[Chris Yaughn]

Anyone got a “Why didn’t I think of that” idea for offloading sheets of SS material for the smaller shops?

Large trucks can’t directly access my shop so everything has to be loaded into my truck/trailer and delivered to the shop. I’ve been sliding the sheets out of the back of the Carriers truck into my pick-up (onto a sled/pallet of course) and sanding away the evidence. Any better ideas?

Chris

[Andy Graves]

You can’t deliver the sheets to your shop? This actually sounds like a pretty good idea unless you have some sort of a rolling A-Frame to get your material to the shop.

[KCWOOD]

I have trouble with 53′ trailers getting into my drive. I have a fork lift with the long forks and just drive out to the street and get it. See if they can deliver FedEx freight. Those guys drive the little short trailers and can get to most places. Either way, you will have to hand unload it or get a fork lift.

[Tom M]

Chris,
If the trailer can’t get to your door, the A-frame with lockable rollers doesn’t sound like a bad idea. Keep the sheets as vertical (long way out, not up) as possible until you do the final unload. We unload everything by hand, but the truck just makes it to the door.

Tom

[Norm Walters]

Chris, I hand load and unload all of my sheet stock simply because all of my distributors are within a 1/4 mile radius and I am not in my shop all of the time to accept deliveries. What I do is use three 2″x12″x12′ boards in the back of my van, (van is 10′ long). When I get them to the shop I slide them off onto benches that I made that have casters on them, the benches roll right up to the van, slide the sheets off, then roll the bench in to the shop, up to the panel saw.

[Chris Yaughn]

Thanks guys,

I guess I was just in some state of denial about maybe not having to hand offload the sheet goods for the sill job coming in tomorrow (2 1/2 pallets or so). I can back the p/u truck or my trailer to the door with no problems so looks like heavy lifting/sliding for me tomorrow.

Chris

[Chris Yaughn]

Here is what I ended up doing. No rocket science but I think it helped a little.

• Cut a bunch of 1ft X 1ft or so squares of scrap carpet
• Meet freight driver
• grimace when I see the corners of 11 of 12 sheets slightly chipped/busted
• dig through truck to find tin snips to cut banding
• put a square between the top sheet and the second sheet, on the end farthest from my pickup, with the carpet side facing the “finished” side of the SS
• slide sheet into my truck
• Repeat, Also, place a pad where the second sheet “lands” on the first to help it slide into the back of the truck. Leave the landing “pad” in place to facilitate removal from truck.
• After the last sheet, slide the pallet onto the top of your stack and use a strap to pull everyting tight ( this supports the 4 feet hanging out of the back of the truck and cuts down on the pucker factor)
• pat self on back for deciding to only have 1 pallet delivered at a time, The Toyota did NOT want many more sheets of SS in the back, she got a little wiggly ove 55 or so

The carpet helped cut down on scratching ( I think). And the pallet made the whole rig a little more rigid.

It probably took as long to type this as it did to load the sheets into my truck, I hope this made sense.

Chris

[Shane Barker]

Sounds like it worked out just fine. My forklift is down and
I have a load of particle board coming in on Wednesday next week if you want to
bring on by that Toyota and show me how it works, I’ll pay for gas….or…ummm….maybe
not.

Shane

[Andy Graves]

How big a job is this. Sounds like you are staying pretty busy with the new baby and the huge job. Good luck.

[KCWOOD]

Chris,

Don’t let Shane fool you…..this is how Shane hauls materials.This is a picture of him driving away from Home Depot. You should see him with 12 ft sheets strapped to it.

[THB]Homedepot.jpg[/THB]

[Chris Yaughn]

Andy,

It is the Dorm Renovation Sill job that I mentioned a while back. 100 or so windows avg sill around 11” X 7′ or so. If they go well I’ll get all the vanities next which will initiate another round of questions.

Shane,

8ft sheet goods go into the 5X10 covered trailer where they stay, flat stacked, until use.Portable, short term storage. The guys at the local liminate shop (they sell mdf etc..) love to see me coming. Hand loading mdf, ummm, fun

[Chris Yaughn]

Andy,

Just noticed you mentioned the baby. My 3yr old was supervising the unloading. We couldn’t play with chalk until I was done “Daddy you have 4 sheets left, are you going to unload them yet? Daddy you have 3 sheets left, you need to hurry.”

Chris

[Shane Barker]

KC,
I put a lumber rack on my new car and try not to put quite as much on it….I thought I told you to throw that pic away.

Shane

[Chris Yaughn]

Tom M wrote

Chris,

Keep the sheets as vertical (long way out, not up) as possible until you do the final unload

Tom

Tom,

I was posting a follow up to this and noticed your advice on not carrying the sheets vertically , long way up. MAN, I wish I had caught that earlier. Do you have any idea how hard it is to balance a 12 foot sheet straight up in the air by yourself??

Any way, a much easier way to unload is to have a 400 lbs John Deere engine sitting on top of your first pallet of corian. Make nice with the fork lift driver at the JohnDeere place and he will gladly unload your Corian (he has to get his engine out anyway) AND stick the pallet of ss in the back of the truck.

Much, Much easier this way.

Still had to unload by hand though.

Chris

[Tom M]

Yeah, I reread that to catch up and wondered why the heck I bothered to put that in.

Having said that –

Unless it is a mulit-skid job and we are oon it soon, I have always stored my sheets 12 high slid in to frames. A small shop can afford to lose neither the floor space nor the versatility of that kind of vertical storage.

Watch those headers.

[Author]

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