Thread: Moving Machinery Around the Shed

Bloke

The chap who delivered my lathe on a big truck with a front mounted Hiab used load skates. He could not drive his truck up my driveway as it is just wide enough to get my ute in. He lifted the Lathe over the cab of his truck, placed metal plates down over the pavers then before placing the lathe on the ground he slipped two load skates under the late stand and pushed it into my workshop, placed it exactly where i wanted it then used a crow bar under each end to get his skates out.

The Lathe is firmly bolted to the concrete pad. If I ever wanted to move it, I would be buying a set of them load skates, seeing how easy it was to mover 600kg of Lathe around.

DD

Cheers Dingo Dog,
the fella that delivered my lathe was quite helpful as well. I had my old Myford where the new lathe is now. In order to get that out he lifted each end of the stand with crowbar and slipped underneath two 1m lengths of 1" stainless.

These were perpendicular to the stand and we just dragged the whole thing forward on these rods one end at a time. We then lifted the stand again with the crow bar and moved the rods forward. Took all of 5 minutes to shift the lathe to the centre of the shed.

I will definitely check out the 'skates' you mentioned. I have seen similar things for cars and pianos.

What I am after is something really low to the deck....

Hi Dustinoz and everyone, (great site) I am only a leaner

I also purchase an AL960B just putting it together, going to move it from the garage to the workshop soon. Would like to ask Dustinoz some questions please.

How and were did you lift the lathe from with the engine crane.
Also the adjustable feet look good how you made them.

Cheers Ross

G'day Ross,
I had one sling through the webbing in the bed with the carriage and tailstock traversed to the far end to balance. This sling took the load. I had another around the chuck for balance. This is not ideal as you don't want to place unnecessary or uneven loading on the headstock. But I didn't have many options. I moved the lathe very slowly and carefully.

The feet I purchased from H&F with the machine. My garage floor slopes in a number of directions so they were a good option. I am still getting a feel for the machine and after doing months of research into machines similar in size and price to this unit I went for this model. I am wrapt and the DRO is very handy.

A mate made laugh the other day when he looked at it and said... "Well Steve you'd better turn out something pretty flash now...."

I'm under the pump...

Originally Posted by ARROW

Hi Dustinoz and everyone, (great site) I am only a leaner
Also the adjustable feet look good how you made them.
Cheers Ross

Here are some feet I made a while back, might give you some ideas.
https://www.woodworkforums.com/f65/la...ctures-114836/
Dave

Thanks Steve

Going down to H&F tomorrow to buy those feet, being tall I need a little more height.
Good luck and show your mate how it's done.

Ross

Thank you Dave J
Good job on them.

Ross

Some feet would make a great first project for your new lathe. You could even have a go at threading some rod yourself to mount them. It would save you a bunch of money and give you some experience.
Dave

I had been thinking an engine crane would be the go, but for similar money maybe one of these pallet trucks would be better. Lower profile, better wheels. But then, it wouldn't help if you needed to lift your lathe off its stand, or get it onto a vehicle.

I use steem pipe, Just sit the machine on a few lengths and just roll to where you want it...

Thanks for the advice gents,
Bryan, I did consider the Pallet Jack option but it is probably overkill for the few times I might need it.... Am on the hunt for some ideas for some 'skates' to move the lathe about.

I am going though this at the mo.

The freight guy delivered the lathe in a tautliner truck. I unloaded it with the tractor using pallet forks. The tractor is too tall to fit in the workshop so I put the pallet as far inside as I could reach without fouling the door. I put it down on a couple of load skates (which were under the beer fridge and a bit light for the job). It was pretty easy to push the lathe on its pallet to the spot where I want it and to unpack the pallet.

The workshop wall is a timber stud construction, concrete slab floor. My plan is to build a frame from 5x2 to equal height with the wall. Brace top and bottom to the wall and to use a chain block over a large bearer between the wall and the frame. I will use a sling through the bed webs as per a prev post.

As the lathe doesnt need to be moved other than up, I will then move the stand under the suspended lathe.

I will post some pics.

When i bought my lathe from Gavin we simply used his engine crane to pop it onto the trailer. At my place though my fabrication area is separate from the rest of the garage and my engine crane doesnt fit through the doorway with the legs down, hence i popped the lathe on a small trolley (i use regularly to shift engines around) which im sure was much higher than its nominal weight limit, and scuttled it quickly out into the fabrication area.
Then i used the engine crane to lift it onto the assembled stand, had to use a crowbar to lever the lathe over onto the center of the stand though.

And all of this on a 43deg day...



You can kind of see the doorway there, and where its dynabolted down.

Hi,
I have both a pallet jack and a engine crane and think the crane is more useful. It can be taken to pick up stuff and they hold their value if you want to sell it latter.The pallet jack is good for moving stuff around on a smooth floor.
Instead of storing away the crane when not in use, you could do a bit of fab work and use the top arm and ram to make a swinging crane fixed to the shed for lifting stuff on and off the lathe or mill.
Dave