Advice on whether to transport large power tools cross country

[gee-dub]

Not too tough a call.  If the tools are of a type and model that is well regarded and historically reliable I would ship or plan a getaway and go get them.  We live in a time that for many fundamental woodworking machines at the home-shop level, ones made ten years ago are better than ones made today.  There is also the cost factor to add into your decision making formula along with the quality of materials and workmanship.  I have Porter Cable tools still in use from times gone by but, they are certainly not my tool of choice today.  There are probably Grizzly 1023 series tablesaws bought a decade ago that would give today's tablesaws costing twice as much a run for the money.  I recommend (which doesn't mean I'm right) that you consider the machine's value and then make your choice.

[Brendon_t]

On 7/17/2018 at 5:54 AM, HuxleyWood said:

I looked over the list and there is nothing that strikes me as worth a long distance trip to claim, even free.  This discounts any sentimental value.  

By definition it does quite the opposite.

The sentimental value of something is due to the emotional associations, Not the material worth. The dollar value has Nothing to do with sentiment. 

One of my favorite tools is an old Craftsman corrugated sole #5 I have modified as my go to "scrub plane" although it is not one.

I remember using this thing 25 years ago in my grandfather's shop building a bird house. I'll lose a hand before I willingly hand that to someone because it isn't worth enough.

 

I'm really surprised and disappointed at a lot of the responses here to just leave them because it's a decent amount of trouble.  (Wanna guess how much trouble it is itemizing your material possessios in case of your death) Maybe I'm closer to my friends than most but if a friend thought of me in life and wanted me to have something important of theirs after their death, I would never even think of telling the family , No thanks, not worth it to me.  

[Tom King]

I was kind of surprised when a close friend on mine left me all his tools.  He had never said anything about it before he left.   He knew I was not a machinist, and knew that I had better welding machines than the old ones he had, even though his still worked fine.  I'm pretty sure he left them to me because he knew that none of his family knew anything at all about the tools, and that I would get something out of them, some kind of way, better than what his family would want to bother to do.

The milling machine, two lathes, and other stuff is still sitting in his garage that none of the other family members use anyway, at that lake house.  I have moved all the small stuff, like one of each, and multiples of some, of everything that Starret makes, and will move the big tools whenever the family is bothered by the stuff being there.  I think about Chuck every time I use one of the Starret combination squares.

I don't think anyone who doesn't know the exact situation can say, one way or other, by personal judgement, what is the best thing to do.  I'm sure Chuck wouldn't care, one way or the other, if I kept the punch tape controlled milling machine, or sold it.

[Coop]

7 hours ago, Brendon_t said:

By definition it does quite the opposite.

The sentimental value of something is due to the emotional associations, Not the material worth. The dollar value has Nothing to do with sentiment. 

One of my favorite tools is an old Craftsman corrugated sole #5 I have modified as my go to "scrub plane" although it is not one.

I remember using this thing 25 years ago in my grandfather's shop building a bird house. I'll lose a hand before I willingly hand that to someone because it isn't worth enough.

 

I'm really surprised and disappointed at a lot of the responses here to just leave them because it's a decent amount of trouble.  (Wanna guess how much trouble it is itemizing your material possessios in case of your death) Maybe I'm closer to my friends than most but if a friend thought of me in life and wanted me to have something important of theirs after their death, I would never even think of telling the family , No thanks, not worth it to me.  

I hate it when you’re sober and rationalize

[Brendon_t]

4 minutes ago, K Cooper said:

I hate it when you’re sober and rationalize

You and me both. Luckily, I am neither, currently.  That idiot up there was.. 

[HuxleyWood]

On 7/20/2018 at 1:47 PM, Brendon_t said:

By definition it does quite the opposite.

The sentimental value of something is due to the emotional associations, Not the material worth. The dollar value has Nothing to do with sentiment. 

One of my favorite tools is an old Craftsman corrugated sole #5 I have modified as my go to "scrub plane" although it is not one.

I remember using this thing 25 years ago in my grandfather's shop building a bird house. I'll lose a hand before I willingly hand that to someone because it isn't worth enough.

 

I'm really surprised and disappointed at a lot of the responses here to just leave them because it's a decent amount of trouble.  (Wanna guess how much trouble it is itemizing your material possessios in case of your death) Maybe I'm closer to my friends than most but if a friend thought of me in life and wanted me to have something important of theirs after their death, I would never even think of telling the family , No thanks, not worth it to me.  

That was exactly my point, I was saying my analysis discounted (ignored) sentiment.  If a random stranger offered that list of things on Craigslist for free I would NOT drive cross country to get them nor would I hire a rigger to crate it and ship it LTL to my house.  Some people may be facing dealing with an estate for the first time and the natural inclination for many is to keep everything, I have BTDT enough that if I had kept everything bequeathed to me I would need a 100 x 100 storage building just to house it all, 99.9% of it I would never use.  I recently had a grandfather die, I took just three items but I see them and use them regularly and that is all the sentiment I need.  If the OP feels the sentimental value is high enough to get and keep all the items that is one thing but from a time and money only POV it doesn't work for me.