Moving big equipment out of a basement...

[Dabbler]

Last year I bought most of the machines from a guy's basement machine shop. I also agreed to clear his basement of all machines, by taking them up the stairs. I thought I'd post a few highlights of that move, and answer questions about moving heavy equipment...

These are the machines I moved:


Leblond 15X60, 3400+ lbs



BP clone 2400 lbs



heat treat furnace 500 lbs


surface grinder, 2000 lbs

and 7 or 8 other machines under 500 lbs...

The mill and the lathe were completely broken down to components and moved as parts. the Surface grinder had to be moved intact.
I used both a gantry crane and a joist crane to break down machines and prep them for moving. One mistake I made was that my gantry crane couldn't move from one side of the basement to the other, as the support beam was 5" too low for it. I had to make a new top beam and change the geometry slightly to allow it to move under the beam!


The modified gantry crane







using the joist hoist to raise the 900 lb bed up and out the window. The wooden cradle is there to allow it to be moved in several steps.

 

[Nutfarmer]

Nice equipment. The move would have cost as much as the equipment if you had hired it out. Think of the money you save. Sounds like a good move with no dropped equipment or pinched fingers. Would like to see how the mill and the grinder came out ,if you had the extra time and hands to take any more pictures

 

[C-Bag]

not ever having lived in a house with a basement, why would anybody ever make a basement without a bulkhead door? These machines would be hard enough if just sitting at ground level.

 

[pontiac428]

Wow, a LeBlond 15x60 in the basement? They must have lowered it in with a crane and then built the house over it. Usually people hand pick machines that can easily be broken into manageable pieces, but this collection belongs in a shop with a forklift and a roll-up door!

If my basement didn't have a carriage door, I wouldn't even have been able to get my Atlas down there.

 

[silence dogood]

In the summer of 1966, I worked for Tektronix. One of the unique things about the buildings was that Mr. Vollum insist that a whole wall could be open so that whole machinery could be moved inside without taking it apart. You don't have to go as far as Mr. Vollum, but big doors sure are nice.

 

[NC Rick]

That lathe in the basement is a "big" deal! Nice work.

My first Bridgeport was a 1940s era "M" head, round column and I got it when I was 22 years old. Since I traveled for my living and did not yet own a home, I kept it in my parents basement It went in and out of that basement with them not home. I got a several 2x8" boards to lay on the stairs and bought a couple "loly columns" at the hardware store to brace the stairs from underneath. I inverted the head and used a come-along tied to an oak tree in the back yard to pull (with a couple logging chains choked up between moves for safety) and once the winch cable was as tight as I dared, I used a pry bar to "scooch" it up a few inches. Slow but doable by a kid and his buddy. i moved it off the landing with a rented engine hoist strapped in my dads 3/4 ton dodge like a tow truck and transferred it into my Dodge truck to drive it here to North Carolina in 1982. I sold it before getting my "J" head about 10 years ago.

nice score on the machines I appreciate your skill at getting the machines out as well as those of the people who put them down there!

 

[C-Bag]

The amount of patience and tenacity is beyond impressive Dabbler. My hats off to you. You obviously have all the necessary equipment too. I have let many the good deal pass because I didn’t want to deal with the logistics. I guess I’m kinda burned out on it as I did it as part of my job as a millwright for 10yrs. I also don’t have the heavy equipment as that was owned by the job.

My question is did everything work ok after the move and reassembly? That is a bunch of machinery and looks like you also had something else I don’t have, help.

 

[Dabbler]

My question is did everything work ok after the move and reassembly?

Reassembly is ongoing. Hampered by a 580 sq ft garage with 3 lathe,s 4 mills, surface grinder, full size universal tool and cutter grinder, wash tank, General 12" unisaw, and household storage. Every step takes hours, but I'll get there eventually. Reassembling the mill for sale, and selling my little 12X37 lathe to create space.

All the stuff I bought and moved intact are up and running...

 

[C-Bag]

and selling my little 12X37 lathe

LOL, thats big to me!

 

[projectnut]

Reassembly is ongoing. Hampered by a 580 sq ft garage with 3 lathe,s 4 mills, surface grinder, full size universal tool and cutter grinder, wash tank, General 12" unisaw, and household storage. Every step takes hours, but I'll get there eventually. Reassembling the mill for sale, and selling my little 12X37 lathe to create space.

All the stuff I bought and moved intact are up and running...

It might take some time to finish the assembly, but I'm sure you'll be more than happy with the results. Like the guy you bought the machinery from my shop is also in the basement. I tried having it in 1 bay of a 3 car garage for 2 years, but that didn't work out. Even though the garage is heated working in the winter months was difficult. Every time I wanted to work I had to turn on the heat and wait a couple hours before anything was warm enough to touch. Even then it was a chilling experience. To top it off every time I opened a door it took another hour to get things back up to temp. Spring was also hard on the machines. On warm days the still cold concrete and iron would sweat like mad. At times it was so bad it looked like it had rained inside.

I gave up on the garage shop and moved all the tools to the basement. Like you I disassembled everyone into components I could handle, and walked them through the house and down the stairs on a refrigerator dolly. In our case the stairway to the basement is in the middle of the house. We have no walkout at ground level, or any windows for that matter. When we built the house I was traveling extensively for work. Some years it was well over 200 days. My wife didn't want any outside access to the basement to avoid potential problems.

I all there were about 2 dozen large pieces of equipment including a vertical mill, a horizontal mill, 2 lathes, a shaper, a surface grinder, a power hacksaw, a vertical bandsaw, a horizontal bandsaw, a floor standing drill press, a bench mounted drill press, a belt/disk sander, a 24"x 36" cast iron surface plate, along with various wood working saws, planers, and jointers.

I disassembled and moved all the equipment by myself with the exception of the column for the Bridgeport mill, and the motor and drive cabinet for the Sheldon lathe. Those 2 pieces each weighed in at a little over 1,000 lbs. each. There were no local rental outfits that carried equipment to move them down the stairs, and it would have cost more to buy it than to pay the local moving companies to move it.