Getting Machinery out of a Basement (pics)

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Very slick, Pete. You made it look easy.

--Winston

Very straightforward and workmanlike approach to the problem. Congratulations that it is over.

i

"Pete Keillor" skrev i en meddelelse news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com...

Nice pic's that gives inspiration.

Having a look at your pic's got me puzzled. What SB lathe model do you have there? The top cover of the main spindle does not look like any other that I've seen pictures of. Is it right that it has some kind of tray on top of the cover?

Very nicely done Pete. I had some flashbacks when reviewing the photos. I grew up in Michigan and put a ham shack in a basement once or twice. When Dad and I built our house in '70, we made the stairs to the basement wider than normal because we both had moved stuff up and down stairs many times..and hated it.

You do very nice work with good planning.

Well done!

Gunner

"IMHO, some people here give Jeff far more attention than he deserves, but obviously craves. The most appropriate response, and perhaps the cruelest, IMO, is to simply killfile and ignore him. An alternative, if you must, would be to post the same standard reply to his every post, listing the manifold reasons why he ought to be ignored. Just my $0.02 worth."

I have a friend who just moved from Northern California to Ranger Texas. Between his house and shop, he filled two moving vans. The first has arrived and was unloaded. The second is due today or tomorrow. His shop was in an industrial park.

I may be moving a friend's business in December. About 4,000 Sq. feet of manufacturing and 1,500 Sq. feet of offices and storage. We are supposed to meet next week for the planning and spend some time measuring the new location. Their bridgeport will be one of the heaviest to move, but not the worst job. Several large cutting and sewing tables for vinyl have to be taken apart, moved and put back together. (About 30 feet long) We will have to move everything, and be ready for business in exactly two weeks. They make a couple different types of canopies used at art shows. Every item is custom assembled. If the move goes ahead, they will keep the metalworking part running at the old location while the vinyl fabrication and assembly gets moved. that way we will have a good stock of metal and cast plastic parts on hand. Hopefully, we can clean and repaint all the machinery before it is put back to work. My main jobs will be moving the computers and telephone system, and wiring the machines. Most of the existing work benches are to be replaced, to take advantage of the square shape of the manufacturing floor.

There are already two large three phase compressors in place so that will save some work. We will move the three they are using right now, and plumb them in for standby service after everything else is done. I want to take a lot of pictures of both locations, if I have the time.

Im slow at the moment..fly me out there and Ill have the shop moved in a week, and up and running by the end of the second.

Ill give yall a serious discount on my fees too.

Or call me with questions and I can help. Shrug

Gunner

"IMHO, some people here give Jeff far more attention than he deserves, but obviously craves. The most appropriate response, and perhaps the cruelest, IMO, is to simply killfile and ignore him. An alternative, if you must, would be to post the same standard reply to his every post, listing the manifold reasons why he ought to be ignored. Just my $0.02 worth."

Prior planning prevents piss poor performance. You pass!

Wes

I'm thinking that its a Rockwell 14"

That will all be up to the owners, Gunner. We did a major reset of the place & expanded the offices about three years ago. Like you, the owner is owed a lot of favors, and hopes to collect on a few. I've tracked down the building from their description. It is two miles away, according to Google maps. The building is empty, but already wired for a computer network and has a supposedly working phone system so that part should only take a few hours of my time to have ready. They are also going to uses as many of their employees as they can, rather than force them to use a couple weeks of their vacation time. The electrical wiring is up to date, and the building is about 25 years old, with a major remodel about 10 years ago. (It's handy to have access to the county property database) :)

They will be looking for more tools and machines early next year for a few new products that are ready to manufacture. In fact, I'm trying to track down a supplier of the plastic levelers they want to use. I've never seen any exactly like these. A plastic base with a 1/4-20 threaded stem. The base is 1" black octagonal and about 5/16" thick. The threaded stem is about 1-5/8" long. They want to use a round threaded inset to go into the end of some 7/8" O/D/ aluminum tubing. The insert is 5/8" O.D. and 7/8" long. All I've ever used were steel, some with a rubber shock between the pad and the shaft.

I've told them about you already, and suggested that they run their shopping list past you.

Another project will be some large steel racks to hold several tons of different colors of Vinyl they sew the canopies out of. It will require a custom lift as well, to put the rolls onto the racks. They will be positioned so that you can pull the vinyl sheet between the rolls in front, for the least popular or obsolete colors. Other than black or white, the suppliers change the available colors of vinyl a couple times a year.

Only the 11". Thanks for all the comments. Prior posts a few years ago was the germ of the plan. Hope it helps somebody else down the road. That's one of the attractions of this group.

Pete Keillor

Next poster was close, 11" Delta-Rockwell. Yes, there's a tray on the cover. It's my first and only lathe. Over time I've acquired steady, follower rests, and taper attachment. I like it. Economics suggested I sell the whole mess to avoid moving expenses, but time to sell (not much) and the fact that I like it said keep it. I hope to have it set up soon.

Pete Keillor

For the feet and adapters..McMaster Carr

Page 1356

Those should do the job for you.

If you want lighter versions...1349 and the tube adapters on 1356

As for holding the vinyl...one can lay them on shelves, or stand them up on posts welded to plates..and one simply moves a table around and spools off what they need.

There are some motor operated racking systems out there as surplus..and surprisingly cheap.

Similar to this...

They can be had in many many roll, serpentine systems. One simply puts a cutting table in front of the roll system and presses a button until the proper material comes up.

Ive seen them go for less than $5k as factories shut down.

Gunner

"IMHO, some people here give Jeff far more attention than he deserves, but obviously craves. The most appropriate response, and perhaps the cruelest, IMO, is to simply killfile and ignore him. An alternative, if you must, would be to post the same standard reply to his every post, listing the manifold reasons why he ought to be ignored. Just my $0.02 worth."

mmm... your one of those smart bastards that actually thinks about how to do a thing rather than just rush in. Well done, some good solutions to a tricky problem(s) there...certainly beats some of my efforts involving car jacks, bricks, and phone books (been lucky so far, so your ideas will certainly go in the rememberium) Getting my lathe into the workshop involved some acts of gross stupidity.... Andrew VK3BFA.

McMaster Carr was the first place they looked. Nothing small enough to fit the design. It is a heavy duty aluminum version of a director's chair to go with their art show canopies, but thanks for trying. The frame is all 7/8" round aluminum tube.

Full rolls are up to 500 pounds and very easy to damage. That's why they want to put them on racks. Like a scaled down version of the ones used for carpet or vinyl flooring.

Thanks. I haven't seen anything like that around here, but the mobile rack is similar to what I had in mind. (The sixth item on that page.)

I showed them how to access this newsgroup, but they clicked on some of Cliffie and hawkie's mindless drivel and told me they weren't going to waste their time with the fools on this group. That's too bad, because they are always running into deals on things they don't need. If they don't need something they don't bother with it, unless they know someone who is looking for it.

30 seconds on a lathe will make the inserts the right size. Shrug

If not..check...

>

Those are very easy to make. Shrug..square tubing, surplus wheels, mig welder and a cut off saw.. Probably $100 in materials each. And you can make em custom. Welding them up is no biggy, simple jig out of 2x4s and voila..shrug. Take maybe 20 minutes to put one together and weld it once someone gets the swing of things.

Id make em a bit differently in construction..but along the same lines.

Gunner

Shrug..post the deals here, and get a cut of the pie.

Gunner

"IMHO, some people here give Jeff far more attention than he deserves, but obviously craves. The most appropriate response, and perhaps the cruelest, IMO, is to simply killfile and ignore him. An alternative, if you must, would be to post the same standard reply to his every post, listing the manifold reasons why he ought to be ignored. Just my $0.02 worth."

Pete - Welcome to Texas

Rex B fort Worth

Thanks. Glad to be back.

Pete

I would, if it were up to me. I just do some free consulting, and troubleshoot problems for them.

Will do, but any calls will probably be for tooling. :)

Their customers are all artists and very picky. A lot of them dismantle the folding items to save a few cubic inches. They examine everything before they pay for it, and I doubt government inspects would reject as many things. It's all about appearance at art shows. :(

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This may be a winner for the leveler. It looks like the have the exact item. I will forward this to them so they can see if it is still stocked . That page hasn't been updated in over five years.

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I agree. They want to bolt them to the floor and add a cross brace along both sides, at the top. that will make it harder to load the top slots, but some of the assemblers are little old ladies who would get hurt if the whole thing could move. Some places that wouldn't sell drops or order what you want are desperate these days, and are willing to work with people. :) I like the motorized version, but between the down payment on the building and moving expenses they will be cash poor for a few months. The mortgage payment on the larger building is about the same as the rent on the three units they are in, right now. The building was used to make surge suppressors for communications equipment and has a large room at the rear that has steel walls where they did destructive testing. They are looking at using it for a welding shop.

I've been after them to do that for over two years. I usually hear about something, right after it's gone. Most of it goes to other friends of his, in exchange for things they need, even if they don't make a cent on it. They had a huge lathe given to them a while back. He hauled it to the scrap yard before I could get a good look at it. It was almost 20 feet long and would have filled a bay in my garage. I could have hd it for the crap price, but couldn't afford to move it, at the time. I only found out about it, because their offices and machine shop were broken into, along with six other businesses in the complex. The idiots cut phone & network cables in an attempt to disable burglar alarms.

Thanks for your help, Gunner. I had already crawled over fifty websites looking for the style & size leveler they want. I found a source for a similar threaded insert but small levelers just didn't show up. A few smooth metal bottomed gliders, but they would be an accident waiting to happen. If these sell well, they will probably ship about

100 a year, for a few years. that would be about 400 sets of inserts & levelers a year.