Thread: Best way to move 200+kg of saw

easiest way will be a skid steer loader with a fork lift attachment one source -- Equipment Hire | Machinery Hire & Rental Company Australia | Coates Hire

The folks and I managed to move a whacking great bank safe with the ancient technique of "a few round things under the object"...just 3 evenly spaced pieces of an old outdoor umbrella post from memory. You push it along and when the trailing round thing pops out the back, you move it to the front and run over it again. It worked surprisingly well given that we weren't building the pyramids

Get the delivery guy to drop the, presumably boxed, package onto the logs/dowels, and Bob's your uncle. If it's not boxed for some reason you could lay a suitably sized piece of ply/mdf or similar ontop of the dowels first and it should be fine.

Although...I can't vouch for ease of use up a gravel driveway.

After the gravel drive? Moving it over lawn, rough ground or a hard even surface? Steps? Can the tail gate truck traverse the gravel drive?

Hire in one of those 3 wheel all terrain fork lifts. Try a lawn supplier, as most use them to carry turf around new homes etc. Maybe a barter job?

Originally Posted by RedShirtGuy

The folks and I managed to move a whacking great bank safe with the ancient technique of "a few round things under the object"...just 3 evenly spaced pieces of an old outdoor umbrella post from memory. You push it along and when the trailing round thing pops out the back, you move it to the front and run over it again. It worked surprisingly well given that we weren't building the pyramids

Get the delivery guy to drop the, presumably boxed, package onto the logs/dowels, and Bob's your uncle. If it's not boxed for some reason you could lay a suitably sized piece of ply/mdf or similar ontop of the dowels first and it should be fine.

Although...I can't vouch for ease of use up a gravel driveway.

for gravel, sand, grass, etc you need to surface your "road"
Two sheets of ply should be enough if you shuffle them front to back
If there's any sort of grade you will need to think of how you brake the rollers when travelling down hill -- chocks should work when going uphill

200 kg is not heavy. As has been suggested lay 2 sheets of ply minimum thickness of 12mm on the ground to make your "road". Tilt the machine enough to get some short lengths of pipe under then push in the direction needed and keep putting the pipe from the back into the front.
I have done this many times. My SCM Panel Saw weighs in at around 2000kg and I can manoeuvre it with a pinch bar, crowbar and pipe into position

Gravel drive suggests rural or semi rural to me? In which case I would suggest finding a neighbour with a tractor that has a front end loader, get a couple of ratchet tiedowns with 350kg capacity, and carefully float the thing to your workshop entrance.

When I have to shift something that heavy I'd put 4 castors or wheels under a thick ply or chipboard flooring offcut and use that as a rolling platform - but up a gravel drive? I don't think so. Maybe with Ian's suggested temporary road building ...

I've moved a 6mx2.4m shed with the 'Egyptian method' using 10 or 12 fence posts, once, but by gum it's no fun, and cornering is a nightmare.

I think the general thrust is correct. Science is your friend.

First establish an even surface. Ply, chipboard, long planks, any thing to get you flat. It does not have to be the full distance, just over the length of what you are moving is sufficient then re stack Wallace and Gromet train track style. So long as the gravel is nice and level.

Then you need to reduce the friction. Any round object should suffice. The larger the better and with a low center of gravity it will be pretty stable. I moved a massive cast iron band saw using 1/2" steel rods by myself but water pipe et al should be fine. If you have pipe clamps remove the clamp and use them.

Get help......

John

Just remember the level of risk involved.

not too long ago I bought a chisel mortiser (Masterwood OMB1V), the mortiser came with a pallet under neath it, I needed to remove the pallet and also place the mortiser to the right position, the mortiser weighs about 800kg-900kg. back then I've sought help on the internet, even thought about hiring a demountable crane, at the end I bought a decent engine crane to do the job properly.

200kg is not that much though, but if you had to move "up" a gravel road then I presume you meant your house is at higher altitude than where the truck will drop off the machine? then you have a problem... manually pushing uphill a 200kg machine is a big ask!!

Thanks all - plenty to consider but I'm guessing the Egyptian slave labour lubricated with beers will be the way to go.

I think I have tried all the above and they work.
I have moved lots of machines and big slabs of timber across uneven lawn.

I made a large Dolly with about 5" swivel wheels and push it across the "1/2" plywood road". Pretty easy.
Even better if you have one or two helpers.

My best move was when Major Woodworking Equipment delivered my tablesaw.
They reversed up my steep driveway, lowered the saw with the tail gate lift then Ryan carried it on a fork truck right into the workshop.
Painless.

That is also where an electric winch comes in handy. I've given a mate a hand a few times shifting largish ( 500-800kg machines just the two of us plus sheets of ply where needed and gal pipes as per suggestions above. Most of ours were on level or near level ground or concrete - easy. One though was up a ramp. An electric winch tied off to the building made it a breeze. It took a while as we doubled the cable up which obviously slows it by half but apart from doing the pipe re-shuffle every few feet or so there was no other physical exertion.

Stewie

I am not sure if this changed, but when Gregory Machinery sent my Laguna Platinum to me 2 years ago, the saw also came in a truck with a tailgate, and the driver had a pallet jack, and he just wheeled the saw to the spot in the workshop, where it was supposed to be. The only thing that left for me was to remove the pallet from underneath it, and I was able to do it alone. I didn't have any gravel between truck and workshop though, but it seems that plywood is your friend there.

Generally when getting heavy machinery it comes in a ply / mdf / chipboard box...
What I do is.. while it is still on a forklift before loading it into the van I screw on 100mm wheels to the bottom.. wheels have brakes too..
Once i bring it home, i use motorcycle ramps (two of them) that I've got from Aldi a while ago...
The rest is easy.. wheel it down the ramps and straight into the shed... where the fun of unpacking and setting up begins..

In your case I would use couple of sheets of ply or something like that as a surfacing for your gravel and simply wheel it to the destination...
I've managed to do this with my bandsaw, table saw, combo planer/ thicknesser and lathe... each of them weighting way more than 150kg by myself...

How about a pulley anchored to your shed (or nearby structural point). One point of the rope secured to the load and the other secured to a vehicle which is used as the muscle.

Your wife/girlfriend could drive the vehicle slowly while you do the navigation/grunt work with the sled and rollers. Is this an option?