Rigging Price Check

Sounds not unreasonable. 1,500 lbs is quite a bit of weight to move without suitable equipment. If my driveway was flat, which it is not, I could possibly attempt moving it by myself with a shop crane. I did move a 800 lbs Clausing 8530 mill off a trailer and into my garage once, alone, it worked quite painlessly and did not even take long.

Position at edge of trailer, lift off trailer with crane, drive trailer away, lower on supports on the crane legs, secure, move into garage, that was the approximate sequence.

Since the clausing lathe is low, it can be lifted with the shop crane set at 1 ton setting, most likely. Done properly, the risks are low.

Riggers wanted $1,300 when I asked them about moving the mill and lathe from the seller to me.

The correct engineering answer is- it depends.

Here in Jersey the local rigger charges $85 an hour, with a two hour minimum. Travel time is the same $85/hr. In Tennessee, things may be different. Someone would have to explain to me why two roustabouts would be needed to move a 36" lathe across a driveway if the riggers were properly equipped.

Kevin Gallimore

If someone got it to the door of the garage, could you manage it from there (roll it on pipes)? If so, it would be much cheaper to get a tow truck to lift it off the trailer on move to the garage door. But I doubt that he would get through the 6-11 door. Maybe. Ask.

Bob

That was about what I paid for just one guy and fork lift, I think he spent about 3 hours moving stuff around for me, not dissimilar from your price. Look at it from the riggers view--you're paying for two guys, including loading the trailer, driving back and forth to your place (so the actual hourly rate is a bit lower), plus the use of the tractor/trailer and the fork lift.

I've done this sort of thing a couple of times before by myself, it was quite a difference to have someone skilled on the fork lift (a lot nicer fork lift than I could have rented). I was happy I decided to spend the money. It would have taken me a lot longer. That said, I probably wouldn't hire it done for just one machine, but I've done it a few times.

Steve

Mart> I'd appreciate a sanity check on this one. I've never moved

You'd never catch me paying $450 to move a little machine like that 25 feet!

Rent an engine hoist or borrow one: max $50 for a day cut up some scrap 3/4" pipe: max $25 if you have to buy a new stick

back in trailer, use comealong to skid lathe to back (propping up the back end of the trailer if needed), rig lathe to hoist hook, pick up lathe, roll out trailer, set lathe down on pipe pieces, start rolling and moving pipes.

$75 and you get to keep the pipes.

GWE

Hmm ... seems quite expensive. Can't you get a truck that has a lift and that could put the lathe on a pallet in your driveway. Then lend one or two pallet lifts and push it where you want it. For the money, you might get the lifts new and sell them later.

Moved a shaper (400 kg, about 800 pound) and a surface grinder (about same weight) that way all along the gardenway (50m, delivery only to pedestrian, but gave the driver a tip for the 3 minute push).

From there down to the cellar with a chain lift (lented from a friend) and in the cellar with a crow bar (machines on PE-strips for easy pushing). Did that alone.

Costs: The tip plus some lifting slings = 50$ Time: 2..3 hours

Nick

Martin Riggins wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com:

If you can back the trailer into the garage, use a couple of rented shop cranes (to keep the load balanced) and do it yourself.

One ought to be enough.

I moved a ~3500 lb machine myself off a flatbed into a garage using a rented forklift for $250 cash (Cdn) to drop off and pick up the (propane) forklift the next day. The clearance between the forklift and the top of the garage door was about 0.25". If it had been bigger, it would have taken a lot more time to do the pipe thing. Close to the capacity of the forklift so the back end was a little light, felt a lot better when I got it down near the asphalt. If I'd screwed up with it up high there would have been a dented/bent machine and probably a nasty hole in the pavement, but nobody would have gotten hurt.

For a turnkey job, the $450 doesn't sound too crazy.

Best regards, Spehro Pefhany

A few years back I hired a wrecker with a boom he charged $75.00

I would do this myself. first thing to do is to remove all the stuff that is easy to remove from the lathe. ( chuck, tail stock collet closer etc.)

Now you are faced with the question of how to lift the lathe out of the trailer. For this I would use straps and rig a sling. The carriage can be slid to a balance point.

To lift you have several options like engine hoist(s), tow truck, or a borrowed/rented forklift.

Now to move the lathe, you could put it on a pallet, and use the fork lift or pallet jack(s) to wheel it into the garage. Difficulty may be if you have a steep driveway. This can be solved with come-along or a block and tackle.

You can also bolt the feet to a sheet of plywood and do the pipe roller.

You can make a custom dolly to roll it. Steel frame with heavy casters and wheels.

It is not that tough to move something like this if you stop and think. You don't want to travel with the lathe far up in the air, you want to keep it low to the ground.

The question you need to ask your self is would you rather have $450 to buy more toys, or give it to the rigger or rental yard? Myself I would rather have the toys.

can you make a s et of dollies for the lathe to place it on at time of loading?

i put my monarch " 20 x 60 4500 lbs " on two dollies welded up to fit the head and footstock . with 4 8 inch steel casters under each , bought the casters for 80 on ebay .

after rolling the lathe into the garage i used my cherry picker on each end to remove the dollies and place the lathe.

the key to moving anything heavy is control control control . keep the load in control and you will be ok

$450 is a waste of money, because you can do it yourself.

$450 is a bargain, because if you do it yourself and drop it, you'll break something worth a lot more.

$450 seems like a lot for that job, but it depends somewhat on where you are. There may also be cheaper ways to do it, such as the wrecker suggested by others.

Take your pick.

I'd probably do it myself. As I'd be putting it in the basement, I'd break it down into smaller parts. Would be doing that to clean/paint/inspect anyway, but that's just me. I might unload it without power, by rolling it off onto cribbing, then jacking and lowering the cribbing a stick at a time. I might just bolt it to a timber base first, because lathes are top heavy. Or I might call the farmer down the road with his tractor and bucket. Lots of ways to skin a cat.

John Martin

for reference:

1. I moved my logan lathe myself, with a friend, used a chain fall to pull it off his truck, furniture dollies to roll it down my driveway, and some big crowbars and bricks to get it off the dollies and onto solid ground. aprox 1200 lbs

1. my Abene mill was heavier by about 3X and a lot more top heavy. I had the shippers deliver it to a rigger aprox 30 miles away. They received it, trucked it to my place, forklifted it down the driveway, maneuverd it between to cars (total clearance about 2 inches, on a reasonably steep hill), over a rather dramatic dip in my driveway and into the garage. I was impressed - they moved that 3500 lb machine like it was nothing - plopped it down where I wanted and were done in no time - total cost, 5.

I think you are being charged a bit on the high side. ON the other hand, I was sure glad to have some folks who knew what they were doing to move that mill.

Thanks to everyone for all the suggestions. I really do appreciate it. I had forgotten several of the machinery moving tips mentioned. I have an engine hoist and a come-along. I already have the pipe as well but when I considered the fact I drove to Pennsylvania (~1300 miles round trip) to get the thing I "went wobbly" to move it when I got it this far without damage. I naively thought I could get away with paying $100-$200 to have it moved. Guess not.

To fill in the blanks some: The driveway is flat asphalt in front of the garage. The trailer also has a ramp that I believe will hold the lathe's weight without problem.

So here's what I'm thinking. Position trailer just outside the garage door and drop ramp to pass inside door.The trailer will fit inside but it seems that rigging outside with unlimited headroom would be easier. Raise each end separately with engine hoist and bolt a 2x4 or 4x4 (I don't know, 2x4s are lower but 4x4s deflect less) to the bottom to add stability. Then use come-along attached to...something (That part I haven't figured out yet) inside garage to pull lathe down ramp and into garage. The garage floor is smooth concrete so I believe that it will slide without too much effort. Comments?

Martin

Sounds good. Id personally use 4x4s, at least 2 feet on a side wider than the lathe. You only need to do one end. They tend to be a bit top heavy..so keeping a wide foot print is good. You simply use a pry bar and slide it out the back of the trailer if the trailer deck is metal. If not..put a couple pieces of flat or round stock under the outriggers and it will slide well enoug on them. If worst comes to worst..put a 4x4 across the door jam, hang a chain or GOOD rope in the center, attach as low as possible to the lathe and drive (slowly out from under it. Furniture dollies are about 1000 lb rated so if you Carefuly jack up one end, place a HF dolly under one end, then repeat on the other, you can simply roll it in to the garage, position, then jackup, remove one dolly, repeat on the other end.

Gunner

"A prudent man foresees the difficulties ahead and prepares for them; the simpleton goes blindly on and suffers the consequences."

- Proverbs 22:3

The $450.00 seems like a very reasonable price from a legitimate mover. By legitimate I mean a company that uses experienced riggers and has valid insurance to cover the employees, the machinery, and of course your property including your machine.

If you're a business owner you know the cost of these things today. Often the contractor needs to guarentee the movers a minimum of a half day regardless of the length of your job. When you consider travel time to and from the job, loading and unloading time for the fork lift and the actual time to move the lathe it works out pretty close. And lets not forget there's supposed to be a profit left on the bottom line for the contractor when all else is through.

It doesn't seem as though you're too put off by the price so I'll not automaticlly suggest you attempt to move this yourself however if you decide to "have a go at it" I'd be happy to chime in with my suggestions to add to the others.

dennis in nca

Here's where I like webbed slings. You just loop them around a solid bit of the machine's undercarriage and then put the loops into the hook on the comealong. The other end is usually tougher, as many garages don't have anything real solid to pull against.

When you get close, you can move the machine a small distance e.g. out from a wall using one of the little 4 ton hydraulic portapower sets sold as auto body repair kits. Those are just great for machinery moving.

Grant

I paid a tow truck driver $50 to lift my Clausing 5914 (12x36) off a pickup truck and set it on 2 $25 HF furniture dollies. Rolled it across my drive way and into my shop. Borrowed a 2 ton engine hoist to lift it off the dollies.. With a bit more advance thiking I could have made some special dollies that fit under the mounting legs and just 'bar up and crib down' instead of using the engine hoist... in any event it was under $100. And note I said off the back of a pickup truck.. if it was on a lowboy trailer I could have just used the engine hoist. FYI I used a 2 ton webbed towing strap around the spindle and far end of the bed when I lifted it, and that cost me $10

When I moved my Bridgeport ff the back of a low boy trailer I rented a fork lift for $90.

Sooo.. if you want to do it your self you can get by with a lot less than $450... OTOH if you just want it in your shop and not have to do any work $450 isn't too bad.

--.- Dave