Moving From Colorado To Arizona, Need Machines Moved

wrmiller

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No specifics yet, but am putting out feelers to see if any resources available, and how much it would cost.

The machines to be moved would be a PM1340GT lathe and a PM935 mill. The mill is on a base that has wheels. The lathe isn't on wheels but can be taken off it's stand and strapped down to appliance dollies or some other contrivance with wheels.

The machines are in Longmont CO and will need to go to somewhere (TBD) in the greater Phoenix, AZ area.

Anyone knowing riggers or other folks who could do it, please post. Thanks. :)
 
What's housing prices like in Longmont Co. .?
 
Slowing down a bit now, but have been going up 10% plus a year for several years now. Been told it's a seller's market, but it is softening a bit of late. Denver is worse/crazy(er)

I'm no expert on the area, but you can find prices anywhere from the 200s up to 800s.
 
Bill do you have a tow vehicle? Anything from a mid-SUV on up and a U-Haul trailer would work for that load.
 
If you only have those two pieces and can get it down to a manageable size, you could hire movers to load/unload in a trailer. If you put them on pallets, you can rent a pallet jack for $25 from Home Depot. Or use a HF hoist to load/unload. Done it both ways.

When I moved my Bridgeport, 13 x 48 lathe, horizontal bandsaw, and the rest of my shop from Albuquerque to Tucson, I looked at many options. I settled on renting a Penske with lift gate one-way. I picked it up in Tucson and drove it to Albuquerque for the move. Penske only rents lift gates for local use, so I had to pickup and return in Tucson. No big deal, it only cost me $55 in fuel and I had to drive back to Tucson anyway.

I disassembled the mill and stripped the lathe down. Bolted the lathe, saw, and mill base to their pallets, and strapped everything else to a pallets. I bought 6 pallets for $5 each and had them make a custom one for my lathe for $60. This worked out really well, used my pallet jack to move them. I hired local movers from Home Advisors on both ends to load and unload. It worked real well for me and ended up moving my whole shop for about $700 including hiring the movers for an hour on each end, truck rental/fuel cost, and pallets. Hiring a Millwright would of been very expensive.

If I could of used a trailer then it would of cost less, but I filled the truck with my shop.
 
Interesting. When last I checked (years ago?) I could not rent a lift-gate truck. Maybe because I was moving across state lines though.

As for tow vehicle, my wrangler is only rated to tow 3500 lbs. And I've seen some interesting pics and stories about those who tried to tow more. :eek:

There is a guy here in Denver that does small moves for mostly hobby guys like us, but I'd have to pay him for the trip down and back. He is working up a quote for me though.

"Bill do you have a tow vehicle? Anything from a mid-SUV on up and a U-Haul trailer would work for that load." Wasn't sure if a U-Haul trailer would take that much weight over a small footprint (thinking the mill here)?
 
The U-Haul will take it, they are way over built. I've moved a lot of machinery with those. 3500 lb towing capacity is a bit light, but the U-Haul does have good surge brakes. I guess I would be the most worried about your transmission.
 
I have a 6-speed manual and 410 gears, which would be better than a slush-box. But yea, the drivetrain would be the weak point IMO.
 
Interesting. When last I checked (years ago?) I could not rent a lift-gate truck. Maybe because I was moving across state lines though.

They will only rent if for local moves. Even though I was moving from NM to AZ, they were fine with that as long as I picked up and dropped off with them. One other thing is they will only rent lift gates to a business IIRC. I forgot about that in my first post.
 
+1 on the Uhaul trailer. Bolt the machines to pallets. No wheels on the machines.

If you're using a moving company for your furniture, they will take palletized machines, if you supply a fork lift at both ends. You can rent a fork very reasonably, if shop around.

I have done it both ways

Randy
 
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