(mis)adventures moving a Nichols mill

Unless your local riggers have outrageous rates, you'll save money, as well as time and stress.

Real riggers don't use C-clamps when lifting stuff. There's a reason for that. :^)

On the plus side you've now taken the machine apart and can clean and inspect it fully. You probably would have done this eventually, anyhow. You've just saved yourself the suspense!

Enjoy the new toy.

Jim

Jesus. You're lucky you didn't hurt yourself. I hope you learned a lesson. I think you made about five really dumb moves in there. I'm not trying to be insulting -- I bet you've figured that out for yourself.

Most of moving heavy stuff is just common sense. It seems normal to me, however, I spent 13 years in the shipyards much of it watching in amazement as dumb guys trained as riggers moved really heavy things in what seemed like impossible ways. So I gained a sense of how things ought to be done. Without that, I would surely hurt myself or my machines or vehicles like you did.

GWE

Holly Gates wrote:

Hey Guys and Gals,

This came from the modeleng-list. Sad news. An outstanding gentleman and a guiding light of the DIY world.

Take care.

Brian Lawson, Bothwell, Ontario. XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX Hi folks,

Just got this off the NEMES list. Truly sad news. I will miss his articles, and the conversations we've had at Cabin Fever, Pennsylvania Live Steamers, and NEMES.

-------- I just received a phone call from Walter Yetman, a friend of Rudy's. Rudy passed away last week and Walter is calling the people in Rudy's address book to let them know...

Walter said Rudy often spoke about our club and was proud to be associated with it.

-------

Mike

The rigger that moved my mill told me a story about a guy to whom he delivered a mill. Apparently the new mill owner decided he could move the mill from the off load point some distance to his workshop. I think the goal was to save some money. The rigger unloaded the machine and the owner then started to raise the mill by means of some poorly engineered A-frame and chain hoist arrangement so that his eight year old son (!) could put pieces of tubing underneath it. The rigger interceded and made some suggestions about how better to move the mill (and one would assume about child endangerment laws...). He left but got a call an hour later from the mill owner asking for some help. When the rigger returned, the mill had tipped over onto, or should I say into, the side of the owner's house. The top of the mill went through the wall completely and was sticking out into this guy's kitchen. For some reason, no one was hurt.

Hearing this story and watching how easily the rigger handled my mill and got it into position, made me pleased I'd spent the small amount of money he charged to move the thing.

Peter

As the great science fiction editor John W. Campbell Jr. once told me: "Always use the proper tool for the job. The proper tool to fix a television is a television repairman."

--RC If I weren't interested in gardening and Ireland, I'd automatically killfile any messages mentioning 'bush' or 'Kerry'

Wow. This sounds a lot like my experience moving a Bridgeport Series 1 J-Head from New Hampshire to Virginia, then from my garage to my walkout basement. I rented one of those box trucks that looks like an ordinary van with the back hacked off and a box replacing it. I drove it empty up there, and got my kidneys well bruised in the process. I was impressed at how the 2000lb mill smoothed out the ride of the van. When I picked up the mill, we bolted the base to 4x4s and lifted it with a forklift into the back of the truck. A little push here and there slid it into position, then we jammed more 4x4s in to snug the rig against the sides of

the bed. A network like this kept the mill upright and from sliding around in the truck. Then 8 hours of more gentle driving got it home. My neighbor saw me with the truck backed up to the driveway apron and the rollup door open. "Whatcha got there?" he says. "It's a MILLING MACHINE" I said with pride. "How'd ya get it on the truck?" he asks. "With a forklift" I reply. "Do you know how you're gonna get it off?" he asks. "No" I reply. A trip to the Depot followed. Two hours later, I had completed construction of a wood ramp made from plywood, 4x6, and 2x4. I went to the basement and welded up a dock plate from 1/8th stainless steel, and then rolled a borrowed pallet jack into the truck for the first trial lifts. The truck was on a slight incline - between the "crown" of my street and the slight incline of the driveway, the back wheels of the truck rested in the gutter. I lifted the mill slightly with the pallet jack and thusly got a healthy respect for what it feels like to try to muscle 2000 lbs around single-handedly on such an incline. Remarkably, the mill was off the truck and completely intact 30 minutes later. The 30 minutes were a.) 5 minutes of me forming the plan and b.) 25 minutes of me working up nerve. Time on the ramp was negligible, once the incline

took effect, and I just steered. I zig-zagged it up the driveway and into the garage, where it was cleaned up over the following weekends. Going from the garage around to the walkout basement proved a bit more

challenging. One aborted attempt was to lay plywood down on the grass and attempt to roll it down the hill on the pallet jack. After nearly tipping it over, I had to rope it to the car to drag it back up the hill and get it back in the garage. The stuff of neighborhood legend. I finally wound up renting a

20 foot stakebed truck with a lift gate. I loaded the mill on the truck, strapped it down, and drove it around back, where I put it down in front of the patio door at the rear of my basement. To my dismay, the second panel of the sliding glass door was *not* removable - it was actually built into the door frame. So I had to remove the table of the mill (freakin' heavy beast to move by hand, BTW). This got the width of the mill narrow enough to fit through the door, and after a couple of hours of successive lifting and blocking with wood, the mill was finally through the door, where it could be easily moved about the concrete floor with the pallet jack. With the rentals of the two trucks and the materials for the ramp, I spent a total of about 20 hours and $1300. I got some minor scrapes and bruises, and more than a few really scary moments. If I put a price on the time spent, I easily exceeded what it would have cost to have pros do the entire move.

Yeah, I proved I could do it, but I didn't save a thing, and like Holly, I had a few opportunities to cause serious damage to life and property. Next time I'm going pro all the way. But dammit, it *is* cool to have that milling machine down in the basement. I believe a lathe will be next.

-Mark

Holly Gates wrote:

On Sun, 28 Nov 2004 18:57:43 GMT, MJ news wrote: I recently bought a 3000 lb machine. The guy moving it used a boom truck. I just wanted it placed in the front of my shop and from there can move it at will. The boom truck was parked at least 30 feet from the shop door. The guy picked up the machine off the truck bed and placed it within an inch of where I asked him to put it. Gently. And worth every cent of the 500 bucks it cost for the move. ERS

Just don't let him pick up any white cars out of the drink with it! :)

Jim

Yeah! Though the guy I used probably wouldn't have had the same trouble. He hoisted a sailboat from the water up onto the Deception Pass bridge and on a trailer behind his rig. The water is about 200 feet below the bridge. ERS

I also put a Bridgeport in the basment... Piece by piece with my backhoe...Putting it back together was the real fun... I had a friend but my large lathe in the basement to... He used a Prentice loader... That was wild... Trying to drop it an inch would drop around 12-14 inches... No control...

When we moved to Maine last year, I borrowed a forklift from a guy in town--no charge!

It turned out to have a serious leak in the mast hydraulics; I had to keep goosing the up lever while moving across the driveway between the moving truck and the barn. Really difficult. The next time I got one with a driver, worth every penny.

Steve

Kev>I also put a Bridgeport in the basment... Piece by piece with my

Ok, but you missed out on the "sense of adventure"

*and* and opportunity to tell some amazing and bone-chilling stories. Ken.

Eric R Snow wrote: ...

Boy!, that's sumthin' I would have paid to watch. Too cool!

Follow up to this story:

I got the bill from Zipcar for the dent repair. about $800! @$#@$%! Insurance has a $500 deductable, but still that seems like a lot for a dent. Maybe that is just because I am not used to paying for car repairs. Anyway, it would have been marginally worth it without the dent, not including my time and the risk factor. With the $500 dent thrown it, there is no question on the matter. Not to mention the awkward conversation with my wife on why my $100 milling machine ended up costing $800 extra. Drat!

-holly