Shipping lathe cross county

I believe I've been to Machinery Values in NJ. Not nasty over there, just dismissive, mebbe they have radar for li'l shitbirds such as myself. But the place is a goddamm 3-story airplaine hangar, huge beyond belief, w/ every possible thing you can imagine, much of it cnc. No bargains, from what I saw. Cleared out a school, had like 13 13x40 squarehead clausing-colchesters--all beat up, no bargains whatsoever. But a very knowledgeable guy by me uses them, likes them. I'd be leery myself, as your experience suggests.

-- Mr. P.V.'d formerly Droll Troll Party Nominee, IPPVM Independent Party of the Proctologically Violated®© (M)asses "That's proly not a hemorrhoid you're feeling.... " entropic3.14decay at optonline2.718 dot net remove pi and e to reply--ie, all d'numbuhs

Yup. My 15" Sheldon is not, in any sense, mounted on a "light-weight" stand, but it is STILL very top heavy. I had one frightening moment while moving the machine after spending 2 years restoring the bed. I was rolling it across a smooth floor on 3/4" OD pipes. I managed to run one corner off the roller, and it almost went over. It rocked back and forth about 5 times, while I cowered in the corner. I'm really glad I got those small iron pipes as rollers instead of using something on hand but larger diameter.

Jon

Do you have a viedeo camera?

The people that moved my Bridgeport would charge considerably less. ...they only dropped it twice.

Especially with an EE. They have a seriously heavy cast iron base, so they aren't as top heavy as lathes with spindly legs. For those that don't know, you're dealing with a lathe that weighs about 3,500 lbs, with a great deal of the weight in the base, including the drive network.

Harold

I recently took delivery of a 12" Sheldon shaper on my driveway, unloaded exactly as I described except rolled on 4 - 1" iron pipes instead of the pallet jack that I propose to use. It was really quite controlled, never noted episodes of instablity or risk the whole time. The winch was the key to a fully controlled descent from the low trailer. Now I am fully aware that the Sheldon "only" weighs in at

By the way Dennis, that lead on U-Ship is yielding several bids from transport companies, they're comming in at around $1260.00 thus far. Interesting how its run like eBay on the customer feedback and reputation. I'm liking it.

Harold and Susan Vordos wrote:

One note, I don't know about the engine hoist/cherry picker you have in mind but my HF only goes to750kg IIRC, way short of 3500 lbs.

Please, please give us the gory details. (HOW do you drop a Bridgeport?)

dennis in nca

Glad to hear things are coming together. One thing I might suggest would be using at least one thicker roller on the driveway at the end of the ramp. By getting a thicker roller started first you can avoid the leading end of the skids diving into the driveway. Ideally you'd use a 4" followed by a 3" or 2" before you go to your smaller rollers. The closer the sizes are to each other the smoother the transition from one to the next.

As you said, the key is control of the winch which makes the rest easy. Have fun and be careful.

dennis in nca

One pretty easy way is to put separate long chains under each end of the ram, lift it, watch the front with the knee, saddle, table and head tilt downward, and watch the rear chain slide right out from under the back.

Don Young

So the rear chain was much much too tight compared to the front chain which made it tip far forward and then the rear chain slid off letting that end drop. What a bunch of clowns (sorry to any real clowns who may be reading this). Why did these bozos use chain (sorry to Bozo)? Any damage? These guys sound more like demolition experts than riggers.

Reminds me of a contract, gypsy welder who swore he'd safely welded many gas tanks before and exploded and ruined one on a truck of ours and then had the audacity to render his full invoice for "attempting to weld a gas tank"; we chased him out.

dennis in nca

They were using chains and a front loader because that's what they had handy. The mill landed on its side in the dirt but was remarkably not damaged.

Don Young

You were lucky it turned out well. I've seen a few machines moved, by others, with a front loader and because of the variability of skill of the drivers I've stayed in the clear. It always seemed they were on the edge of dropping something or hurting someone; others have reported better results.

dennis in nca

Another BP story...

Well, let me tell you, when Ryder sez a lift gate has a capacity of 2500#, dey ain't foolin.

I had two dysfunctionals deliver a BP on a Ryder truck. Of course, the lift gate was not issue in loading the BP, cuz dat was done w/ a HiLo. Ok...

At my place, they rolled the BP on the lift gate, and as ahm watchin it bend right before my eyes, ahm sayin, Hey fellas, mebbe we should rig the 'gate somehow, cuz it don't look too strong... Of course, Naaahhh..... Well, they popped the goddamm liftgate button, and BAM!!!! The goddamm 'gate and BP just *plummetted* to the goddamm ground. I mean, it just fukn DROPPED!!! Did I say, BAMMMM!!!????

So ahm watchin all this in slow-motion horror, gettin ready for but

'Course, it's not all that ends well. I just hadda complete the day by burnin out the g-d X powerfeed. Goodgawd....