Advice required on Lifting Vertical Mill onto Stand

Joe, When I lifted my Mill/Drill I lifted it with cloth slings around both sides of the head attached in loops around the column. If you wind the cross feed nearer the column this will help it hang straight.

Mart> Help! I've just taken delivery of a new Mill/Drill - ZX25M2, weight

I've a Warco variant of this design, but with a smaller motor and single belt drive, so its about 30Kg less weight. I just used cloth straps around the head, which I lowered to the bottom of the travel to lower the CofG. No problems. The mill is very top heavy (yours must be more so) so I'd be tempted to bolt it down before you unsling it from the crane just to be double sure.

And then the old crane drivers advice - don't lift anything a thou more than you need to and don't get underneath (specifically body parts!).

I'd be interested if your machine table has 3 or 4 slots - the advert for the ZX25 says 3, same as my Warco, but my table has 4, which is not always better. IIRC the net weight stated on my machine was actually gross weight (ie pallet and crate + accessories)

Steve

Hello Steve, thanks for your message. It does look as if your suggestion is the only way. Since the column is a hollow casting, it is possible to see right down through this to the crate bottom, and I suspect that the mill is lifted in the factory using some sort of lifting bar with swivel head put down the middle of the column and opened out at its base - but I havent got one of those, and I'm not sure of my supposition. To answer your question, the table has 3 slots. There is a downloads section on the Axminster site, with pdf documentation on the ZX25M2 mill. It's very good regarding the machine description etc., but of course silent on the lifting issue. Once again thanks for your help - I'll post my progress (or lack of it) on this board. Regards, Joe.

John Ambler Sussex, UK Return E-mails to snipped-for-privacy@skiprat.net

John,

Dont worry you will not have a problem, John Amblers description was a beeter version of my attempt and exactly how I did it.

Mart> Hi John,

Thanks Martin.

I said I would update my progress on lifting the mill onto the stand, so here goes. I was not confident that the main column was solidly fixed to the base so the front was lifted (by hand) and a 1 ton capacity strop fed under and taken up round the top of the belt cover into a shackle. Another strop was fed under the head between the main clumn and motor, and this was also terminated at the shackle. A lift was done tentatively with the floor crane, and lowered again for adjustment, so that most of the weight was being carried by the strop under the base.Then lifted again off the packing case bottom and onto a small trolley, which was pushed into the workshop and located beside the stand (with the strops still in position). The floor crane was brought in and positioned, the final lift from the trolley was made and the crane moved to loate the mill directly over the base. Having lowered onto the base and the 4 fixing bollts dropped through, the front was then lifted manually and the strop removed - Success!! I was dissappointed later when commisioning the mill to discover that the quill would only lower by 30mm and not the 100mm specified. Also, the motor would only turn when the ON switch was held down. A call to Axminster yesterday resulted in me partially dismantling the quill lowering mechanism to remove swarf from the quill rack (and give it a good greasing). The other adjustment was to the microswitch detent cam under the belt cover. Many thanks go to Keith Thompson of Axminster for his 'spot on' diagnosis. I now have a fully operational mill.