This is the way a friend of mine moves his machinery around his shop. I works great and seems pretty safe.
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Warrning thread degredation in progress!!!!
Warning !!
Your alot older than I would have thought! :DQuote:
by darebee:
For a cheap DIY try using 5 or 6 pieces of 2" pipe and roll the machine same as the Egyptions built the pyramids.
Warning!!
Thread returning to regularly schedualed ..... well thread! ;)
I recently moved a Series 1 CNC Bridgeport into my garage, and I chose a 5000 LB forklift as my tool. In my honest opinion, there is no better/safer way to move a Bridgeport than via a forklift and a bit of common sense when rigging it. We picked it off the back of a goose-neck trailer and had it sitting at the garage door within 5 minutes or less. The forklift cost was about $165 for a 1-day rental, and most of that cost was pick-up/delivery of the lift. I spent more time disassembling the top-section of the head so it would fit under my 7' garage door than I did actually moving it. Once I had the top-section of the head off, I simply pushed it on steel pipes into my garage and reassembled the head. Not once did I feel worried about the machine falling, tipping or becoming dangerous while using the forklift. As mentioned in some of the above responses, you want to lift it from high points on the machine. I actually placed the forks under the head of the machine, and then fastened a few safety chains around it to keep it from shifting/moving. Everything went just as planned!! Best $165 I had spent in a while!!!
Definately the way to do it Snakebit.
Did I say that? - miljnor :O
That (pipe rolling) method IMO works but is last resort (I am sure that was semi tongue-in-cheek).
To move the lathe you can block (wooden) under the way castings and lift under the blocks with a forklift, as mentioned the balance point is usually close to the spindle nose, so pick accordingly.
I have successfully moved lathes and milling machines witha pallat jack and dolly also. Once moved a bridgeport by hiring a towing guy with a flatbed. We pulled the mill up on the bed with the cable winch set low on the mill, strapped it down with load binders and skidded it off using the winch again at the new location. Total cost $80.00 for a 20 mile move. Once on site we moved it to its new location by rolling it along using 6 pieces of 1" pipe cut to 36" long. I have also built a super heavy duty dolly using 2 x 10 and extra heavy casters, 2 fixed and 2 swivel. This is good for up to #1500. I use a shop crane and sling to lift the machine and then position the dolly under it. Roll it to where needed and repeat the process.
Getting it off when you get home is a whole new issue- Two hard core swing sets can lift it and you simply drive the trailer out from under it.
Nc cams- Great idea! I gotta get my BP off a pallet and that is better than an engine hoist......I'm going to hire a boom wrecker to hoist the machine from my upper driveway to my lower (sloped) driveway/shop.......good ideas in this thread!
Brian
Someone revived a half dead thread so I figured I would show moving a machine but not with a pallet jack.
Friday night I drove down to a friends, who teaches at the University of Delaware, and found a great deal on a lathe (a South Bend 13x40, CL0145B, barely used) they needed to get rid of. The next morning, Mike, Dave, and I went to the university, rolled the lathe on two dollies out of his lab, across two doorways, down a handicapped ramp, along a brick walkway, and finally lifted it onto the trailer with my engine crane. The drive home was uneventful, and I recruited my neighbors (who stupidly agreed!) to help unload it into the garage.
http://www.skulte.com/albums/South-B...ler1.sized.jpg
We used the ratchet straps around the base and legs of the lathe to slide it back on the trailer. Once the straps were maxed out, we lifted it with the engine crane, drove the trailer forwards, and placed it at the end of the dovetail on the trailer. We kept the engine hoist in place as a safety, to prevent the lathe from possibly tipping. The block of wood under the leadscrew is to keep the straps lifting at the bed, from contacting and possibly bending the lead screw. There's a little gap there, and no contact.
http://www.skulte.com/albums/South-B...ding.sized.jpg
Then, we backed the trailer into the garage, so the little engine hoist wheels wouldn't have to make it over the 2" step at the garage threshold, lifted it off, drove the trailer out, and placed it down. Simple! A forklift would have made it much easier, but I don't have one, and this only took 2 hours.
http://www.skulte.com/albums/South-B...done.sized.jpg
More pictures are at:
http://www.skulte.com/gallery/view_a...uth-Bend-Lathe.
Reaction from my girlfriend - Geez. That's big. Where are you going to put it?!! ;)
--
Andris
Ya I get that all the time! :banana:Quote:
Reaction from my girlfriend - Geez. That's big. Where are you going to put it?!!
Girlfriend?? Hahahah.....I remember those days. Just wait.......the story changes when you get married!!
Wife - "What the hell did you bring home this time?? There is no more room for anything else in that garage!!"
Me - "There is plenty of room out there. I just need to move a few things around".
Wife - "Is it going to make us any money?"
Me - "Sure, it will buy that new living-room suite you were looking at last weekend!!"
I would be filing for a divorce if my wife uttered those words to me!Quote:
Wife - "Is it going to make us any money?"
She is more than welcome to half of everything but my nadds!
Ahhh........you just have to know her sense of humor. It's not as bad as I portray. I would have never married her if she was a control freak. Had a few of those in the past.........never again!!
Well, I started this thread a while back, when I was still trying to find a way to get machines into (and eventually back out) of my garage.
Most of the trouble comes from two problems:
1. Getting the heavy machine to (or from) the front of the garage
2. Lifting and moving the machine into (or out of) a truck, or trailer.
It's the last 40 feet from the truck into the garage that seems to be so hard for the home machinist.
Over the years, I've tried a lot of the DIY techniques for moving a big machine, including pushing along on rollers, prying with steel bars, lifting with engine hoists, renting, owning (and then fixing) forklifts, machinery skates and custom-made roller-fixtures.
Those techniques work... but you certainly trade your own sweat, time, and safety to do it cheap. Finally, I've come around to thinking that the way to go is to just call up the local rental yard and have them drop off a reach forklift.
A regular forklift only solves the "move it off the truck" problem, not the "move it into the garage" problem. Regular forklifts tend to be an annoying 2" too tall to fit into a standard garage. A reach forklift can reach all the way in and just pick it right up!
Yes, it costs money. But it sure is easy and fast! In fact, it was so easy that I removed a 5500lb Mori Seiki SL1 lathe from my garage, drove it up the neighorhood street, and put it on a semi-truck in less than an hour - less time than I spent editing the video! (link below) That's less than an hour, _including_ the time to maneuver it out of the garage.
For tight maneuvering inside a garage and for fine tuning the position, I now prefer to use my shop-made machinery skates and toe jack. Tools no home shop machinist should be without.
Glad I didn't lose any toes in my earlier (and sketchier) years! What a difference a few years experience makes.
[nomedia="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dUSU9ax6q04"]YouTube - Easy DIY Machinery Moving: Reach right in![/nomedia]
I believe the Bridgeport series 1 CNC that I want to buy has to big, sturdy eye-bolts on top of the ram. Is it okay to lift the entire machine using these eyebolts and a crane to get it on a truck. Don't have a manual where I can look it up.
like this one? if so, you can see in the pics the plastic panels on either side of the ram have been removed - there are is a large hole through the casting through which a strap will pass.
if its not that style, just sling around the ram
http://i785.photobucket.com/albums/y...ort/bport1.jpg
Well, I started this thread a DECADE ago! I've had many machines (mills, lathes, surface grinder, etc) and moved each into and out of my garage, even moving houses a few times. I just finished putting together a video that answers a lot of the questions I had 10 years ago - about how professionals move machinery without breaking a sweat. I tried to edit in a way that helps anyone new starting with a retrofit project, or even just buying a manual machine for the garage. A lot of the basic techniques (toe jack & machine skates) are easily accessible to hobbiests on the cheap - either by making or renting these tools. I also highlight why someone might consider paying for a rigger, even when professional rigging seems very expensive compared to the purchase price of a used machine.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bXIObAR-XZk
Actually, I have a few other videos about machine moving. If you're interested, you can look at my channel. Among the videos, I share the shop-made machine skates and toe jack I built to move machines around the garage at will.
Hope it's useful to a new generation of DIY machinists. =)