[MichaelHenry]

It depends on what the access way is to the basement. The crate is not much bigger than the lathe, which comes on one piece basically. I'd first entertain the idea of sliding it down the stairs on skids, but it is a1600lb chunk. There are lifting eyes on the lathe itself, so concievably you could take the lathe off the base with an engine hoist, and slide the two pieces down on their own skids. I would be reluctant to take it apart beyond that, becuase even tho it's pinned together, there is no guarentee you would get the same precision as from the factory.

Have you talked to tormach about this? I'd get weights and dimensions on both pieces and come up with a solid plan, and double check everything.

I did talk to them and while they were not enthusiastic about the idea they didn't try to talk me out of it. They are aware of the way I moved my PCNC 1100 to the same basement so that may have had some bearing on their response.

In my case, machine tools have to be moved up 3 stairs from the garage to the utility room, make a sharp left down a flight of stairs and then a sharp right into the basement shop area. There is very little clearance along that path and the basement door is only 29.5" between the frame sides. Very few machine tools of any substance can negotiate that path in one piece. My wife and I moved the mill in pieces over the course of a week or so to allow time for each step and avoid the tendency to rush through the move without enough forethought. My job consumed a lot of the free time in that week so it could have been done in much less time.

Mike