I've been trying to work through a fairly challenging issue and thought I'd open a question up to the group for discussion.
Assume there is a rather large and very heavy piece of equipment, say... 6'h x 2'w x 3'd and 500lbs. The machine is made of steel, and there are plenty of places around the base that would make fine weld points (if necessary). Also assume the machine needs to rest on it's base to operate (can't just affix wheels to bottom), but it also needs to be able to be moved randomly around a shop by a single individual without a forklift. For grins, it's a 100lb. 5' tall female.
How would you modify the machine for this requirement? Oh yeah, you have to do it with a budget of $100 or less (hopefully a lot less...)
My first two thoughts are as follows:
1) Build a frame which fits around the base of the equipment out of 2" square tubing. Attach 4 heavy duty wheels to the bottom of each corner of the frame. Somehow weld this frame to the base of the equipment in a manner that allows the frame to swing upwards, allowing the machine to rest on it's base, but also allowing the use of a hand operated hydraulic jack (a small car jack perhaps?) to raise the equipment up to a point at which it is off the ground and the wheels are free to roll the machine. (Hope you could follow that.)I'm not quite sure how to best accomplish connecting the rolling frame to the machine base so it can be jacked up, so if anyone can help complete this idea it would be great.
2) This one breaks the $100 rule... but I'm just tossing out ideas. Have you ever seen the hand operated pallet movers they use at WalMart or other retail stores to move pallets around? Well, you'd have to get one of those, and then you could simply weld on a couple of channels underneath the base of the equipment and use that pallet mover to roll it around.I really, really don't like that idea, but had to throw it out there.
Any other ideas are greatly appreciated.
John