# There's a monster in my garage!



## Morgan RedHawk (Apr 28, 2019)

There's a monster in my garage!

A metal eating monster, commonly known as a PM-949.  I have been drooling over all yall's 949 posts, especially Chevy's for a while and finally had enough saved up to get one.  I thought it might be helpful to some to post a "moving the machine" thread so future knee mill purchasers can see what to expect.  

The machine comes in a big crate.  The dimensions on the website say that it is 60"L x 60"W x 65"H, but mine was 60"L x 60"W x 73"H.  It is attached to a stout pallet, which due to the placement of the runners, is incompatible with a pallet jack.  You can move it around some with the pallet jack off center, but I would not recommend doing that for more than a foot or 2.  I built a pallet out of 4x4s and 2x4s that I could bolt to the factory pallet for transportation.







Once the pallets were joined, moving it with a pallet jack was pretty easy.  It was necessary to move it over some somewhat uneven asphalt with some patches.  I was worried it would be a pain in the neck, but it was so easy that I decided to pull the thing all the way around the building to the trailer.






I rented a tilt bed trailer from Sunbelt. That was money well spent.  The trailer sits down in the back and slopes at 4 degrees.  We were able to shove it right up on there.






Just kidding, we had a small forklift, too small to lift the machine, but strong enough to push it up.  The plan, if the forklift was not available, was to use a chain hoist to pull it up.






I placed a Harbor Freight floor mat, cut up into quarters, under each of the corners to help prevent sliding.  DOT requires 2 straps for a crate this size and weight, but I used 6 total.  2 went front to back, 2 went side to side, 2 went around the base (front to front, and back to back to eliminate the possibility of it sliding).










The 15 mile trip to my house was uneventful.  The assembly was stable and did not move at all.






Once at my house, we backed it up the driveway and set the back of the trailer down just in front of my garage door.  The door is 81", so with my pallet attached, it would not fit (as expected).  We uncrated the machine real quick, which was not difficult, despite the sturdiness of the crate.  It was well reinforced with 2x4s.  This reduced the overall height to 79".  










Since my driveway is at a downward angle, the angle of the trailer sat a just 2 degrees relative to the garage floor.

We lifted the crate just high enough to move and gently let it down the ramp, not even needing the chain hoist to control the descent.  Once the front of the pallet reached the garage floor it stopped (again, as expected). I placed my floor jack under one of the factory pallet's inner runners and lifted the front just a tiny bit.  Another gentle shove on the pallet jack and it glided right in, clearing the garage door by about an inch.






Moving a machine like this does not have to be difficult, but it is, as we all know, very important to have a good plan.  Know what is going to happen before you do it, and what could go wrong.  Definitely know what you are going to do if it does (in other words how you are going to get the heck out of the way.).  We also made sure that my helpers and myself knew where each other were and what we were doing at all times.  Listen to that little voice in your head, and if it says that something is jankey, don't do it!

So now that this monster is sitting in my garage, the question is: "how are you going to get it off those pallets with no forklift or crane?"  I have a plan that I have used in the past.  Stay tuned, I am going to remove the pallets next weekend.

This machine really is as nice as everyone says.  I can't wait to get it up and running.  This is my 3rd PM machine, and those guys are always great!  They redirected my shipment for delivery when it was discovered that the freight terminal did not have a ramp.  Never heard of such a thing.


----------



## zjtr10 (Apr 28, 2019)

Congrats and good job!


----------



## NCjeeper (Apr 28, 2019)

Nice.


----------



## wrmiller (Apr 28, 2019)

If I could ever afford to upgrade my mill, that would be the upgrade. Jealous. Oh, and congrats!


----------



## FOMOGO (Apr 28, 2019)

congrats on the new mill, and getting it home safely. Mike


----------



## kd4gij (Apr 28, 2019)

on the new machine.


----------



## cbellanca (Apr 28, 2019)

Good job. I'm jealous.


----------



## [X]Outlaw (Apr 29, 2019)

Congrats!! You're going to love it!


----------



## markba633csi (Apr 29, 2019)

Well, that was pretty boring. In a good way
Congrats and enjoy your new toy


----------



## Janderso (Apr 29, 2019)

Yeah, enjoy. You suck!


----------



## TakeDeadAim (Apr 29, 2019)

Congratulations,  you are going to love that mill for sure.   I found moving mine was much easier than I thought.  Similar program, rented a tip bed trailer as well.  It was too tall to move it fully into the shop portion of the garage but with the crate off of it and the help of a 2 ton gantry crane I was able to lift the side of the pallet that was inside the shop and it slowly slid it, very controlled, down the trailer until I could lift the mill with the eye bolt.  All simple after that.

Nice job on yours!  Have fun getting it set up and be sure an let us know if you have questions.


----------



## Morgan RedHawk (Apr 29, 2019)

Thanks, everyone, for the warm responses.  This community means a lot to me, and I would never be able to use such a machine if it weren't for all yall.  The plan for getting it off of the pallets is to jack the machine and factory pallet up just high enough to get a stack of 10" x 10" x 1/2" birch plywood boards under each of the corners.  After disassembling and removing my custom pallet, I plan to raise the front of the machine and remove a board and set it back down.  Next I will do the same for the rear of the machine, and so on and so forth until the factory pallet is sitting on the floor.  Then, I will partially disassemble the factory pallet and place the machine itself back on the stacks.  Once stable on the stacks, I will remove the remaining parts of the factory pallet and repeat the above until the machine is sitting on the ground.  It takes a while, but I have used this method on a Bridgeport before.  I do have a Harbor Freight 2 ton engine crane, and a toe jack and floor jack, oh and one of those Gearwrench prybars that Tom Lipton had in on of his videos..man, that thing is sweet!  Thats about it, though.  If yall have any methods, ideas, or warnings that maybe I have not thought of, I am all ears.  Whatever I end up doing,  I will take and post some pics.

Edited to add that I am going to flip the head back down before I do any of this..it is only up for looking at.


----------



## Morgan RedHawk (May 4, 2019)

Well, this weekend's machine festivities were as boring as the move, thankfully.  It was quite easy to get it down off of the pallets and onto the floor.  This is how it went:

First, I flipped the head back upside down for stability.







Next, I removed the bolts that I used to secure the two pallets together.  An air impact wrench made quick work of that.






I made a couple of stacks of my plywood, just enough to fit under the factory pallet, and placed them under the middle runners.  I used the toe jack to lift the front of the factory pallet enough to slide one more piece under each of the runners and set the machine back down on the stacks.  I should note that I never trust hydraulic jacks.  I never lifted the machine more than the height needed to add or remove one of the plywood squares.  Even if the jack had failed suddenly, the machine would only have dropped a half an inch...not enough to topple it, although probably enough to let the big artillary out, so to speak.






Next, I did the back side.






Once the factory pallet was on the stacks, it was no longer sitting on the custom pallet.






I planned to slide the custom pallet to one side, but I was not about to stick one of my booger hooks under there, so I  used an improvised hook to pull the pallet out far enough to expose the screws that I had assembled it with.











A few minutes with the drill, and I was able to remove the right runner.  A note to anyone that my try to emulate this setup..do not put a screw in the inner section of the runner.  I had to do a little finagling to get it out far enough to reach this other screw.






Anyway, once it was out, I pushed the inner pallet over with a 2x4 and unscrewed the other side, and removed the left runner.  At this point, the machine is sitting only on the inner runners of the factory pallet.  There is no safety to keep the machine from tipping over if too much pressure is put on the outer edges of the pallet.  It was solid and stable, and in reality I bet you would be hard pressed to actually tip it, but I would not recommend putting anything heavy on or standing on the remaining pallet...and keep hands and feet out from underneath it, too.






The custom pallet's center runner  and 2x4 crossbeams still remained, so I drilled a couple of holes with the hole saw so I could access the screws that joined them.






I unscrewed the screws of a cross beam, removed the crossbeam, and slid the rest of the assembly forward, exposing the next set of screws.  This was repeated until all crossbeams and center runner were removed.






To lower the machine, I simply jacked up the front, removed a board, set it back down, and then did the same to the back.






The machine and factory pallet were on safely on the floor shortly.  I was able to remove the last 2 boards in each stack by placing the toe jack under the side of the pallet, next to the lower cross beam, and letting it all the way down to the floor.  This will not be an option when dealing with the actual machine, but we will let future Morgan deal with that.






To get the machine off of the factory pallet required the partial destruction of the pallet.  This involved cutting some of the upper cross beams and all 4 runners in strategic spots.  I forgot to take pictures of this part, but I hope this MS Paint notes will make it clear what I did.  It is very important to note that after the runners are severed, the machine would effectively be sitting, unbalanced, on the factory pallet's lower center cross beam. Not a desirable condition.  I put a couple of 1 x 6 boards that were long enough to support both runners under the portion of the factory pallet that would remain intact.  One in the front and one in the back.  I placed them just inside of where I planned to cut the runners.






First, in order to get a reciprocating saw blade of sufficient length far enough under the machine to sever the inner runners, I had to raise the machine up by 3 boards.  The toe jack was too tall to fit under the machine, so to get the first boards under, I used that Gearwrench pry bar.  It worked very well.  I put a piece of cardboard (not shown) between it and the machine to keep from gimping up the paint.  Once the first board was under each corner I could use the toe jack again.






When all 4 corners were up on the 3 boards, I commenced to cutting (the holes are so I can get the saw blade in to start).






I only cut the boards at the front of the machine, leaving the back intact for now.  After the cuts were made on both sides, I slid the severed part of the pallet out of the way and placed my stacks of plywood under the front corners of the machine base.  I then jacked the machine back up, removed the boards on the sides and set the machine back down on the newly placed stacks.  I used a bit of cardboard between the jack and the machine, like I did with the prybar, to protect the paint.  After the front of the machine was sitting on the stacks, I repeated the above operation with the back of the pallet.  I cut out enough of the pallet to be able to support the machine with my stacks, but left enough so that the machine would be supported by the center portion of the pallet while I removed the rear part of the pallet.

When the machine was sitting on stacks on all 4 corners, no longer touching the pallet, I carefully and gently slid the center section out.  All that sawdust was slippery on the floor, so a quick cleanup was in order before then next part.






The remainder of the operation consisted of repeating the jack up, remove board, set down, go to other side and repeat.  I did it front-back instead of side to side, since it was more stable that way.  Also, on the first lift, the stacks were slit further inward so that each of the machine's "feet" were fully supported.  When I would let it down, I would just crack the valve on the jack a little until it started creeping downward, and then stepped out of the way and waited for a minute.






Before long it was sitting on the last board.  I broke out the prybar again and lifted it enough to get the last boards out.  I had a buddy pull the boards, as I was busy holding the machine up.  That big pry bar made it very easy to lift.  I did not have to strain at all.






Before this operation started, I squared the machine up the way I wanted it and tested the full travel of the table and ram to make sure it had clearance.  Once on the floor, it had shifted position only slightly.  We were able to square it back up by lifting a little with the pry bar and pushing it the 1/4" needed.






There it sits.  It was pretty easy and at no time was the thing in an unstable condition.  We were very careful, as we were during the move.  The hardwood plywood was important, I think, because I was able to smash regular plywood in my vice much more easily then this birch.  The plywood did not even get any impressions in it.  It was worth the 15 extra bucks for the nice stuff.

If anyone tries this method, please know that you do so at your own risk.  It worked for me because I am very careful and thoughtful about every operation and spent at least 3 times the amount of time it took to do it thinking about what could possibly go wrong.  I think this is a good method for lowering a machine if you dont have a proper crane or forklift. Your milage (and conditions) may vary.

I hope that someone will find this thread helpful.  I hope that is not too many pictures...someone told me yall like pictures.


----------



## [X]Outlaw (May 4, 2019)

Man I wish I thought of that method when I was uncrating mine! But you live and learn lol. Glad to see you go it down and in position safe and sound.

Chevy


----------



## mmcmdl (May 4, 2019)

Nice looking mill and workspace


----------



## Morgan RedHawk (May 4, 2019)

Thanks, mmcmdl,, and Chevy, I want to copy your DRO mount...that thing looks really nice. I also really appreciate all the great pics and details you put up in your thread.  It had a lot to do with my decision to get this machine.  I was really able to get an idea of what to expect.  I really think I made the right choice.  Thanks, man.


----------



## mikey (May 4, 2019)

That is a really nice looking mill, Morgan. You did a great job detailing your experiences getting it moved and down on the floor. Sure looks great sitting in your new work space in your new house! Congrats!


----------



## Morgan RedHawk (May 5, 2019)

Thanks, mikey.  The first time I  wanted to move a machine, it seemed like an insurmountable task.  Most of the info I found from people that had done it had them using a forklift or tractor, which I do not have access to.  I just wanted to show people out there that are in a similar situation that it can be done relatively easily without that stuff.


----------



## jbobb1 (May 5, 2019)

Nice job!
And I thought I had a chore on my hands when I moved my mill in the garage!


----------



## TakeDeadAim (May 16, 2019)

Looks nice, glad you got in in place with no issues.   Now its time to sort out some projects


----------

