I am going to buy a clausing 5913 I've found. Great shape, loads of tooling. Cheap. Problem is, I've got to move it from the seller's basement up the stairs and into a truck and then out again to the ground at home. I'm one guy, no help from seller. How can I do it? Can I take it apart reasonbly swiftly/easily with the hope that that will enable me to move it in pieces? I can lift and carry about 200 lbs, but not if it's awkward or large in size, then perhaps only 100# at a time. What do I do?
Please, need advice right away or I'll lose the deal.
Did you ask the seller how it got into the basement? That might give you a source of ideas. You can do a lot by yourself with ropes, boards and winches if you have plenty of time. But doing it in a hurry increases the risk of things going wrong.
Where are you? Someone here might be able to help in exchange for a bit of cash or beer!
I've done the reverse with a Clausing 5914 and disassembled it into headstock, motor, apron/carriage, tailstock, chip pan, and pedestals. I suspect that you will need two people, especially for the bed, which was about all two of us could manage to lift, let alone carry up or down basement steps. We used a refrigerator dolly for the bed and pretty much hand carried everything else. The entire lathe is around 1,000 lbs and I'd guess that the bed is 300-400.
Watch out for the headtsock if you pull that. Mine had a dowel pin to locate it on the bed and I nearly slid it onto the floor when prying the HS off the bed.
I think there have been other posts on this subject in the past that might be helpful. I have moved my Reed Prentice in and out of a basement. My machine is probably 3000 to 4000 pounds???, I moved in one piece, by myself. First jack it up and bolt some HEAVY long pieces of steel channel to the base. Now you can roll it around on pieces of pipe. Assuming your stairway can handle the load as is, get some long pieces of 3 or 4 inch channel to make a railway up the stairs. Then all you need is a good anchor point and a winch. In my case the basement steps led to an outside door into the back yard so I just positioned my LandCruiser with winch in the appropriate spot and winched the machine up the rails. Kirk
Grab all the tooling, and the small parts FIRST, and get them well stored in your vehicle. Amazing how much stuff the seller finds he didn't REALLY mean to go with it after you bought it, and you are carting bits and pieces out while he stays in the basement. Maybe take some of those plastic shipping thingys like from Walmart to put stuff in right in the basement. Carry them ALL down to the basement first and get the "stuff" in them. You can always carry the ones you don't use back out. Get all that stuff out of the basement while going for your cheque book or wallet. Oh, by the way, be sure to ask/get any manuals he has too.
I can't advise too much about that particular lathe, but they do break down into lots of smallish pieces, even though you may have to get some help to align the head-stock on re-assembling. Make lots of magic-marker lines, and sketches if need be. If this lathe is on a stand, be really careful, as they are not made to tip at all, and will head for a fall quite smartly. Be sure when strapping it down that you don't get near anything you can bend, and 1X3 wood makes good enough surfaces protection. For lathes under 12 inch, you can probably move the lathe bed on a fridge hand-cart. Bigger parts too.
Good Luck. Take care.
Brian Lawson, Bothwell, Ontario. XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
They lifted with a crane and put it on a flatbed. In my driveway we slid it off the flatbed down planks in the rain and no one was killed.
By myself I crabbed it across the driveway and into the shop with pry bars, one end at a time, one inch at a time. It took me an hour to get it 30 feet.
If it's a hurry-up, riggers. If you don't have tools, riggers. You can disassemble a lot and get it out yourself, which will save time and money with the rigger if you hire one. When I had a lathe to pull out of a garage I did it myself - when I needed to get one out of a basement, I yelled for help - and was happy I did. One guy, a truck with a winch and a crane, the tools to do it, and the know-how to do it. Probably somewhat bigger than your lathe, but what we did was:
First I stripped the bed - tailstock, headstock, apron, everything that would come off. Got all the small stuff associated out as well, cleared the way, etc. IIRC the leadscrew stayed put, but the power feed shaft came off - your lathe may vary.
Rigger showed up, jacked up the lathe, we pulled the legs off and carried those out. Having come close to disaster doing this on my other lathe, the benefit of the right jack for the job was evident. Without legs, the bed is lighter, much lower and a lot less tippy. Planked the stairs and winched the bed up them.
Evidently the lathe bed we pulled out this way went in by being slid though the basement window (possibly before the stairs we used went in)
- this requires a lot of time and a huge amount of timber for cribbing.
If the lathe is cheap, consider the rigging cost as part of the cheap that comes from it being inconveniently in the basement. Getting hurt is far more expensive.
I'd ask the owner how it was moved. A secure ramp could be built, use hardwood, yellow pine OK, regular pine might break, ditto for stairs.
A few well placed blocks of wood should support the boards used to slide it up on. A couple cans of PB dry lube, or similar, on the wood will ease things. A come along will help too. A J bar [ hook with wheels ] is used to transport disconnected machine to ramp. From there all hell breaks loose as you ratchet your treasure up the ramp.
I'd call a local mover, and see if they can recommend a local machinery rigger, they have liability insurance, something I can see a need for !
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