Building crank boxes

[johnakay]

oh Allan doesn' do things by half do you AL lad

[uzidzit]

UPS will take a particular delight in smashing that one, the box is so good looking...ie a gauntlet thrown down to Brown

[diamondj]

I used Lane's suggestion of a plastic toolbox a few times for shipping cranks and it worked quite well. Less than $20 at Walmart or Home Depot. Wrapped around it with packing tape to seal the latches and the postman liked having the handle to carry it with!

Jim

[Suzsmokeyallan]

Well it went FedEx and Bill Bune says its arrived safely so its still a box with four corners. Maybe it helped by placing it into a cardboard box wrapped in bubble wrap.
Next one to finish up now is the buffalo crank box .

[Suzsmokeyallan]

I forgot all about this so I came back to resurrect the latest update about it. The box made it to MN and back to FL with no damage, however the guys at Bill Bunes shop stapled the card box top and in doing so put gouge lines in the wooden box top, so its got some staple marks, but thats ok.
Verdict, the box survived the total trip by FedEx within the USA.
The crank in question when I had it out was checked by me and the rods appeared decent by spin feel and sideplay values, but once it was opened, it had suspect looking lower end surfaces, bearings and pins.
This kind of surprised me, as when the bike was running the lower end was really quiet by Titan standards, which only goes to show, you may think its ok by all the available tests, but only when its visually inspected upon disassembly, its found to be not what it appeared.
Through Diamond Jims link to me, thanks again Jim, I bought another crank off fleabay for a very decent price and had it sent to BB for inspection. This one was supposed to have less than 2000 miles on it and it was reported to be in great shape once pulled apart at BBs shop.
Soooooo, as this long last will and testament post goes on to say, it was repaired, resealed and returned to me, along with the now original mostly 'spare parts' crank.
The work done is IMPRESSIVE, Bill seems to have upped the ante, the crank wheels have been cleaned by some sort of process where it now looks like a finely textured gun metal grey and he also balanced the rods by peripheral grinding of the heavier one to the lighter other.
As a quick test, I ran it over a piece of ground/polished granite while eying the crankwheel faces against a backlight and there's no run-out showing that I can see.
Not even a very thin piece of paper can pass at any point under a wheel so its very close to being dead on, AND its way better than the factory had it set up.
Now to ship it back to the island for the final part of the journey, can the box and crank make it this time and not get damaged, we shall see.
For my bigger and heavier GT750 box, I plan to get some end caps like those on band speakers so a corner hit will not split the joints open.
Once its back I'll post up some photos of how it all turned out.

[rngdng]

I just wrap the crank in foam rubber, and place it in a "Tuff-Box" tool box for shipping. It works great, and gives the shipper a handy handle to pick it up with. Simple.




Lane

[tz375]

Allan's wooden box is a work of art and very nicely done, but I'm a cheap, lazy bugger. I pack my cranks tight in a cardboard box so they cannot move and then double box it.

The key is to pack it in a way that the crank cannot move around. Several cranks have come back from BB in their original boxes and they all make it without incident. Wood splits but cardboard just absorbs the blow.

Next time I think I'll use Lane's foam packed toolbox approach. It's cheap easy and tough and no hard sharp corners.

[Suzsmokeyallan]

Yes guys but how far are your cranks going intransit, Richard if you were sending a crank from overseas to Bill Bune those ideas would not be the best.
That box I made wont split anytime soon, inside each corner is braced by a 1 1/2 square piece of stock the full height of the box.

By the way Lane, its great to see you back here posting.

[Suzsmokeyallan]

The box sustained no damage on the last overseas voyage by FedEx, and the crank is now back on the island.
Bill did a great job on this and here is how it looks. One rod was peripherally ground for matching against the lighter one so it lost its bronze colour.
Now to find some time to get around to bead blasting the main cases and applying some metallic silver and then clear coat.

[tz375]

I have used the double box method for years to ship thousands of dollars of parts around the world including Australia and the UK and so far so good - that's tempting fate I know, but enough is enough. Less is not enough and too much is still more than it needs.

That shipping box is a work of art and very nicely made, but my next crank will probably go via the Lane RngDng toolbox method - I like that idea.