Unloading, setting up?

[LeChuck]

I think that my method with the wheels will work, but if it doesn't then I can still use the crane to put the crate on my pickup truck and drive it out back. A semi can't reach unfortunately.

 

[matthewsx]

I think that my method with the wheels will work, but if it doesn't then I can still use the crane to put the crate on my pickup truck and drive it out back. A semi can't reach unfortunately.

Offloading from the semi to your pickup should be easy. Then un-crating and lifting from the pickup bed onto your new stand should be relatively easy too.

Obviously I’m not looking at your situation but if you can get your pickup back to your shop in a place that you can use the engine hoist on a paved shop floor I would do it that way.

I’m not down on the HF wheels just randomly, I used to work at their Mesa store and the 10” wheels are a real value for what they are. But, an advertised 300lb working load is just cutting things too tight for me.

However you do it just work safe and be careful. Think through every move, do not rely on brute strength. And wear your steel toe boots

Cheers,

John

 

[LeChuck]

I'll definitely stay on the safe side My garage is a bit of a pain. The ceiling/joists are low and the garage door even lower, but if the driver is able to put the crate onto my truck or if I can do that myself, I might try to manœuvre my truck to my garage and unload that way. We'll see in a few days! The lathe probably won't go onto the stand right away, as I'm doing a VFD conversion first.

 

[LeChuck]

A bit of news. Don't know if this can help others. My 1236T is now in my garage. It was delivered by Saia and I paid for liftgate service. The driver managed to put it into the bed of my pickup truck. I drove it around back to the garage.

In retrospect, I would have tried my original idea of putting the crate on wheels instead, although it may not have worked well here because the pallet under the crate was in poor shape (the rest was perfect).

The issue is that it took my son and I 2.5 hours to unload it.

First there was a problem of height clearance. I have only about 80 inches under my garage door and the lathe on top of the bottom of the crate plus the pallet was quite high and I had trouble lifting it high enough with the crane. And with each inch, the truck bed would also raise itself from relief. The other issue is that the tailgate is in the way and there isn't much reach with a shop crane. Thought about removing it but decided it would be too much trouble. I ended up raising the gate, then being able to start lifting the lathe, then inch it backwards until it was balanced and we were able to lower the tailgate again.

I ended up using one of the lift slings from harbor freight, passed around the ways (but behind the screw/shafts) and through the first hole in the webbing in between the ways. Then a smaller strap, perpendicular, around the ways and the backsplash, just tight enough to prevent rolling in that direction. The tailstock was all the way back, and the carriage around the middle and the balance was fine.

Now it's resting temporarily on the 2 parts of the cabinet. Will stay there while I do all the VFD and DRO work before going to its final place. Don't count on being able to put it on the ground directly with a crane as there isn't enough space between the legs.

Anyway, it's done, a bit of relief for now

 

[matthewsx]

Wow,

Happy you got it into your shop, even with the hassle I still think the HF wheels would have given too much grief. These things are a big lump of metal that doesn't always want to travel the way we think it should

But okay, you know the drill now.....Pictures please


John

 

[LeChuck]

I just took a few. It seemed weird to stop in the middle of so much effort to take some pics The black tow strap was added as an after thought but wasn't really under tension. Just moved the carriage back a bit until I got a good balance.

 

[Rex Walters]

I'm no expert by any stretch, but the guys I hang with have moved a lot of machines.

Here's what I've picked up:

• Every move and every machine is different. There's always some sort of problem-solving required.
• Lower the center of gravity and widen the base. Lathe's are particularly tippy — long 4x4 stretchers bolted to the base make things safer.
• Nothing beats forklifts and equipment on a pallet.
• A pallet jack comes close.
• Useful tools: black pipe for rollers, various thicknesses of wood cribbing, wedges/step-blocks, a toe jack, a come-along, and a steel pry-bar.
• John York's (benmychree) U-shaped moving dolly is the bomb. Way safer and more useful than skates (lower center of gravity)
• Getting machines off the pallet is often the trickiest bit.
• A gantry crane is way better than an engine hoist.
• Lowering an engine hoist is the tricky bit (most don't have a particularly fine needle valve, so the load can drop suddenly.
• You can insert cribbing and cut down a pallet with a sawzall while the machine is still on it (so you can get an engine hoist's legs around the pallet)
• Hard metal on metal can easily slip. Best to put wood or even paper between anything that might slip.
• Equipment moves are dangerous. One guy is in charge for all moves, nobody puts any body part under lifted load, everybody talks through every step before doing anything.

Here's John's moving tools (machine dolly, Stevedore's bar, step blocks):