Hoisting a mill

[tigtorch]

Jmarkwolf, no, I bought this mill in Atlanta 2 weeks ago. It was posted on Craigslist at 11:30 on Sat. and I bought it before 2:00 that afternoon. He had gotten a lot of calls. You don't see them very often down here. MLwoy, I had thought about a dolly and maybe I should build one, it would pretty much eliminate ever hoisting the whole mill again. Any recommendations on casters?

 

[kilroy]

Tigtorch, when I brought my mill home I had some of the same concerns. Not sure where I was putting it in the shop or just moving it to that spot. I built this dolly, it is an H pattern with two cross pieces tieing it together. I am leaving it on it for now but it is a little high. The wood cribbing levels it and also saves the wheels from flat spotting.

 

[ML_Woy]

Jmarkwolf, no, I bought this mill in Atlanta 2 weeks ago. It was posted on Craigslist at 11:30 on Sat. and I bought it before 2:00 that afternoon. He had gotten a lot of calls. You don't see them very often down here. MLwoy, I had thought about a dolly and maybe I should build one, it would pretty much eliminate ever hoisting the whole mill again. Any recommendations on casters?

I used 6" casters, bought them from http://www.castercity.com. Called them up and took their advice on which ones to use. Here are a couple of pictures:

 

[tigtorch]

Is that 1X2 tubing? It looks no thicker than about 0.1" I guess since the weight is concentrated right out by the wheels it is strong enough but I would have thought I would need something thicker.

 

[ML_Woy]

Is that 1X2 tubing? It looks no thicker than about 0.1" I guess since the weight is concentrated right out by the wheels it is strong enough but I would have thought I would need something thicker.

Tubing is 2" x 4", wall thickness .132. We tend to forget about how strong steel is and many times overbuild things. Notice the major beams are on edge, so 4" thick, and the spans are minimal, less then three feet.

 

[Nelson]

OK, here's my idea, how does it sound?

Since I will be putting this mill as close to a bearing wall as resulting access to the machine will allow (centerline maybe 3' or so from wall), I will use two floor joists as the top member of a gantry by using the existing support on one side (the bearing wall) and about 6' from the wall I will span two joists with a 2X10 and run a 4X4 from this to the floor. I have in essence created a 6' wide gantry utilizing two joists as the top member. Then, in the middle of this 6' span I will attach a 2" pipe to the two joists using either the strongest store bought brackets I can find or make some out of 1/4" steel ( I can bend with oxy-acetylene and weld) and lag bolt these to the two joists. Then connect my 1 ton chain hoist to the middle of this pipe with a welded eye and use 6400# lifting straps to attach to the machine.

I'm assuming you saw the wooden gantry I built here:

http://www.hobby-machinist.com/show...-Assemble-VN-Milling-Machine?highlight=gantry