So the mill arrived, with some heart-stopping drama.
Things started out well enough, with the truck arriving on time. The first thing to note is that for some reason, someone decided to sit the enormous 1,676-pound crate (with its integral pallet) on top of a weak and partly collapsed second pallet. That made it tough for the driver to get the pallet jack under it. The there was that he parked the truck pointing uphill, so once on the pallet jack, the crate wanted very badly to roll toward the rear of the truck. I asked if he’d like to turn the truck around, but he said no problem. Okay…
The only thing stopping the entire affair from rolling out the back was him dropping the floor jack and letting the pallet skid to a stop, and we haven’t gotten to the fun part yet.
So as he’s nearing the lift gate, I said that the pallet looked longer than the lift gate. Again, “no problem”, but I wasn’t buying it. As he rolled the heavy pallet onto the lift gate, it sagged, further increasing the downward angle, making the whole thing try even harder to roll off the end. At this point, he had the controlling wheel of the pallet jack about 12″ from the rear of the lift gate, yet there was about 13″ of pallet still in the truck bed. I was sure that we were either stuck, or that it would end up in the street. So at this point, he (now having to stand to one side) had to raise the pallet jack just enough to let it roll a bit more, yet stop it before the pallet jack wheel rolling off the end of the lift gate. He did, stopping it—I kid you not—1/4″ short of disaster. Of course, that meant that there was still 1.25″ of pallet in the truck bed, which was a big problem. The truck facing uphill, the lift gate bending downward, and the pallet still not fully on the lift gate. At this point, he couldn’t let go of the pallet jack handle because it would have swung down, likely causing the entire thing to end up in the street. So then he asked me to lower the lift gate a little. I asked “are you sure?” “Sure.” Ugh, okay, so I lowered it about an inch, and as feared, the front edge caught, causing the entire crate to tip even further towards disaster. He said, “drop it another inch.” Sheez, okay…. (in hindsight, who’s fault would it be if it fell off? Hmm.)
With a crack and a thump, the 1,676-pound load broke off the leading edge of the bottom weak pallet, and it was finally entirely on the lift gate, and safely lowered to street level—I could breath again. It really was that close to disaster.
Once at street level, there was then the task of pushing it up the driveway, and it took all of our combined strength to get it there, but finally it was in the garage. The pictures show the rest of the story, having to cut away the pallet in order to gain access with the engine hoist. What’s not shown is the 1-2 hours my brother and I spent trying to get the mill onto its stand, which involved using tubes for rollers and literally “greasing the skids.” Then there was removing the mystery preservative on the surfaces, installing the power drives, and, what will take a fair bit of time, wiring everything, including the variable frequency drive.
That's why the frame is different. It would be interesting to figure out if the 100L will fit on the 112M mill. I'm sure PM could clear this up.
