Shipping your wheel

Here are some notes and suggestions in the event you need to ship a Pocket Wheel, maybe to a new home, or back to me for some repairs.

First of all, you'll want to ship your wheel mostly disassembled. While it's possible to pack an assembled wheel, the risk of damage during shipping is significantly higher, and the box required will add oversize fees to your shipping costs. That said, if you absolutely must ship your wheel assembled, I recommend using a private mailbox store to pack and ship your wheel, ideally using a foam "gun" to pack around the wheel.

I find that UPS is the most reasonably priced method, averaging $40 for anywhere in the US, with insurance running about 1% of the declared value. Note that for shipments insured over $1000, you'll want to keep the sheet signed by the UPS driver accepting the shipment. USPS is more reasonable for shipments to AK, HI, and Canada.

I use a sturdy cardboard shipping box 20" x 16" x 12" tall (Uline S-4339) - just under the regular-rate size limit for UPS and USPS, larger than that and they tack on costly oversize fees. A smaller box will work, but I find the larger box allows a considerable amount of packing/padding around everything, and isn't much more expensive to ship than a smaller box. A private mailbox service or UPS store will sell you one of these boxes and a small roll of bubble wrap, and (for a fee) will also pack & ship your disassembled wheel.

I recommend disassembling the wheel into it's major components, and securely wrapping each piece in a layer of bubble wrap. The smaller loose parts go into a ziplock baggie: the tension knob & line, the right treadle crank & mainspring, wrenches, adapter tube, etc. The treadle axle nuts go back on the ends of the axle.

Into the shipping box, I cover the bottom with a layer of crumpled newsprint, then lay in the (bubble-wrapped) treadles and big wheel, adding some crumpled newsprint or wadded-up bubble wrap around the big wheel sides to protect further. At the other end of this layer, I lay in the treadle axle, rear leg, parts baggie, and flyer. Then a layer or two of bubble wrap, on top of which goes the bubble-wrapped frame, supporting the flyer shaft end with bobbins and packing more crumpled paper around & over everything. You want enough packing around the pieces such that they can't really move.