Moving big equipment out of a basement...

[NC Rick]

Basements always make it more fun. My basement is climate controlled so that keeps the machines happy. It was interesting getting the machines down there. from the back door I had to negotiate 2 90° corners and the stair way. My house was built in the late 1800s, my machines ate an 1100 lb 13x40 lathe, that came down as one piece, an 1800? lb surface grinder, that was disassembled for the move since it needed to be rebuilt anyhow, and the 3400 lb mill that was disassembled anyhow for cleaning.
All 3 were bolted down to a home made dolly that has four 6 inch swivel casters. I have never yet had to try to take anything out of the basement, that may be a bit more difficult than it was for in, gravity was helping for going in. I used my 7000 lb 4x4 truck as the anchor point and control. I ran a 12,000 lb working load cable from the machine thru the house and out a window with the engine hoist and a pulley to hold the cable off the window sill, and out to the trucks trailer hitch. With the truck in 4 Lo it had no problem controlling the loads. I built a ramp over the steps and covered it wit 3/4 ply, also the hallway floor was covered with 3/4 ply to spread the point loads from the dolly wheels. I had one person driving the truck, one person manning the engine hoist and pulley to keep the cable off the window sill as the angles changed, and 2 people guiding the machine down the ramp, NO ONE was allowed below the machine or even in the hose while the machines were being lowers in case it got away, the support that holds up the main beam was right at the end of the steps.

I love watching the looks on peoples faces when they look at these machines and try to figure out how I got them into the basement.

When I bought the first machine I called a bunch of moving companies and they would not touch machinery, I called a bunch of riggrs and they would not touch residential to a basement, the closest I found was one rigger that said for $1000 they would come and watch and then pick the machine up when it fell on me. I told them that if they paid me $1000 I would teach them how to make such a move.

Bottom line is to plan out everything and its contingencies and what could go wrong with recovery plans for those possibilities and then work the plan.

Love the story! My mill came out of the house my parents had in the 1980s in Burlington Wisconsin.

 

[Suzuki4evr]

@Flyinfool bravo! nice improvisations. +1 on the planning. To move the machines out of the basement took a month of planning...

That is a lot of planning and hard work. I take my hat off to you sir.

 

[westerner]

Great story!

My Good Friend, the retired Union Electrician was fond of saying-
"Plan the work, and work the plan"

Good work, and nice job.

 

[johnnielsen]

Oops. That was some job. Posted in the wrong place initially.

 

[Dabbler]

@C-Bag In the hundreds of houses I've been in in Canada, none had a bulkhead door. It just isn't done here. Another reason for the delay in responding, is that nothing is up and working... yet. The lathe is completely mechanically assembled, but it requires reassembly of an intricate hydraulic system, which needs several new parts, including a new filter with new hoses. The mill is waiting on space. In my double car garage, there are now 3 metal lathes, 4 milling machines, 2 large bandsaws, 12" table saw with wings, and much, much more.

- there isn't enough room to work efficiently, so it is taking a long time.

 

[C-Bag]

From the sound of it there’s no room to work period Dabbler. I’m on the ragged line of not having room to maneuver and unfortunately my driveway rises and curves steeply out of our garage door. so I can’t wheel heavy stuff out when I need room. It also makes it tricky to bring in new machines and is part of why I’ve stayed with smaller machines.

I’ve only ever been around one house that had a basement and that was my grandparents who lived in Pacific Grove CA. Of course it only had one big long spooky stair down to it and it was packed full of stuff. Never ever went down there.

 

[Dabbler]

@C-Bag we live on a 7 degree side slope with a back lane. Moving machines into the garage takes extra care and planning. On heavy rains and snow melt, the garage also floods a little. We do the best we can with what we've got.

The room problem got worse as I got the remainder of the 2 compressors, and the small equipment into the garage as well...

I cleaned out the attic to build a bridge crane to help with the rest of the reasembly of the mill. All that stuff is in the garage now, so work just isn't happening. Also -29C (-20F) temps aren't helping with the garage currently unheated.

We are getting a couple of 30F days coming up, so I'll be working like mad to close in the roof and turn on the heater!

 

[Janderso]

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.

First time I saw a basement was in a Maryland sub division. Nice homes, no fences, large lots.
The basement had 8’ ceilings, fully finished and the floor plan was open as large as the main residence.
In the west we don’t have many basements. Too bad!
I can see the problem with a garage. The mini splits sure offer a great choice I would think.

 

[Janderso]

Basements always make it more fun. My basement is climate controlled so that keeps the machines happy. It was interesting getting the machines down there. from the back door I had to negotiate 2 90° corners and the stair way. My house was built in the late 1800s, my machines ate an 1100 lb 13x40 lathe, that came down as one piece, an 1800? lb surface grinder, that was disassembled for the move since it needed to be rebuilt anyhow, and the 3400 lb mill that was disassembled anyhow for cleaning.
All 3 were bolted down to a home made dolly that has four 6 inch swivel casters. I have never yet had to try to take anything out of the basement, that may be a bit more difficult than it was for in, gravity was helping for going in. I used my 7000 lb 4x4 truck as the anchor point and control. I ran a 12,000 lb working load cable from the machine thru the house and out a window with the engine hoist and a pulley to hold the cable off the window sill, and out to the trucks trailer hitch. With the truck in 4 Lo it had no problem controlling the loads. I built a ramp over the steps and covered it wit 3/4 ply, also the hallway floor was covered with 3/4 ply to spread the point loads from the dolly wheels. I had one person driving the truck, one person manning the engine hoist and pulley to keep the cable off the window sill as the angles changed, and 2 people guiding the machine down the ramp, NO ONE was allowed below the machine or even in the hose while the machines were being lowers in case it got away, the support that holds up the main beam was right at the end of the steps.

I love watching the looks on peoples faces when they look at these machines and try to figure out how I got them into the basement.

When I bought the first machine I called a bunch of moving companies and they would not touch machinery, I called a bunch of riggrs and they would not touch residential to a basement, the closest I found was one rigger that said for $1000 they would come and watch and then pick the machine up when it fell on me. I told them that if they paid me $1000 I would teach them how to make such a move.

Bottom line is to plan out everything and its contingencies and what could go wrong with recovery plans for those possibilities and then work the plan.

Sounds like you really did a thorough job of planning for that move.

 

[Janderso]

Love the story! My mill came out of the house my parents had in the 1980s in Burlington Wisconsin.

I would have liked to see your mother’s face when she went down to the basement and saw the mill for the first time.