes in bundles of 6 panels and I get it from my local hardware store, runs around $7.29 a bundle and well worth the cost.

42lbs is pretty hefty, did you ship UPS,FedEx or USPS

[C. Perry Rapier]

Some other good stuff to use is carpet padding. You can get scraps for free from your local carpet dealer. And I like wadded up newspapers. They work the best and they are cheap and available. I shipped a Dollys Favorite Stove once. I took off everything that was loose and wrapped it. I shipped it in two boxes with the legs off and upside down because the top is more solid than the bottom. But there are shipping challenges. At one of our conventions we had a segment headed up by Dave Smith about how to package cast iron. It was interesting and I still use some of the things I learned there.

[Greg Stahl]

I like using FedEx for the shipping.  Never (knock on wood) had them break anything.

Yes I love Uline, However I only buy certain boxes from them, other smaller boxes I have found it is less expensive to source from WalMart, The styrofoam comes in bundles of 6 panels and I get it from my local hardware store, runs around $7.29 a bundle and well worth the cost.

42lbs is pretty hefty, did you ship UPS,FedEx or USPS