Move 3800-Pound Lathe in Penske Truck?

I have to move a 3800# lathe from a basement and a 2000# Bridgeport mill from a basement to my home shop. I'll start a thread once I've filmed it all. (The professional quotes were north of $10,000 for the lathe alone - no one would quote on the mill)

Now about your situation: if you have no rigging experience and low confidence, then hire your rigger to move and tie down the load onto a flatbed, hydraulic lift trailer or whatever you can find. Take care to not exceed your vehicle towing limits, or rent a truck with the gronk. By all means tow it yourself, unless you also have never towed anything in your life and don't feel confident in towing things. Even with towing brakes, your load should not exceed the towing vehicle weight - you might have to take two loads. (in many states is is illegal to tow loads exceeding the capability of the towing vehicle, so check yours)

Now for the good news. If you can convince your riggers to put your lathe on full length 4X4's , you can roll your lathe out of the trailer on black iron gas pipe with pry bars...You should be able to get a rigger for about $150-$300 to move and load your lathe onto a hydraulic lift trailer. That's what they charge here... If you are squeamish, you can get a rigger to unload also. One of our crematoriums here moves lathes with their picker truck for $250 end-to-end, if it is all within city limits. I think they charge about 90$ per hour outside city limits, minimum 2 hours.... There are also hot shot trucks that will move stuff under 3 tons (You must identify appropriate lifting points for their picker crane however...) For 300 mile distances hot shot trucks are the way we do these things here in oil country.

I've taught people to move their mills and lathes with minimal instruction and equipment, and they were safe to do more moves themselves, as long as they were on flat ground. Slopes and stairs need a little more technical approach. Florida is a long way from Alberta, so I won't be able to help you out directly.
 
Case in point . I was called by the person selling this stuff . Lots of junk tooling etc . Had a Horrible Freight wood box with a fake Gerstner badge on it , she wanted $700 . LOL , I made her an offer for the complete contents a year and a half ago , the pictures are on this site somewhere . Never seen a wooden tool post holder so that was a first . Anyways , this was in a basement , downstairs , thru the living room , thru the dining room . and out the door 300 ft to the truck . Do not mess my steps up or damage carpet . So once again , someone tells a widow this stuff is worth big bucks when in reality , she'll be paying someone to clean out her basement one day . I'm almost tempted to make her another offer at half the price . :big grin:

I do understand she is a widow , but she is getting some bad advise from someone . Sad .
annapolis.craigslist.org

Machine shop tools

WMC drill press milling and drilling $2,000... JET metal cutting Lathe $2000. call
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kb58 said:
I know some people hire tilt-bed tow trucks to move heavy equipment. They have a heavy duty winch to pull it on, though getting it off could be interesting. No idea what it would cost but surely waaaay less than $7000, just pay him well and provide some big-ass straps.

If not that, then rent a drop-bed trailer and move it yourself. It's not hard to tie down stuff, just "be the load" and visualize what it's going to try and do, then add straps to prevent it.
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I thought the same thing once up until I saw a flatbed tow truck move a septic tank to a lot that was to be the site of a future home. The hardest part was getting the tank off the ground high enough on one end to get timbers under it to let it roll. After that is was cake. And when it came time to unload the tow truck driver used the same winch he used to pull it onto the trailer to pull it off. He just attached a snatch block to a strap around a tree and it came right off the flatbed. It did't even scratch the bed at all.
mmcmdl said:
I always find these types of threads interesting and amusing just because of everyone's different circumstances . There most likely is no correct answer to the OP's question other than is it worth it to YOU to pay the $$$$$ . A 3800 lb. lathe is either a very old piece of American Iron or a very large newer import . The thing I find most interesting is the $80 an hour to haul it . I wouldn't pay ANYONE to move , haul , load , transport , drop etc any tools that I was using in a hobby shop. I'm sorry , but 7 grand is out of the question , but maybe I'm in the wrong business .

Rigging up and moving equipment is no big deal . Consider all machines top heavy and strap accordingly . Moving them into a basement with steps involved would be a task , but not impossible . I would NEVER do it again . You're going to pay getting them in AND out when you sell . I blew the cinderblock wall out of my original place and put a 12' door in to get my machines in there . A forklift is dirt cheap to rent , remember the correct tool for the job rule . It takes one person to operate , not 3 .

I dropped my first lathe on its face when moving it . A slight move and the dolly shifted nearly killing the cat and cracking the concrete floor . 17" x 72" Alpine/ Voest . Couple new handles , a party with a few friends and a few cases of beer was all it took to get 'er back up and running .

I guess the question would be is do you really want to move these things into a basement for that cost ? I sure wouldn't , but I've done many more worsery things than that in the past . :grin:
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For $7,000 I would seriously consider letting it be someone else's problem to move it. Sell the lathe and the mill and then you can buy something not 300 miles away using the money from the sale and the money saved not moving it and call it good.
Dabbler said:
I have to move a 3800# lathe from a basement and a 2000# Bridgeport mill from a basement to my home shop. I'll start a thread once I've filmed it all. (The professional quotes were north of $10,000 for the lathe alone - no one would quote on the mill)

Now about your situation: if you have no rigging experience and low confidence, then hire your rigger to move and tie down the load onto a flatbed, hydraulic lift trailer or whatever you can find. Take care to not exceed your vehicle towing limits, or rent a truck with the gronk. By all means tow it yourself, unless you also have never towed anything in your life and don't feel confident in towing things. Even with towing brakes, your load should not exceed the towing vehicle weight - you might have to take two loads. (in many states is is illegal to tow loads exceeding the capability of the towing vehicle, so check yours)

Now for the good news. If you can convince your riggers to put your lathe on full length 4X4's , you can roll your lathe out of the trailer on black iron gas pipe with pry bars...You should be able to get a rigger for about $150-$300 to move and load your lathe onto a hydraulic lift trailer. That's what they charge here... If you are squeamish, you can get a rigger to unload also. One of our crematoriums here moves lathes with their picker truck for $250 end-to-end, if it is all within city limits. I think they charge about 90$ per hour outside city limits, minimum 2 hours.... There are also hot shot trucks that will move stuff under 3 tons (You must identify appropriate lifting points for their picker crane however...) For 300 mile distances hot shot trucks are the way we do these things here in oil country.

I've taught people to move their mills and lathes with minimal instruction and equipment, and they were safe to do more moves themselves, as long as they were on flat ground. Slopes and stairs need a little more technical approach. Florida is a long way from Alberta, so I won't be able to help you out directly.
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Also look into a crane truck. All the one's I have ever seen have at least 1 4 ton crane. With some finagling the local lumber yard may be willing to pick the machines out of the back of a box truck and set them down.
 
$80/hour is cheap when you are on the side of I-75 after a family in a mini van cuts you off and you have to panic stop and your top heavy machines tip your Penske truck on its side.
Penske says their truck can carry 10,000 pounds, but I challenge anyone to load three pieces of equipment and strap it down properly in a box truck and have a DOT officer give you a standing applause. They are going to pull the tags. These trucks are meant to fill with furniture and house hold goods, not machinery.
PS I am not trying to make anyone elses ideas bad ones. Just don't like to see stuff like this on the 6:00 news
Cheers
Martin
 
If it were me and it was definitely going to cost 7k or more I would consider selling my machines as is where is and buying different stuff delivered to my new shop.

But in the end it you could probably get it done for less and keep your own tools.

Good idea posting here to ask for input from people already done it.
 
Chips O'Toole said:
That sounds great, but you're talking about three people, and I'm going to be alone.

Here, a lift starts at $405.00 per day.
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If you plan correctly and are willing to spend the time and effort moving the machines by yourself isn't that big of a problem. I've moved all the machines to and into my basement shop by myself. The larger machines include a Bridgeport series I mill, Sheldon MW-56-P lathe, 20 ton hydraulic press, Sanford MG surface Grinder, Jet JDP 125vs-3 drill press, US machine Tools #1 horizontal mill, Startrite H175 Horizontal bandsaw, Seneca Falls Star #20 lathe, Racine W66 power hacksaw, and an AMMCO 7" shaper, among others. In total there are nearly 2 dozen machines.

I moved all except the column for the Bridgeport, and the drive cabinet for the Sheldon lathe by myself. The above 2 pieces were too heavy for my equipment, and I couldn't find anything with sufficient capacity at the local rental companies. I hired a local moving company that had a 1,700 lb. capacity stair climber dolly. They moved the 2 pieces in less than half an hour each (2 different occasions), at a cost of less than $300.00 each.

Most of the machines had to be disassembled and carried piece by piece from the garage, through the house, and down the stairs with an appliance dolly. It was time consuming, but not that physically taxing. The nice part is that each machine could be inspected, cleaned, and refurbished as necessary, before going into the shop.

For the record, I'm no bruiser, I'm over 70 years old, 5' 8" tall, and weigh a little over 200 lbs. It just takes time, patience, and planning. As for the prices quoted by the moving companies, they seem in line with the quotes I got for moving the Sheldon lathe. Over the last 10 years prices for rigging and moving machinery has skyrocketed. I used to have riggers load and move large equipment for the company I worked for. In times past a 5,000 lb. machine could be moved from coast to coast for $1,500.00, more recently it's $5,000.00 for a 500 mile move.
 
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Did I miss something? I didn't see anything stating these were going into a basement. That right there would double the cost at the install site.
 
We have moved many heavy machines with just a drop deck trailer and some pipes to roll the machines around on. As long as you are working on concrete without steep slopes, they work just fine. You will need a come-a-long or other winch to pull the machine into and out of the trailer. Keeping the machines low to the ground at all times makes the entire operation a whole lot safer and with a whole lot less worrying. If you do not have experience with fork lifts and other lifting tools, they can be quite dangerous, to both you and the machines.
 
While it's not a big deal to stuff a lathe into a box truck, I think I have seen Penske flatbed trucks also. Much easier to side load than to end load. Also the flatbed has tie down points. If I had a choice I would not use a box truck to move machines.

To answer the original question, $7K seems high. I picked up my CNC lathe in Oklahoma, 1700 miles from me. 10,200 lbs. The total cost was about $1700. But we had adequate forklifts on both ends so didn't have to deal with renting that equipment. I rented a 14,000 lb rated over wheel (full flat) trailer and towed it with my diesel pickup.
 
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