Moving my new Gorton 1-22

Call the local tow truck operators. A flatbed car mover might be just what you need. Alternately, a flatdeck trailer with a towtruck to load and unload the mill. Cheers Trevor Jones

How much does it weigh?

If it was one of those cheap chinese mills you could use a stick of dynamite to get it onto the truck. Put the dynamite uder the mill, light the fuse, and back the truck under on the way down. Then just push it off the truck at the other end. It would still be as accurate after it hit the ground as it was when you started.

The Gorton is likely several orders of magnatude better, so don't try either method.

Sounds like you find a nice deal - congrats on closing it!

FWIW, I used a local rigger to move a 1,000-lb Clausing 5914 lathe about 15 miles from the seller to my townhome garage at a cost of $200. I was put off by the price at first, but figured that rental of a truck and hoist would cost nearly as much and don't know any tow truck operators well enough to know if they would be capable of handling the lathe reasonably well.

It only took a short while before I was happy with the decision. The lathe was delivered at almost exactly the time promised and quickly offloaded from their flat bed trailer to the garage floor with a fork lift the riggers brough along for the purpose. I've moved somewhat lesser machines (up to

750 lbs) with the help of friends and those jobs took far longer and were a lot more stressful.

If you happen to be in the west suburban Chicago area I can provide you with the name of the rigger I used.

You're right, for $200 I'll call a rigger and save the headache. I thought it would cost more than that.

This thing's got to weigh 3000 lbs and the mental picture of dragging it down the skids isn't the least bit appealing.

Thanks to all for the replies.

Regards, David

Wow. I knew those weren't NY prices, but I'm surprised that you could get it done so cheaply in a large metro area like Atlanta. Been to the Varsity lately?

If they have a fork lift, get a couple small blocks of 4x4 wood, and put it under the ram, front and rear and pick it up from the side, it WILL want to lean towards the table, so dont panic when it does. If the ram is too far back, losen the two big nuts below the ram, and using the rear crank nuts, roll the ram out just far enough to get the forks under it. Its top and front heavy and around 2200 lbs.

Gunner

"The French are a smallish, monkey-looking bunch and not dressed any better, on average, than the citizens of Baltimore. True, you can sit outside in Paris and drink little cups of coffee, but why this is more stylish than sitting inside and drinking large glasses of whiskey I don't know." -- P.J O'Rourke (1989)

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