# Don't Want To Be a Lurker--- Pallet to Move a SB 10K Lathe



## Wheels17 (May 31, 2012)

I bought a lathe that I found on Craigslist.  I needed to roll it across  the previous owner's walkout basement, and up on to a trailer. I used a pivoting caster idea (another HF furniture dolly paid  the price)!!

The pivot bars (long pieces) are 1" pipe, the bearing sleeves are 1 1/4"  pipe.  The planks are two 2x6 fastened together with construction adhesive and screws.  I cut everything out in preparation for assembly.



The second shot is the pivots all welded up.  The pipes were first  welded to the mounting plates, and then the reinforcement gussets were  welded on. They'll hold, but I clearly need more welding practice.  Some  of which I got making these.  They're sitting on my Workmate welding  table.  More on that some other time.



The third shot is one of the bar assemblies ready to bolt on to the  beams.   You can see the hole in the pivots where the pin will be  inserted to keep the pallet up on the wheels.  I didn't have much in the  way of measurements on the lathe when I built the pallet, so I drilled  the holes in the pivot shafts after the lathe was on the pallet. 



The fourth is the pallet in use. Don't worry, the tailstock is in the van.  It made it home, but only as far as  the garage.  I'm still preparing the spot in the basement, and  struggling with how I'll get it across the slate floor, through the  kitchen, and down the basement stairs.  



Here's some detail on how the casters work.

 When the base of the casters is horizontal, the pallet is picked up.  The bar can then rotate in the pivots and allow the casters to come up off the floor, setting the pallet down.  Here's the caster aligned and the pipe wrench on the shaft, ready to lift.



After a moderate push on the wrench, the caster base is horizontal, with the pin in place to keep the pallet up on the casters.



Here is a close up of the fit between the 1" pipe and the 1 1/4 nipple used as a  bearing.  For something with infrequent rotation, it works very well.   It's got just enough slop to not require a lot of precision, but not so  much that it is, well, sloppy.


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## jfcayron (May 31, 2012)

I love your solution! What weight rating do you have for the casters?


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## Old Iron (May 31, 2012)

Man what a great idea, I wonder how much weght it would hold?

Paul


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## Wheels17 (May 31, 2012)

The casters came from a Harbor Freight furniture dolly (http://www.harborfreight.com/movers-dolly-93888.html).  They rate it at 1000 lbs.  When it is on sale, it is the cheapest way to get 4 reasonably rated casters.  I did a similar conversion on my delta contractor's saw, and they work great.  For moving the lathe(which I think weighs in at about 800lbs.), they worked fine, but I doubt they'd last very long.  I think the headstock end was fairly overloaded.  I can pick up the tailstock end of the lathe, but not the headstock end.  As far as the pivoting action goes, I was able to pick the lathe up on the casters with an 18"  pipe wrench and one hand (have to have the other free to drop the locking pins in).

I got the lathe on to the pallet by using a 24" flat bar and a bunch of plywood and 2x4 blocks.  I'd lever the end up, slide a block under, do the same on the opposite end, and then repeat with another block on each end.  Once it got to the level of the top of the pallet (3"up), I slid the pallet beams along the caster pivot shaft to place the two beams touching each other and  against the blocks to start. I would set the bar swung at about 30 degrees toward the direction I wanted to move the lathe, pick the lathe up and swing the bar through about 60 degrees.  This moved the lathe about an inch over.  Move to the other end and repeat.  Once the lathe was moved over the far beam, I bolted it to the  beam and then I started levering the beam closer to the blocks away from the far beam.  The lathe was never unsupported in a manner that risked it tipping.


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## Charley Davidson (May 31, 2012)

Great idea:worship: Thanks for sharing, now doesn't that feel better?


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## 12bolts (May 31, 2012)

Very ingenious Jack.
And you have just increased your post count by a whopping 30%

Cheers Phil


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