The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

I need to ship a Tea Tray horn, Aprox 31 inches long with large bell, aprox 18 inches...
Best carrier to use? It need it to go cross country.

I have had a lot of success with UPSP but for large light objects UPS (regular ground) is about the same price. Generally assume the box is going to be tossed around because it is light. But because it is light it will not be damaged as much from this tossing.

Ensure that your horn is bubble wrapped to prevent scratching then put it in a box with one or more inches on all sides then fill with packing. The peanuts work well but paper is fine just make sure there is no movement inside the box.
You will likely have to build your own cardboard box from two others for the right size.

UPS stores usually do a good job of this but expect to double the price because they over pack and charge you for it.

I shipped a horn by Grey Hound once and it was a little cheaper. Remember this is not their normal business and the box was heavily abused (horn made it ok). One thing to watch with Grey Hound is they use the hold of buses and if it is raining your box will get wet. The baggage handler at my end suggested plastic wrap entire box if want to ship with Grey Hound.

Bruce

Bruce wrote:...But because it is light it will not be damaged as much from this tossing.

Bruce

One thing to look out for, Bruce, is the large, heavy box tossed on top of your lightweight box. I spent a year working for the USPS and have seen much damage inflicted on packages when the corner of a heavy box punches in the side of a lightweight box. My advice is to spent the time and money to ship a well engineered package. It's always painful when something that's survived over a hundred years ends up damaged or destroyed by shipping.

Regards,
Martin

Pack things well yourself... I paid extra to have UPS professionally pack and ship an antique music box...a monkey could have done better... The antique music box was destroyed .. Luckily with them packing it, the insurance claim went easier, but that was another long process... Pack it yourself, overpack if necessary, and get it there safely... An extra few dollars is worthwhile to prevent something from being destroyed..

We used to ship large horns through Ebay sales, but we have stopped. Boxes big enough to ship are hard to find. It was always a time consuming search all over town to find a free one, or buy them (and they are expensive), or make them which is also time consuming. And if there was any damage or loss during shipping, we as sellers suffered some loss (once the entire amount was our loss because the insurance refused to pay).

The last one we shipped was packed in two boxes fitted one over another. We lined the inside of the four largest sides with door skin (⅛ inch thick), and re-enforced the four side corners with 1X2 wood pieces. The ends were 2" Styrofoam sheets. To one end we glued a third Styrofoam piece with a hole the size of the horn opening that kept the large end from moving around, and a similar piece at the opposite end with an opening the size of the small end of the horn. The box was other wise empty. The best rate for that size box was through Greyhound Bus Shipping. There were no problems.

cleveland1996 wrote:Pack things well yourself... I paid extra to have UPS professionally pack and ship an antique music box...a monkey could have done better... The antique music box was destroyed .. Luckily with them packing it, the insurance claim went easier, but that was another long process... Pack it yourself, overpack if necessary, and get it there safely... An extra few dollars is worthwhile to prevent something from being destroyed..

I packed it well with support in the middle.
to reply to what you said, when ever I buy something on the internet and they state, will be dropped off and packed by either fedex or ups, I know that means 3 things, 1 way overpriced 2.lousy packing! 3 I buy from someone else!!!

A caution about supporting it in the middle: If the horn ends are well secured and the box flexes from a hard hit to the middle of the box, the middle support could transfer the energy to the middle of the horn and cause damage. Just a possibility that you might want to consider.

I shipped a large Music Master horn through Fedex. I separated the horn neck and shipped that separately. I just had FedEx pack the wooden horn bell and watched them pack it. They did a much better job than I could packing it, and with $1000 insurance they made sure it would arrive intact. One benefit of having them pack it is they cannot say it was improperly packed if you try to collect on damages. The cost for packing was reasonable if you have an account.