Goofs & Blunders You Should Avoid.

[MrWhoopee]

Not just any CRX, that's a factory Vtec EE8 (1 of 300 made) that I bought and built in Germany, and imported it here under EPA exemption status when it was 25 years old. It's a blue ribbon car, except for the engine fire and the bumper that I just smashed with my lathe.

Dayum, that's a rocket disguised as a CRX! The simple upgrade from a D15 to SOHC ZC scared me the first time I put my foot in it. I can't imagine driving that thing.

 

[Cadillac]

That’s a really nice crx I had one back in my high school years. Loved the car great gas mileage back when gas was 99c a gallon. Twelve bucks to fill her up 40mpg
As for the lathe might be best to rent yourself a forklift or handler. As you know she’s top heavy and the base should be twice that size. I wouldn’t want anymore mishaps and safely get her sitting upright and in it’s finally spot. Only way I see that happening safely is some sort of heavier machine that can lift the lathe.
Yeah you can use a gantry but what happens when the weight shifts getting it upright. Can a gantry take a 3k weight shift swinging. Idk and wouldn’t want to see if it can. Or end up pulling your roof down because you tried using joist.
Believe me I did the same things moving my equipment. Every time was gut wrenching, anxiety through the roof till the machine was on the floor in position.
Good luck either way and hopefully just some scratched paint and sheet metal.

 

[mmcmdl]

Biggest mistake I've made so far was trying to move my lathe yesterday afternoon. It was going really well, but one of my machine skates squirted out from under while I was turning it. Now I'm stuck. Maybe I can get it with some floor jacks and cinder blocks, I don't know. I'm still shaking from adrenaline. And in case I need to come out and say it, this really sucks. Not fun at all, I really forked myself with this one. Any ideas?

Been there and done that @pontiac428 . Yes , the only thing worse would have been a face plant . My first lathe ( 17" x 60" Voest ) took a face plant which broke every handle on the lathe , almost killed my cat and my wife . Mine fell off one of the dollies while moving it . My first reaction was to try to save the lathe , which did not work . I now use a set of chain rollers with no issues .

I had a party with plenty of friends and adult beverages . We got it back up and the lathe was used for years thereafter with no issues . Hang in there .

 

[pontiac428]

I've talked to my friend (because that's how many I have...) and he's ready to help. He's also seriously underestimating the weight of this thing... In case you missed it, it says "1760" on the emblem, so it weighs as much as 2.5 Hondas. That means engine hoists and pry bars are a no-go.

I've got my game plan together. I'm off early to stop at Harbor Freight for a 5-ton chainfall. I'm going to pack three 12' sticks of 1.5" gas pipe upstairs and lay them in a 3-pipe stack perpendicular to my joists. Then I'll cut a small hole with a hole saw so it is easy to plug later, and chain the hoist to the pipe. Then, use the floor jacks on cinder blocks from below while stabilizing from above...

I'll check back in 24 hours with how it went.

 

[Aukai]

Prayers are with you

 

[silence dogood]

There are not very many things that can make a grown man cry, but this is one of them. However, I'm so glad that your foot or some other body part did not get between the lathe and the floor. It looks like that you got a good plan. My suggestions are clear as much space around the lathe as possible and take your time. Good luck my friend, I'm going to be holding my breath on this one.

 

[great white]

I learned long ago when big, heavy things start moving in a direction you don't want them to, you (and anyone in the area) just get the heck out of the way and let it happen. Human bodies are great at making soft squishy landing spots for big heavy metal things, but first time is usually the last time....

 

[vtcnc]

I've talked to my friend (because that's how many I have...) and he's ready to help. He's also seriously underestimating the weight of this thing... In case you missed it, it says "1760" on the emblem, so it weighs as much as 2.5 Hondas. That means engine hoists and pry bars are a no-go.

I've got my game plan together. I'm off early to stop at Harbor Freight for a 5-ton chainfall. I'm going to pack three 12' sticks of 1.5" gas pipe upstairs and lay them in a 3-pipe stack perpendicular to my joists. Then I'll cut a small hole with a hole saw so it is easy to plug later, and chain the hoist to the pipe. Then, use the floor jacks on cinder blocks from below while stabilizing from above...

I'll check back in 24 hours with how it went.

Was going to ask if you had floor joists accessible above. This is your best plan. If that lathe is actually 3 tons, then you may consider some lolly columns for joist support underneath. Your ceiling is a lot taller than mine though, so maybe I'm being overly risk adverse.

 

[epanzella]

I've talked to my friend (because that's how many I have...) and he's ready to help. He's also seriously underestimating the weight of this thing... In case you missed it, it says "1760" on the emblem, so it weighs as much as 2.5 Hondas. That means engine hoists and pry bars are a no-go.

I've got my game plan together. I'm off early to stop at Harbor Freight for a 5-ton chainfall. I'm going to pack three 12' sticks of 1.5" gas pipe upstairs and lay them in a 3-pipe stack perpendicular to my joists. Then I'll cut a small hole with a hole saw so it is easy to plug later, and chain the hoist to the pipe. Then, use the floor jacks on cinder blocks from below while stabilizing from above...

I'll check back in 24 hours with how it went.

If it's a plywood floor you're better off with a square hole. When you're ready to close it up take two strips of wood longer than the hole and half as wide. Put a sheet rock screw in the center of each and then work them into the hole so that each piece extends under the floor on three sides. Hold the sheetrock screw with a claw hammer and screw the boards in right thru the plywood floor. Now you have a ledge around the hole so you can just drop the original piece into the hole and screw thru it into the new ledge. This is a lot easier to do than to explain. (retired building contractor)

 

[pontiac428]

Was going to ask if you had floor joists accessible above. This is your best plan. If that lathe is actually 3 tons, then you may consider some lolly columns for joist support underneath. Your ceiling is a lot taller than mine though, so maybe I'm being overly risk adverse.

Luckily, the lathe is laying in the "hallway" of my shop, which is the strongest part of the building as far as the upstairs floor goes. The joists are laminated I-beam type, on 12" centers, at the maximum allowable span length of 24'. The sunshine here is the silly partition I included in the design to create a machine shop for chipmaking tools separate from the dirty work in the main bay. The lathe is right at the partition wall, which puts two extra 8" square timber posts right in the middle of the span that I'll be loading with the chainfall. I feel like an idiot over the lathe tipping, but I feel pretty good about cutting a hole in my upstairs floor and attacking it from this angle. We're probably going to do it tomorrow after work. Get it on its feet at least, and I'll worry about moving it the rest of the way later. I'm going to remove the pivot bolts on my machine skates and use that hole to hold a longer bolt to use as a locating pin though four of the leveling bolt holes on the base plinths. That will keep this little incident from happening twice. Err, keep that from happening three times, I forgot my 4500 lb mill dipped a toe after a skate ran away on my not very flat concrete. I almost didn't recover from that, it was scarier than dumping the lathe. My jacks just couldn't do the lifting (like all the king's horses and all the king's men), but I did manage to get its corner off the floor and back on skates without losing it. So both of these capital class machines have given me a real rough go to get in their final places. Anything else I get is going to have to be friendly to a pallet jack, because this Stonehenge engineering is kicking my butt.