How To Assemble A Milling Machine In A Low Ceiling Basement

[Eddyde]

I continue the story of the RB-1 mill from Here.

I figured I would start a new thread on this as it is a new phase of the project.
It took the better part of two days to get the mill and the grinder into the basement, now to reassemble them... The problem is, the ceiling is too low to rig the gantry, hoist & trolly arrangement I use to take it apart. The solution was to cut a hole in the ceiling (AKA floor of the guest bedroom) and rig the hoist upstairs. I couldn't slide the hoist back and forth to move the parts into posistion so I moved the mill back and forth as it was assembled. It all went pretty smooth took only 4 hours to rig the hoist and assemble the mill. Luckily, the wife was very understanding of the necessity for the hole in the floor...

 

[jeff_g1137]

Hi
Nice job, not a lot of head room, will the mill go right up to the top of the runners.
The hole in the floor, is for oiling the mill LOL

 

[Billh50]

You either have a very understanding wife or you had to give her something good to have her let you put that hole in the floor.

 

[sgisler]

Do you get your full positive Z travel?
Very understanding wife, it's a beautiful thing!


Stan,
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Eddyde]

Do you get your full positive Z travel?
Very understanding wife, it's a beautiful thing!

Yeah, she was totally cool about it, she even said she thought the hole would have been bigger, LOL. I plugged it up and its under the bed when the room is back in order.
The head will go all the way up on the Z, however the head is tight between the joists, so not much room for the drawbar wench, I am going to cut out a section of one of the joists and put in a header.

 

[sgisler]

nice!


Stan,
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[wrmiller]

Really cool about your wife being on-board with this. A 'long' time ago, I needed to tear down my pan and get it ready for next year's Spring Run and didn't have a garage. So...I put the dining room table in the basement and put the pan in the dining room. Probably would have went better if I'd have asked first, but hey, she was only my girlfriend. You can probably figure out how it went after she said "either that thing goes, or I do".

 

[Firestopper]

What! you couldn't talk her into a manhole cover?
Kidding aside, ingenious solution and she's a keeper.

 

[Eddyde]

What! you couldn't talk her into a manhole cover?

Funny, I actually used a brass clean-out, usually used for accessing waste pipes under concrete slabs, to plug the hole. This way I can unscrew it and set the hoist up for the next machine

 

[Firestopper]

Nice!