For some time, I've been toying with the idea to buy a forklift for moving around my mills, and generally to make a lot of around-the-shop jobs easier. So I have two kinds of questions:
1. What unexpected uses will I find if I have a forklift handy? I hear of people using their forklift to hold things in place as they weld, to lift a car and work on the underside, and of course, to move around your average family's milling machine collection.
2. What kind of features should I look for? For instance, I get the feeling that side-shift is a really handy feature when lifting odd loads like a mill. But then again, I've never driven a forklift in my life, so what do I know? =)
I just signed a purchase agreement to buy a house on 2.5 acres, on which, I eventually hope to build a shop where the forklift will live. Hey, you didn't think I was going to park the forklift on the neighborhood street where I live now, did you? Ok, I admit that it will probably sit in my driveway for a month before I get to move-in to the new house. =) I hope my neighbors don't mind. I mean, I don't complain that my neighbor parks his Corvette in his driveway.