Moving Machinery and the incline plane

[auscab]

I have been moving workshop, and I have 30 machines all 3 phase. There are solutions to these problems we have been finding, specially if you can weld. Me Matt and Pete have weekly catch ups, and the paper table cloth at the pizza shop up the road tells a different story each week. Before we order they give us three pens without us having to ask :) and plenty of times we fill all the blank spots around the plates and glasses.
I had to be able to get them to the back of a rough hay shed, and all in tightly, most of the time by myself. I get help loading, but not unloading at the other end 200 K away. Putting them down and sliding them in on steel is to hard by yourself.

Once I bought myself a 16 foot trailer, the idea of a 16 foot ramp ( the Incline Plane ) became a possibility. I can winch them on and off, and place them under cover, waiting for the next move to a temporary workshop.

An interesting thing I saw was good old Julius Sumner Miller and his talk on the incline plane in machinery, its good to watch.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mM58O7g5YEQ

After I started using the ramp, which has two flat trays that slide and a way of locking them at each end with a pipe , and also of tying the machine to the tray with a chain. I had another problem to solve of making it easier to get the machines out of the loading bay with a roller door which is 1220 mm off the ground. If that wasn't made easier then all the inside machines would have to be taken through the showroom and down the drive, moving the cars each time we wanted to get a load out.

So its been a bit of fun seeing it all work out. Pete Matty and Myself got two Wadkins out and down last night and I got some good pictures .
Ill just throw a whole lot of pics on.


Rob

[auscab]

Even have my Fantastic Wife moving a load for me in the Green Land Cruiser :2tsup:

some of the pictures are machines being hand winched up from the ground . some are sliding down into the hay shed area . and the high ones are of the ramp hooked to a raised steel table which is welded to the edge of the landing . They slide out then down onto the trailer . it worked well . All the machines except the latest EQ are moved .

Rob

[auscab]

Some more.

Gravity and a bit of diesel on the rails gets the machines down pretty quick . very smooth sliding action .

Rob

[KBs PensNmore]

Nice work, love the ramp, how hard was it to turn the machines 90 degrees on the steel top?
Kryn

[auscab]

Not to hard, if it doesn't go round with a push , a bar with a flat end and a bend in it back a little can walk it around in little steps . Once you get steel or cast iron sliding on steel you have to be careful you don't go to far to quick. Specialy when your up high. When we were getting some of the big machines like the tennoner or the Goldie lathe round corners it was down on the dirt . A push to quick and the machine would slide off the 50 mm square hollow section and land in the dirt. Very frustrating spending half an hour getting it out of the dirt and back on the rails. Rob

[Stewie D]

Jiminy, I hate to think how many hours you've spent shifting all that gear! I'd be as nervous as hell sliding those heavy machines out onto the landing and down that ramp onto the trailer. Good on you though.

Stewie

[auscab]

Its been six months of shifting Stewie. It will be all finished in a few days . Then a new phase starts of setting up again so I can start working.
I did a fair bit of shifting with things down low first, when it came to the high one , yeah I did think about it but had confidence in it. A Friend told me an inch of weld is good for one ton , which probably means it could let go at two ton I think?
At one side those three rails had a total of 12 inches of vertical weld, same at the other end.
When I cut them off the other day, the 9" grinder had a worn disk a I couldn't get all the way through the 50mm square hollow section at the welds . I had to leave about 10mm and bash them off with a sledge hammer. It took a lot to get those last bits to break . I think with the 10mm left which adds up to 60mm left at an end,there would have been no problems pushing the heaviest across . Lol , no way would I try it though
Rob