Moving a lathe

[zahc]

http://www.stevenrhine.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/YCL1236G-Brochure.pdf

I scored one of these lathes for free, but I have to get it in my garage somehow. It's 1250 pounds. I live in a subdivision with an attached garage. My resources are a minivan with a hitch. Since the machine is free I don't mind going out and buying stuff to move it,  but I'm not sure what to get. I can get a 2-ton engine hoist but I don't know if an engine hoist is the right tool.

[French G.]

I think I would be into a couple of heavy four wheeled furniture dollies for that. Or, similar profile and weight to a good upright piano, pay the piano moving man. I have been part of the crew moving 10k lb. lathes when I was eight years old, still have my fingers amazingly since I was the steel roller bar shuffler. Later in life(after moving that effing piano several times) best money l ever spent was paying the safe guy to deliver and move in my gun safe.

[p12]

Engine hoist and rented trailer.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[zahc]

I'm definitely down with paying somebody to move it if they know how to move that type of thing. By the time I rent a U-haul trailer and buy an engine hoist or whatever, I'll be in it for $300-$400 anyway. I will start googling movers.

[Hawkmoon]

I'm definitely down with paying somebody to move it if they know how to move that type of thing. By the time I rent a U-haul trailer and buy an engine hoist or whatever, I'll be in it for $300-$400 anyway. I will start googling movers.

Good call. But don't Google "movers" -- Google "riggers."

I am envious beyond belief. I could do a lot with one of those -- including brake drums and rotors for my Jeeps.

[KD5NRH]

Google "riggers."

Dude, they only get to call each other that.  The rest of them are supposed to call them people of binding.

As for how to move a lathe, well, here's a mill table being moved:


(With that rear rack, I'm not sure why he made a separate trip for the head.  Pretty sure that's 1.5" structural steel tubing it's made of.)

[French G.]

Cool picture bro.

1250 lbs not really rigger territory, more like 12 pack of beer and three college kids.

[Nick1911]

Very nice!  I've gotten some good deals on used machinery, but never a free lathe.  May I ask how that came about?

I've also moved a lot of machine tools.

I would recommend against an engine hoist.  They are designed in such a way that the feet need to go under what you are moving.  It is difficult to pick up a free standing machine with one.

Is there any help loading it, or do you have to move it from where it sits to your garage?

You can roll really quite heavy things across a clean concrete floor using roller.  Steel water pipe works well, but believe it or not, even 3/4 inch pvc pipe rollers can handle a lot of weight.

As far as picking things up and setting them down between a floor and a trailer or truck go, I've done it a few different ways.

Best and easiest is with the proper tools.  A skid steer and a chain put my shaper in a trailer.

In lue of that, a chainfall on any suitably sturdy point works.  I happen to have a steel I beam running across my garage, supporting the second floor.  I welded a D-ring to it.  I backed my trailer into the garage, under the D-ring, and hooked it up with a heavy strap (6400lb), and picked it right up with a 2 ton chainfall.  Drive trailer out from under it, set the machine down.

Once I found myself in a real bind.  I had a great deal on a mill, and was able to use a pallet jack to load it off a loading dock into the bed of my F250.  Now the hard part, getting it out of the bed of my truck.  Lacking a suitable high place to lift it from, I spent $110 in wood and knocked together a gantry.  Problem solved.  I sold the gantry a week later for $100 on craigslist to a guy who needed to get a salt spreader out of his truck bed.



Other random thoughts:

Machine tools are top heavy.  It's better to hoist them up then to lift from underneath.
This isn't actually that hard to do, but you really have to thing about your moves before you do anything.  Don't be in a hurry.
Don't place yourself under anything suspended.
Let the tools do the work
Watch the weight ratings of any lifting equipment.

[Hawkmoon]

Cool picture bro.

1250 lbs not really rigger territory, more like 12 pack of beer and three college kids.

Unless you want it to arrive in one piece, and still functional.

[freakazoid]

Detcord

[AmbulanceDriver]

I have this mental image of one of your neighbors standing at the kitchen sink, cup of coffee in hand early one Saturday morning looking out their window.... "Honey? Why is Nick building a gallows?"

[Scout26]

Google "machinery movers".  They have the tools and experience to put it right where you want it.


And Nick, those clamps holding your gantry/gallows together don't give me warm fuzzies when lifting something that heavy...

[Nick1911]

Google "machinery movers".  They have the tools and experience to put it right where you want it.


And Nick, those clamps holding your gantry/gallows together don't give me warm fuzzies when lifting something that heavy...

I was wondering if anyone would pick up on that.  It probably isn't clear in the picture, but the clamps aren't actually clamping anything that is taking weight.  For that matter, neither are any of the the fasteners.

You know, something that annoys me is whenever threads like this happen, people are always quick to point out that it's safe and easy to hire it out.  Well, duh.  Zahc could well do that.  But that's not what he asked - he asked about the tools and techniques to accomplish this himself.  Maybe he's actually interested in learning something and developing a new skill.

As I have done this myself many times and many ways, and spent some time reading up how to do it, I'm offering my insight on it.

But, should you read these bits of experience as a little too KD5NRH-ish:  Zahc, if you don't feel that you are able to use your head and the information available to you to use simple machines to shift a load which is too heavy to directly move with your body, please consider using a professional service.

[tokugawa]

I used a rented forklift with some rigging straps around the bed.

I don't know if you have experience- but be careful- a lathe is a nice soothing tool-not shrieky scary like a high speed table saw or shaper -but capable of devastating and fatal injury- read up on safe operation.

[KD5NRH]

But, should you read these bits of experience as a little too KD5NRH-ish:

Hey!  The most unorthodox bit about the solution I offered is having to offer Rosie O'Donnell a ride on your handlebars to balance things out.

[KD5NRH]

I don't know if you have experience- but be careful- a lathe is a nice soothing tool-not shrieky scary like a high speed table saw or shaper

As long as everything is nice and tight.  And the lathe is suitably heavy.  Mounting it securely to a heavier object is recommended.  While a decommissioned destroyer is ideal ballast for smaller lathes, anything with a swing over 6" is worth calling around to see if you can get a tanker and enough concrete to fill it.

[dogmush]

Mine is about that size,  with pretty much that same cabinet, I moved it into place with my engine hoist, but it was a pain. As was mentioned the wheels needed to be under it.

Basically I did this: build the two stands and place them, leave the center kick panel out. Put drip pan on mounting studs to confirm spacing of stands.then remove the studs except for the one on the far right as you look at the machine.  I lifted the lathe with a strap around the bed webbing about 8" from the breadstick (makes it a little tailstock heavy) then ran a ratchet strap from the hook to the tail end to adjust tilt. You need to get the hook down to within about a foot of the bed to have enough height to clear the stands. Then maneuver into place.

You end up coming into the stands at about a 45 degree angle from the headstock stand and placing that end first. The wheels of the engine hoist have to go on either side of the stand. (That's why you left the center kick piece out.)  Once the head stock is in place on the stud you left in place you can set the lathe down and maneuver it over the mounting holes by muscle. I also used a tapered alignment bar from inside the stands to help line up the stand, drip pan and lathe.  Bolt it down and start leveling.

I bought heavy duty leveling feet to put my stands on which helped a lot with the tuning, although it means my machine isn't bolted down. Pluses and minuses to that, but it's heavy enough it doesn't really walk. Don't try to take huge passes in stainless or anything,

That's a really handy size machine.

I will also add this: I already had an engine crane. If I was buying something new, and had the room, I would look at one of those mobile gantrys Harbor Freight sells. You need the 2 ton engine crane if you go that route.

[zahc]

The lathe is free but it remains to be seen if it's worthless or not. It's been sitting in the corner for 10 years unused. The price reflects the fact that it needs clean up and I don't know if it runs. I have a "nice" mini-lathe now; my biggest gripe with it is having to change the gears all the time.

Hiring someone is actually my preferred option, but I don't know if I will be able to find someone. I have a feeling professional riggers prefer bigger jobs, movers are used to moving boxes, tow truck drivers prefer to move cars, etc. but I will call around.

[French G.]

My only concern with rollers would be the stand has limited area, could be done, lots of roller moves. And yes, pvc is nice. We use steel torsion bars, hollow 30" stick of one inch high carbon steel, limitless supply with race cars. We're it at our place, front end loader or backhoe, nylon sling, done. Two handtrucks once on flat concrete.

[dogmush]

Don't use rollers under the stand.  They are pretty thin metal and not designed for side loading.  Hit a little pebble or something and it could fold.  Plus, as was mentioned, lathes are pretty top heavy.  You really want to lift these.

there are bigger machines that have integrated cast iron bases you can put on wheels or rollers, but this isn't one of them.  That's basically a large "benchtop" lathe with an accessory cabinet under it.

[dogmush]

The lathe is free but it remains to be seen if it's worthless or not. It's been sitting in the corner for 10 years unused. The price reflects the fact that it needs clean up and I don't know if it runs. I have a "nice" mini-lathe now; my biggest gripe with it is having to change the gears all the time.

That's your basic Chinese import lathe.  Pretty ubiquitous and lots of parts around.  Even if it doesn't run I wouldn't call it worthless.  From Grizzly, new, it's like 5 grand to your door.  Honestly, if it's complete and the ways aren't buggered up it's worth a couple grand. 

Do be aware that the Chinese lathes are notorious for needing a complete tear down and cleaning, and some tuning to make run true. 

I have a lathe, and if that was offered to me free I'd grab it on general principles.

[zahc]

I had the lathe delivered via lift gate truck and pallet-jack into my garage. So now it's sitting in my garage on a 7x5 wood skid. I tried to pick up the tailstock end with all I have...not even a budge. Somehow I will figure out how to get it off the skid and into position. Probably with some type of temporary 4x4 gantry and rollers.

[KD5NRH]

Do be aware that the Chinese lathes are notorious for needing a complete tear down and cleaning, and some tuning to make run true.

Which has its benefits; before you really get going, you get to figure out all the quirks of alignment it has, and where each type of crud tends to build up.

I have a lathe, and if that was offered to me free I'd grab it on general principles.

Hell, I wouldn't even have anywhere to put it, but I bet I could find somebody local for a "you're welcome to use it for as long as I'm storing it in your shop" deal.

[zahc]

I made roller skates for it out of 1/4 thick angle and some metal machine wheels from Northern Tool. It took 3 evenings of harrowing pallet-surgery to transfer it to the skates, but now I can scoot it around my garage. I also put machinery feet so when I get it where I want I will just put the feet down.

2 problems so far: one, it's totally covered in graphite dust, which makes sense from where I got it. It was either used to machine graphite or just accumulated it from the environment. Very annoying to try to clean up. It just smears around. I'm debating wheeling it back out in the driveway and hosing it off.

Second, the gear and shaft for the appron power feeds is gone. Clearly somebody deliberately removed it, because I found the roll-pin that held it in rattling around in the apron. Everything else looks fine, so I dunno. I found out that despite the different brand this looks identical to the Grizzly brand 12x36 "gunsmithing lathe". Grizzly sells new gears for $13 so I ordered one. We will see if it's compatible. I also bought new half nuts for $40 although the ones on it weren't all that bad.

[HankB]

I used a rented forklift with some rigging straps around the bed.

I don't know if you have experience- but be careful- a lathe is a nice soothing tool-not shrieky scary like a high speed table saw or shaper -but capable of devastating and fatal injury- read up on safe operation.

Won't post the pix - too graphic for APS - but here's a link to what was alluded to above. Be careful! http://www.riverdavesplace.com/forums/threads/machinist-gets-sucked-through-lathe-dont-click-if-you-dont-want-to-see.3124/