I have never shipped a monitor before...help!!!

NERDtendo

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I bought some monitor boxes. That's it. I need to ship a 19" Sanyo and I don't want it to arrive broke. What's the best procedure for shipping a monitor???
 
Look for a place that does the "Instapak" or expanding foam packaging. It's basically like expanding foam material you get in a can except it has a plastic sheeting around it. It's kind of an extrude process where it just fills the box and expands creating a fitted pack around the monitor.

I don't recall the cost but it's not super cheap (nor super expensive.)

Unless you have a monitor box with the fitted foam pieces it's tough to protect the monitor (it can be done - just tough.)
 
The best procedure if you don't have custom-shaped styrofoam inserts like the monitor manufacturers use, is to build a wooden crate for it, which allows you to bolt the monitor down inside it, the same as if it were in a cabinet. Of course, this is a hassle and adds expense.

Otherwise, I don't know, as I've never shipped a monitor before. Maybe you could put a thick layer of soft foam like is used inside camera or gun cases (say 3" thick) in the bottom of the box, set the monitor face down on it, fill the rest with styrofoam packing peanuts, and clearly mark "THIS SIDE UP" with arrows on all 4 sides of the box, along with "FRAGILE HANDLE WITH CARE". Also, get insurance.
 
I just shipped a Sanyo about a month ago. I went to Home Depot and got some 1x1's and made a crate to stabalize the monitor. I put the monitor inside a garbage bag, then shoved an old quilt in front of the tube and filled the box with packing material.

The good: The monitor made it there in perfect working order.
The bad: It weighed a ton.
 
marking a box FRAGILE or THIS SIDE UP is probably more like asking for it than adding any protection.

Never pack ANYTHING such that it's safety depends on it maintaining a particular orientation.

The trick is to pack a box within a box. The inner box should be only slightly larger than the monitor. Wedge it in there good with styrofoam sheets, blocking, appliance edge/corner protectors, or just plain cardboard.

The outer box should be an inch or two larger in each dimension. Styrofoam peanuts and/or sheets should fill the gap between the two.

I always appreciated the idea of a box frame made of cheap wood that you could 'mount' the monitor to, but you'd still need padding and possibly a 2nd box.

Fed Ex Ground always handled heavy/large objects MUCH cheaper than the other two carriers. I've shipped several monitors and it's always been less than $40.

To do it right, you need to put a fair amount of effort in the packing though.

This subject has been beat to death countless times in the past though. Search it out.

Good luck.
 
Shipping monitors

I have shipped 30 or so 19" monitors to KLOVers with no monitor boxes. It is easy. Have not had one broken yet. I will look for some pics. I shipped one to Perf in A shoebox. :)
 
marking a box FRAGILE or THIS SIDE UP is probably more like asking for it than adding any protection.

What are you talking about? So is Happ "asking for it" when they printed "UP" with an arrow and "HANDLE WITH CARE" on their monitor boxes?

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Never pack ANYTHING such that it's safety depends on it maintaining a particular orientation.

The monitor isn't necessarily doomed if its orientation is changed from "UP". Being full of packing peanuts prevents excessive movement, and cushions what movement there is, regardless of the orientation. This is especially true with a Sanyo, which has a nice steel guard around the neck/neckboard. Putting "THIS SIDE UP" on the box is simply an added precaution; a standard one that has been used for ages I might add.

The trick is to pack a box within a box. The inner box should be only slightly larger than the monitor. Wedge it in there good with styrofoam sheets, blocking, appliance edge/corner protectors, or just plain cardboard.

The outer box should be an inch or two larger in each dimension. Styrofoam peanuts and/or sheets should fill the gap between the two.

That sounds good if you can find the right size boxes. The outer box is going to be quite large though.

I always appreciated the idea of a box frame made of cheap wood that you could 'mount' the monitor to, but you'd still need padding and possibly a 2nd box.

With a wooden crate and a mounted monitor, padding isn't necessary, no more than it is necessary to pad around a monitor when shipping a complete arcade machine. Padding is to prevent excessive movent of the object inside a box and provide shock absorption for what movement does occur, or to absorb shock that is transmitted directly through the box.

Interior padding would serve no function in a wooden crate and a solidly mounted monitor, because no shifting of the monitor is possible in the first place, and it wouldn't prevent shock transmitted directly through the box because the monitor is not free-floating; i.e., the shock would still transmit through the wood > into the mounting bolts > into the monitor frame. A second larger box surrounding the wooden crate with padding between it and the wooden crate would prevent (or greatly reduce) shock transmitted directly through the box, but not only would that be a huge and awkward thing to ship, but it is also probably overkill. In other words, a wooden crate would have to be handled very roughly before shock transmitted directly through the box could do any damage.

But regardless of which method one uses, get shipping insurance.
 

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DO NOT USE PACKING PEANUTS! You need to make sure the monitor is sufficiently wedged in the box and useless peanuts do not qualify, you don't want the monitor to shift around at all in the box. Whoever is using packing peanuts to ship these things is an absolute moron. I've shipped over 1000 monitors and have lost 3 due to deliberate mishandling. If i would have been stupid enough to use peanuts, many more would have been lost. Use a rigid styrofam on all sides.
 
DO NOT USE PACKING PEANUTS! You need to make sure the monitor is sufficiently wedged in the box and useless peanuts do not qualify, you don't want the monitor to shift around at all in the box. Whoever is using packing peanuts to ship these things is an absolute moron. I've shipped over 1000 monitors and have lost 3 due to deliberate mishandling. If i would have been stupid enough to use peanuts, many more would have been lost. Use a rigid styrofam on all sides.

I like how you "backed up" your speculation with a crystal ball reading of a hypothetical alternate timeline (i.e. "If i would have been stupid enough to use peanuts, many more would have been lost."), and I question your understanding of the physics of packing peanuts.

Packing peanuts have far more shock absorption capability than rigid styrofoam has, by the way. Set a fragile vase in a box where it is surrounded by 3" of rigid styrofoam, and also set one in a box where it is surrounded by a 3" layer of packing peanuts. Which do you think is more likely to survive a fall from 6' onto a concrete floor?

No packing method that is practical is going to protect a monitor if it is handled roughly, and most methods will protect it if it is handled carefully. I'd be willing to bet that a monitor with a sufficient thickness of packing peanuts surrounding it could survive rougher handling than one with the same thickness of rigid styrofoam surrounding it however. Packing peanuts can't move out of the way or compress enough for protection to be lost if there is enough of them, in a thick enough layer.
 
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I like how you "backed up" your speculation with a crystal ball reading of a hypothetical alternate timeline (i.e. "If i would have been stupid enough to use peanuts, many more would have been lost."), and I question your understanding of the physics of packing peanuts.

Packing peanuts have far more shock absorption capability than rigid styrofoam has, by the way. Set a fragile vase in a box where it is surrounded by 3" of rigid styrofoam, and also set one in a box where it is surrounded by a 3" layer of packing peanuts. Which do you think is more likely to survive a fall from 6' onto a concrete floor?

No packing method that is practical is going to protect a monitor if it is handled roughly, and most methods will protect it if it is handled carefully. I'd be willing to bet that a monitor with a sufficient thickness of packing peanuts surrounding it could survive rougher handling than one with the same thickness of rigid styrofoam surrounding it however. Packing peanuts can't move out of the way or compress enough for protection to be lost if there is enough of them, in a thick enough layer.


Packing peanuts work fine for smaller, lighter fragile items but your laws of physics aren't gonna work with monitors. Peanuts don't fill the voids enough to keep it from shifting around and on top of that, they're a pain in in the ass to pick out of monitor chassis.
 
When i first started shipping monitors and chassis, i was paying an individual call charge on every single item i put on the porch. Finally, the driver just said i might as well open an account cuz i'm shipping at least 75 packages a month. An account is key or they'll kill ya on the shipping charges for monitors.

Even with my account, i no longer ship 25" monitors cuz when the box gets up to 25" or more, the billable weight charge goes through the roof.
 
Peanuts

DO NOT USE PACKING PEANUTS! You need to make sure the monitor is sufficiently wedged in the box and useless peanuts do not qualify, you don't want the monitor to shift around at all in the box. Whoever is using packing peanuts to ship these things is an absolute moron. I've shipped over 1000 monitors and have lost 3 due to deliberate mishandling. If i would have been stupid enough to use peanuts, many more would have been lost. Use a rigid styrofam on all sides.

You are asking for a broken neck with peanuts.
 
You are asking for a broken neck with peanuts.

Exactly! What i always do is slide the neckboard off the tube, leave all the wiring attached, bubblewrap the neckboard and tuck it between the tube and chassis. This gives plenty of room between the end of the neck and the box just like the factory shipped em. BTW, it doesn't hurt to cut some hand holes in the sides of the box either, these things aren't the easiest to carry.
 
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Monitors

Because i've shipped more than 1000 monitors so UPS loves me.

I ship monitors with FedEx. Typical vector or raster 19" is 22-42$ depending on where in the country it is going.

This one, I ran out of the right size boxes. This box was too big and I had to fill the voids but you get the idea..

100_4490.jpg
 
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