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[jamesdenton]

I've purchased a handful of Lisas over the last few years, and with the exception of one, have been utterly disappointed with what passes for "expertly packaged" in the minds of the seller. On one occasion, the Lisa arrived with nothing more than the box around it, a warped chassis, and broken a pedestal. Another had a thin layer of bubble wrap and styrofoam peanuts, but hardly enough to protect it under normal shipping circumstances. Insurance is helpful, sure, but the shipper needs to do their due diligence to ensure the packaging is adequate. After all, a Lisa is heavy as-is; what's another few pounds of packing materials?

As another PCS looms in the not-so-distant future, I thought I'd pack a Lisa away in preparation of that move and take some photos along the way. If the previous move taught me anything, it's that no one cares more about your goods than you do.

The goal: Pack the Lisa and assorted accessories (sans ProFile) to survive a cross-county shipping experience.



Materials:

(1) 24x24x24 shipping box
(1) 22x22x22 shipping box
(1) 20x20x4 shipping box
(Eight) styrofoam corner pieces
(1) 4'x8'x1" foam insulation board
~9'x24" large bubble wrap
~4'x24" small bubble wrap
Thick packing paper
Some excess cardboard material

I know this sounds like overkill, and the price adds up if you go retail on the materials, but Apple doesn't make Lisa's anymore and hasn't for about 35 years. To me, it's worth the effort to pack her up safely.



With the materials ready to go, seal the bottom of the largest box (24^3) in an H pattern, using a few strips of tape in the center and a strip on each side, to seal the bottom of the box. Insert (4) of the corner pieces inside:



Next, seal the 22^3 box in the same way and insert it between the corner pieces, as seen here:



Cut out a 21.5"x21.5" piece of foam board and insert it at the bottom of the box:



To help protect the pedestal during transit, I made some shoes for the feet by wrapping some cardboard around them and taping them up. Who knows if it'll work, but hopefully the cardboard will take some of the impact:



I then took apart an Amazon box and wrapped it under the pedestal, over the feet and screen, and over the top of the Lisa to help create a "box" around the Lisa. She's a little front-heavy, and the feet take the brunt of that weight if you flip her over:



I then proceeded to wrap the large bubble wrap around the front and back of the Lisa a few times then sealed it up:



Insert the Lisa into the box and center:



Next, cut out two 21.5"x18" pieces of foam board and insert them parallel to the the front and back of the Lisa. Then, cut out two 20"x18" pieces of foam board and insert them along the sides of the Lisa. This method will hold all foam pieces along the outside of the box. Stuff some thick packing paper in the void:



Assemble the smallest 20x20x4 box using the same methods as described earlier. Wrap the keyboard with the small bubble wrap, and insert into the box along with other accessories like the mouse, power cable, etc. Use some packing paper to fill the void:



Seal the smallest box, and insert it between the foam pieces:



Seal the middle box:



Insert the remaining corner pieces and seal up the outer box:



Hopefully this effort will ensure the Lisa makes it wherever it needs to go without sustaining damage along the way. Any tips or suggestions are welcome.

[rayarachelian]

Really great advice. The only thing I would add, and in your example it's not very much needed, is a large plastic bag with a desiccant pack around the Lisa, and the keyboard (you've used bubble wrap.) The reason for this is to prevent water from damaging it.


The other key thing here is you want to immobilize and fill in all the gaps. Dense foam is great for this, if you can't find the good stuff, head over to Home Depot or similar hardware warehouse and buy insulation foam. You've double boxed your machine and used foam there which is perfect. This would absorb any shocks or direct hits to the box.
If you're using UPS, USPS, DHL, FedEx or any other delivery company, you should fully expect that the delivery person will throw the box around. (i.e. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8C-e96m4730 ) And at the end you could always put the foam in your attic as extra insulation.

When we moved to the house 3 years ago, we got a shipping pod which was really a great idea and both saved us a lot of money and prevented things from getting broken. I had a bunch of NSF wire racks already in the "server room" so I disassembled those and reassembled them inside the pod without the wheels, and then tied the rails of the rakcs to the hooks in the shipping pod. Once I filled a shelf on the NSF wire rack, I'd wrap it up in several layers of plastic film wrap to keep the stuff on the shelves from shifting around or falling off, and even if they did, they'd just wind up pushing against the next rack or cardboard boxes in the back/front of them.

However the pod had a hole somewhere in the ceiling and so when it rained a bit of water leaked into the container. Now, I didn't lose any Lisas because of this, because they were boxed up and the boxes did have plastic inside them as described. I did however lose a couple of books which got water logged because were in cardboard boxes that weren't wrapped in plastic.

There is the danger of condensation inside the plastic, which is why you'd want a desiccant pack in each bag.

And the beautiful thing is once it got to the new house since most of the stuff was already on racks, I could just disassemble one rack at a time, and then reassemble it in the destination room and then put the machines on it as they were before. (Had there not been stairs in the way and a large enough entry, I could have rolled the racks into the house, but ofc that wasn't the case.)

[jamesdenton]

Really great advice. The only thing I would add, and in your example it's not very much needed, is a large plastic bag with a desiccant pack around the Lisa, and the keyboard (you've used bubble wrap.) The reason for this is to prevent water from damaging it.

I tried finding a heavy-duty plastic bag that was big enough to fit the Lisa, but was coming up empty. I guess a heavy-duty garden sack or something like that could've worked, but wanted clear and not black. Good advice on the desiccant. When I do this again, I will probably eliminate the outer box and use a little more foam insulation instead of the paper. If I pack the keyboard and accessories outside of the main box, I can probably shrink the dimensions to 22x22x18 vs 22x22x22 (vs 24x24x24 w/ outer box) and make it a little more manageable.

[Lisa2]

As a non-military person, I have learned something here:  "PCS" stands for Permanent Change of Station.

I have an original Lisa packing box (see attached), I could get some measurements for the internal foam inserts if needed.

Rick

[jamesdenton]

Thanks, Rick!

That diagram helps a lot. By the looks of it, the Lisa was packed face down. Is that right?

[Lisa2]

That diagram helps a lot. By the looks of it, the Lisa was packed face down. Is that right?

Correct, my guess is that this configuration will minimize strain on the CRT neck and on the pedestal feet.
Rick