I just bought a bridgeport for my gar^H^H^Hworkshop. I am somewhat concerned about weight since it would really stink to show up with a too small trailer (load wise).
Does anyone have a weight for a bridgeport with a 42"x9" table?
If the weight is a bit close or over, I figured I could pull the spindle/motor assembly and put it in the truck. Anyone know what a varidrive head weighs?
The next chunk is the piece that the head attaches to. Any idea on that?
Finally, depending on the weights, I was told knee fully down, tighten locks, invert head for lower center of balance. Where should I put the straps? I have my own ideas but I'd like yours.
I also plan to frame the base with 2x4's nailed around it to trailer bed to arrest any sliding motion.
When I move my 1J round ram Bridgeport I typically remove the head / ram assembly from the base / table assembly (four big bolts). This isn't necessary so much for weight, more to lower the CG significantly making it a bit safer to move. The total weight is around 2,000# I think. I haven't weighed mine, but my 3,000# cap forklift lifts the entire thing with ease.
If you get two decent palettes and solidly strap the base / table to one and the ram / head to the other, they can be handles easily with a regular palette jack. The entire unit can be strapped to one palette and handled with a palette jack, but the higher weight and CG make it more difficult to take up trailer ramps and over thresholds. Since it is so easy to separate the ram / head using an engine hoist or forklift it just makes things easier overall and when moving over anything but a solid concrete floor it's nice to keep the CG low.
The main thing to be concerned about when moving a Bridgeport is not the weight, it's the high CG. Just strapping the BP to a palette helps a lot since it gives a much wider base for stability. Four of the regular 1" ratchet straps like you get at Depot / Lowe's will strap the BP down nicely, particularly when you remove the head / ram and have four nice holes at the top to hook into.
Agree with all your above ideas. When I moved my Tree mill (probably 500 lbs. more than a Bridgeport) I found that inverting the head spills all the oil. No problem, just a mess.
On my next move I hired one of those tow trucks with a tilting bed. Pulled the mill on the bed with no problem. Tied it down with proper chains. Whole move cost $ 75 four years ago. Definitely the way to go since I would have had to pay for trailer rental anyway. To unload you have to tie the mill to a tree, or something, and have the tow truck drive away slooooowly.
IIRC the books says 2200-2400 lbs shipping weight and I assumed that was crated.
When I moved mine I used a car trailer with no problems. When you lower the knee, don't drop it all the way, get about an inch from the bottom and then block it with wood.... then lower the rest of the way to take ALL the weight off the screw... you don't want to be bouncing down the road with ANY stress on that.
Invert the head to get the CG as low as possible. I used 3 inch wide nylon straps wrapped around the ram between the head and column and had it strapped to all four corners of the trailer, and had 2x4s nailed around the base for good measure (yes it was a wooden bed trailer). Drove 80 miles with no problems...
You don't necessaraly have to remove anything though I did remove my table since I was going to move mine through a door way and didn't quite have the room to do the rotate around the corner dance.
If you move it yourself, consider building a one time special purpose skid to go under it. Think 4x4 skids with beveled ends and 2x12 for the cross pieces. Bolt it together with lots of 1/2" carraige bolts. Makes for a much wider base, gives you something to pull on, something to keep it from sliding around on your trailer.
Consider using DOT approved chain and chain tensioners. Connect to D-rings on the front and back of the trailer. The chains wrap around from both ends and then one or both sides are tensioned. That's the way tractors and loaders are normally secured. The web straps can be added as a precaution.
2x4's might stop some casual sliding, but a fast stop or slight fender bender and that machine is going to break those nailed down 2x4's loose real quick.
I just moved a Bridgeport Clone about a 3 hour drive from my home shop.
I used a heavy duty, 3500# axle, 6'x8' motorcycle trailer I built 20 years ago. The three trailer cycle rails are made with two 1/4"x3"x3" angles welded together with 24" high verticals in the front welded to 2" channel cross members and 2" channel frame all around. It has 5/4x6" treated deck boards screwed to the cross members.
The seller had a fork lift to set the machine on two 4"X6" oak beams I had placed running fore a aft on the deck, beside the outside rails, across the cross members of the trailer. I nailed 2x4's across to form a loose frame to aid in the mill placement on the trailer. Because of the location of the rails on my trailer I decided to transport the mill sideways on the trailer and loaded it so it would be in position when I unloaded it. I was glad I had the 2x4's as a guide as small adjustments in the mill location would have been very difficult and the location on the trailer for 10% tung weight needed to be fairly accurate. After the mill was loaded I drilled 1/2" holes through the oak beams with a ship auger bit and bolted the mill to the 4x6"s. I bolted a 1/4"x2x2 angle across the 4x6's and against the front vertical cycle stops to make sure the mill didn't slide forward with an emergency stop. I strapped from the ram column to all four corners of the trailer with 3" strap downs.
I made sure I located the mill so I had 10% of the weight on the hitch which made it ride beautifully. I did not turn the head around backwards or upside down for the road trip. I probably should have as this would have lowered the center of gravity and balanced the machine more equally. When the forklift lifted the machine by the eye hook on the ram the mill was very much not balanced, maybe 20 degrees. The two trailer tires with 1850# capacity rating each did not even get warm with a few pounds of air over maximum.
Getting it off the trailer involved a few little tricks as I didn't have access to a fork lift.
Basically, I backed the trailer into the basement shop and lifted the mill off the trailer and drove the trailer out from under the mill.
I used my engine hoist on the 1.5 ton setting. I put blocks under the back of the trailer to keep from putting so much stress on the trailer hitch, and used a small hydraulic jack to jack the mill to the back of the trailer, still with bolts through 4x6's so the weight would be distributed over the cross members of the trailer as the mill moved backwards on the trailer. Remember, the trailer was designed to carry motorcycles so I had the front vertical channels to jack against. The small bottle jack moved the mill easily to the back of the trailer where the engine hoist could reach exactly over the center of gravity of the mill. I did turn the head around backwards and upside down for unloading. With the ram (head side) ways extended a couple of inches past the column in the head direction, the mill balanced perfectly with a 8' strap around both ends of the ram and over top in a figure eight fashion. I could not find any position of the ram that would let the mill balance by hanging by the 5/8" eye on top of the ram. My trailer was low enough to carefully jack the mill off the beams, in the air a few inches. I drove the trailer out from under the mill and very, very carefully eased the mill down on two angles across the legs of the engine hoist.
It took two of us to push/roll the mill into position on the concrete floor. I easily levered it up on wooded blocks, little by little (3/4" at a time), one side then the other side with a 6' heavy steel lever bar and let it down to its permanent position on 4x4 blocks as I wanted it higher than normal. After wedging it level I was done.
I should have taken photo's of the process, especially a photo of the mill hanging in the air from my engine hoist . . . very scary even though well within the load limits. I did carefully examine every bolt, chain and piece of my engine hoist before hand to make sure it would handle the load.
There are a lot of ways to get in trouble moving a 2600 pound top heavy machine. Mistakes won't result in small injuries.
PolyTech Forum website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here.
All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.