Lifting a lathe with an engine hoist.....?

[comstock-friend]

Just moved in my new to me SB 13". Pro machinery mover used sling around bed (under lead screw) at head stock end, chain around bed spacer other side of carriage. Will be a couple of days, but I can post photo of the lathe in the air. Same thing with my 13" Enco 15 years before, sling at head stock end UNDER the lead screw and feed rod. Plate and eye bolt risks stripping the threads...



John

 

[Cheeseking]

I assumed most lathes would have a tapped hole at least for an eye bolt. If not rig a strap thru one of the webs in the bed.
This was the contraption that came with mine so I used it. Used 2 ton engine hoist in the 1/2 ton extend range (scary like a rubber band!)





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[dave2176]

Here's the Grizzly answer.

 

[Shadowdog500]

Here is how I lifted mine. I put the strap through the webbing near the headstock and balanced the load by moving the carrage toward the tailstock. The drive motor wanted to tilt the lathe backwards some so I balanced that with a shot bag on the front of the lathe by the tailstock.

from what I remember, your biggest problem is going to be the narrow space between the fence and the fireplace. What is your plan to tackling that? I was just joking when I mentioned a helicopter last week.





A manual for for a lathe similar to mine shows something similar, which I copied.

chris.


Shot bags come in handy to balance loads. I used two on the back of my mill to balance it when hoisting it.

 

[joshua_]

I've moved this one twice.

This is the easiest method I found to move it around inside (pics). Turning was a little tough, but using a pry bar to turn the cherry picker helped.

Once outside it wasn't bad. On the way in we had a lift gate drop it down and then a fork lift move it close to the door.

On the way back out we took it out as shown and then lifted it with a Bobcat.

If you get the strap placed correctly it will lift pretty level without putting the strap in two places. (at least it did for me)

 

[calstar]

Thanks for all the info and especially the pics. I'm moving it Sat morning, I'll take pics of the move.. Brian

 

[GarageGuy]

If you use straps to lift it, be sure to watch your center of gravity. Because of the head stock, lathes can be top heavy. If so, it could slip and invert itself in a second.

GG

 

[george wilson]

You guys are right about lifting with the strap behind the leadscrew. Yesterday I was in a lot of pain,heavily drugged with pain killers,and not thinking too straight.

It has been years,many years,since I lifted a bench lathe. My current lathes are much larger. They were moved with fork lifts.

We did have to move an 8000# lathe 15' across a concrete floor at work,and rotate it 180º. I used a come along and 1/2" mild steel rollers under the pedestals to move it,after first getting the floor very clean(Those rollers had to roll over any stuff that might have been left on the floor.) Fortunately,we had an "I" beam column in the middle of the floor to secure one end of the come along to. That was a huge help!!

It was fun. We felt like we were making the pyramids!

Your steel plates with eye bolts are a great way to go. Do be careful of straps going around castings inside the bed. Those can have flashings on the castings that can cut the corner of a strap and cause it to tear in half. Best to wrap a rag under the strap if you are going around castings. I had a strap tear lifting a bridgeport type mill. once. It was wrapped around the ram in front of and behind the column. Somehow,it managed to start tearing when a guy was fork lifting the mill through our double doors at work. I saw it tearing and had him put the mill down at once. The strap belonged to the warehouse,and I'm sure it was an import. I bought them a new one.

Joshua,I lived in Amarillo when I was in the first grade. We were pretty poor,and lived in a single car garage on South Garfield Street. I "Google Earth'ed" The house is still there,but no trace of the former garage,chicken coop,or out house in the back yard(which we used).

 

[Morgan RedHawk]

If you use straps to lift it, be sure to watch your center of gravity. Because of the head stock, lathes can be top heavy. If so, it could slip and invert itself in a second.

GG

I was a little worried about this, too when I lifted mine. I took the gear cover off and put the orange strap around the spindle behind the headstock. The orange straps are snug, but are not contributing to the lifting force. They are there only to stabilize the machine, keeping it from tipping over sideways or lengthwise. I threaded my lifting strap behind the leadscrew and feed rod and placed a 2x4 underneath so the iron bed would not come in contact with the strap...also I had to prevent the strap from bending my DRO scale cover.

My machine did not come attached to the stand, so I maneuvered the machine close to the spot I wanted it with my crane and my BOD (big-old dolly). Then I lifted it up and slid the base underneath.

Just go slow, think about what you are going to do in advance, and stay out of any area the machine could fall or tip over on you and you will be fine!

Oh, and those are NOT my feet in the flip flops!

 

[calstar]

This is a good one , more pics from the thread here, post #9 http://www.hobby-machinist.com/showthread.php?t=18856.

Johnnyc14 Feb 2013

I'm not sure if it's the best way, but this is the way I did my lathe. I put a piece of 2" X 12" lumber under the bed and used a lifting strap wrapped completely around the lathe bed to prevent the machine from tipping sideways or slipping lengthwise. I made up some "T" shaped blocking from 2" X 4" and 1" X 4" lumber to space the strap away from the lead screw etc. I left the tail stock in place and used it for ballast. I slid it along the ways to get the balance point exactly right once I had the strap positioned close to the correct center of balance point. With the strap choking around the bed the machine was very stable and I was able to move it around with the engine crane with a helper to steady it and keep it from swaying too much. I kept it as close to the floor as possible while rolling the crane around. As you can see I built a base from 2" square tube so I could mount the feet outboard of the base to make the footprint of the machine bigger once it was in place. I had to use long threaded extensions to raise the base up high enough so the crane could be moved up close to the base. One the lathe was bolted onto the base I threaded the extensions out 1 turn at a time on each one to keep the machine as level as possible while lowering it. Then I installed rollers on the base and rolled to it's final location in the shop. Then I removed the rollers and mounted the levelling feet.