Finally! Moving w-e for big machines

NickWheeler

NickWheeler

Joined
Dec 3, 1999
Messages
9,437
I've been working out of the new shop for over a year now, but only with the "essential" machines for the way I make knives. All the big stuff that I bought because I wanted it, and had the money at the time, has been sitting in the old shop. 100 different things kept us from moving any of them until this last week-end.

Originally I planned on renting a forklift for the old shop and one for the new shop (load and unload) but coordinating that with 2 different rental places, and the $1000 (at least) to do it, kept that plan from working.

Finally found out about lift deck trailers.... they're used to move scissor lifts. The deck drops right to the ground, you put the equipment on the deck, and then a hydraulic system lifts the deck up to a road ready position. SUPER SLICK!!! And since I picked it up on Friday morning and had it returned by Monday at 7am, they only charged me $86.72!!! Add a couple hundred bucks for diesel in my Dad's Ford, and it worked out pretty cheap :thumbup: :) --- minus the wear and tear on me :eek: LOL

A HUGE THANK YOU to my Dad (Jim) and Angi for their help and support. My Dad is amazing, he got up at 4am Friday like he always does, worked a 12 hour day.... yet he didn't hesitate to drop his lunch box and help me the minute he got home. :cool: :)


The first trip was the 9X42 mill and the 50# LG which I didn't take pictures of. I got both machines loaded by myself. Then Dad volunteered to drive the rig down to my house and we unloaded the 2 pieces together. We had a really scarey SNAFU... because of a little bit of miscommunication... the 50# LG fell over right as it was coming off the trailer! If I could have picked 1 piece to fall, it was that one... it's the only one that is in need of a complete rebuild, was the lightest of the group. Thank God I had told Dad and Angi to stand clear of it, and Angi had put the dogs in the garage!!!


So anyway, I'm posting this here because a.) I know a lot of you can appreciate my excitement for finally moving the stuff, b.) A lesson to be even more careful than you think you need to, and c.) This trailer is an awesome option for many of us that need to move something that's too heavy to slop up onto a car hauler.

Ready to load the lathe...
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Loaded up and ready to roll...
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A very excited knife maker! Piece #3 in the new shop... :D
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Dad helped me load the 100# LG, but he had poker night... so I took it down and unloaded it with the dogs. ;) As you can see, it's broken down because I had started a rebuild. That sure made it easier to move!
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The fiasco with the 50# hammer forced me to rethink the unloading process... so I used a sling and a chain fall to use as a breaking system for the 100# hammer.
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I drove back up and loaded the Cincinnati mill by myself--- with lots of 1" diam W1 and W2 rods, a pinch bar, and a chain fall. Got it home by 12:30 a.m. and let it wait till Sunday morning to be off loaded.
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This is how the trailer works. So slick!!!
[video=youtube;uMg1X6t3qUY]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uMg1X6t3qUY&list=UUM3ezocAUFI1HtIi4V7SLmw[/video]

Got the deck lowered right down onto the edge of the shop floor.
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The 2ton engine hoist won't lift the whole machine, but it worked awesome for lifting the ass end to get more rollers under it as it came off the trailer...
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No project goes down here without Shop Dog approval. Oliver was fond of the trailer...
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Bentley gave his o.k. as well...
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A ~5,000# machine moves on rollers, but it still wore me out!
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Well, they're not set-up in their final spots, let alone ready to cut chips or hammer hot steel yet, but they are inside the new shop, and that is enough to put a big, fat smile on my face! :D
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Very slick.

I've see locksmiths load safes with trailers like that but I've never seen one of those for rent around here.


I've hired flat bed roll off tow trucks to move equipment before.
They can drop the deck on the ground, but it's still raised, no where near as flat as what you have done there.


Not all operators are as good as you want though.
it's nice to be able to do it in your own time and pace.
 
Pretty awesome except where you seemed to have forgotten to call a few of us to help. :grumpy::mad::(:confused:

It would be the least I could do for all the time you unvested in us here on BF with your WIP's.

50# LG sustain any damage? I can haul it off for scrap if you want. :D :cool:

Time to dig some footing for those hammers!!h
 
Truly jealous of your equipment and abilities my friend. Nice shop.
 
Sam, the guy at the rental place told me about folks using them to move safes. I had to help load an 1100# safe once, and I sure wish we had this trailer then! I considered the flat bed wrecker, especially since there's a shop right down the road from here with 2 of them, but I didn't like the idea of pulling the top heavy items up the ramp.

Brian... Thanks! But I'm horrible about asking for help. :o I didn't even ask Dad, but he insisted. I am anxious to get the footings in for the hammers and get the rest of the shop painted and ready for final lay-out. The 50# managed to land in the 1' wide section of dirt right before the shop pad, the spring is out of the hammer, and it's never had an electric motor or mount on it... so other than digging a hole in the dirt, NO damage was done to anything. We TRULY lucked out on that!

Andy- Thanks buddy! Now if I only knew what to do with it all. :foot:
 
I've moved shop a couple times and man what a chore. Moving heavy fragile high precision things is stressful. Then there is all the leveling and wiring and air. It'll take it out of you. Hard on the back too. Nice shop. :thumbup:
 
When it comes to pushing top heavy stuff around on rollers, or caster / skates;

I've seen others use long pipe-angle iron - tubing - 2x4"s - whatever - clamped onto the base in an x pattern just a few inches off the floor

If the rollers get caught in a rut or you do tip it - the x brace will catch it before it goes past the center of gravity and tumbles all the way over.
 
Yeah I've wished like a thousand times there was a Sunbelt rental location in Asheville. Closest one is about an hour away that has those trailers. Usually end up just renting the uhaul trailers with the ramp, but I recently made friends with a guy that has a big Roll-back with a winch, so when I moved the big K&T mill in, we set the rollback bed on my friend's trailer that sold it to me, and winched up onto the roll back, then slid it off right into the shop floor. That being said, I've moved it, and every other piece of huge equipment I've got, around about 10 times.. It's the last foot to the wall that kills you, even on rollers.

I bought some machinery skates recently, but they're tall enough that it's easier to get stuff up on rollers most of the time. The thing I really need is to build some toe-jacks. Another thing that really helps Nick, is a Farm or Hi-Lift jack, for getting under weird lift points, when you've got nowhere overhead to rig.


Check this video Nick: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JDOM7FaEx54

That guy moves a 3 ton lathe with some home built skates that use bearings for wheels.
 
FWIW after the last new piece of heavy machinery I bought, I promised my girl I wouldn't buy anymore until I got a fork lift. Came home with a Cold Saw yesterday though.. Woops! ;)

Seriously though, in retrospect, if I could do it all over again, a forklift would have been the first "tool" I bought.
 
Thanks guys! :)

Nathan- no doubt it was stressful. Fortunately my stuff is more in the "heavy pig tools for hack operator" than super fine controlled CNC machines like you use. I would probably grit my teeth and hire a rigger if I had stuff like you do.

Salem... I sure hope you're right my friend! When you combine ADD AND broke knife maker status together, you get projects that take 10 times longer than you hoped. I am giddy like a little girl about getting the hammers set up and running. :D

Javan, thanks for the video link! I actually started a thread here a year or two ago about machine skates and a few fellas recommend that I build some just like the guy in the video. It was on my list, but didn't happen. I think it would be worthwhile to do that BEFORE I kill myself trying to place the machines. You are right, the last few feet or even inches of moving the machine are always the worst! The toe-jack that guy built is freak'n brilliant! Definitely adding that on the To-Do list! :)

I built a lever dolly like this one, but it seems to have grown legs and walked away (no chance the POS chimo, drug dealer that moved in next to my folks once "leave it to beaver neighborhood" had anything to do with that).

http://www.globalindustrial.com/g/m...pry-bars/lever-dollies-pry-bars-steel-handles

I did consider buying a forklift, at least to keep for a short time. Unfortunately, I would have needed an all-terrain, reach-boom forklift to do any good at my folks' place or my new shop, and they aren't as readily available in the aftermarket as more standard mast lifts (around here anyway).

FWIW- I drove over an hour to pick-up this trailer, but it was well worth it. Sunbelt USED to have a shop about 15 minutes from our place... GRRR! LOL. The local United Rentals (15-20 min away) actually has a dual-axle lift deck that has a much bigger deck and something like an 8,000# load rating, but they only use it for delivering scissor lifts themselves, they will NOT rent it out! :grumpy: Even after I told him I wanted to keep my business local, and would have to take my business to his competitor out of town.... he wouldn't rent it to me. Oh well... the Vancouver, WA, Sunbelt was AWESOME to deal with, and I highly recommend them! :)

Will--- trust me, I told the pups if they were worth their dog food bill, they would let me hook up drafting gear to them so they could pull the machines where I wanted them. Apparently they did not agree with dad. ;) :D
 
Forgot-

I moved some of the stuff with my 6,000# pallet jack. It will move the ~1800# 9X42 mill about as easy as moving a shopping kart! The downside, is you have to get the machine on a pallet... and back off again! Or at least high enough to slide the pallet jack underneath.

There were 2 issues with the 50# hammer falling over. 1.) our driveway is not flat, so the trailer was sitting a little bit higher on the left side, I SHOULD have addressed that before moving anything, 2.) the hammer was standing upright on that heavy steel cart that it's laying down on in the last photo... that put it much higher off the ground than what it should have been.

You might notice in some of the other photos, I put a bottle jack under the front right corner of the trailer. That leveled it out side-to-side, and made it MUCH safer for off-loading.
 
NickWheeler said:
Forgot-

I moved some of the stuff with my 6,000# pallet jack. It will move the ~1800# 9X42 mill about as easy as moving a shopping kart! The downside, is you have to get the machine on a pallet... and back off again! Or at least high enough to slide the pallet jack underneath.

There were 2 issues with the 50# hammer falling over. 1.) our driveway is not flat, so the trailer was sitting a little bit higher on the left side, I SHOULD have addressed that before moving anything, 2.) the hammer was standing upright on that heavy steel cart that it's laying down on in the last photo... that put it much higher off the ground than what it should have been.

You might notice in some of the other photos, I put a bottle jack under the front right corner of the trailer. That leveled it out side-to-side, and made it MUCH safer for off-loading.
Click to expand...

Nick, a guy I've bought a few machines off of, who's alot smarter than you or I, invests the time (even though he's got a fork lift) to fab "bases" under all his machines, with leveling feet *and* the appropriate clearance and support to pick them up with a pallet jack or fork lift. He's definitely got some stuff too big for the pallet jack, but it makes moving stuff a breeze where applicable. My surface grinder came from him, and I just scoot the jack under it anytime I want to shift it. It's the ONLY easy to move thing I've got. ;)

I'm actually building one such base for the new saw and my smaller mill tonight. It's an investment in upfront time, but I'm guessing it's going to pay for itself many times over, especially since I'm in the same boat as you.. Outside my shop is dirt and grass, and the doors open onto un-even asphalt. Definitely have to be a rough terrain forklift when I get one. Needless to say, the next shop is going to have to meet some serious prerequisites.
 
I almost had my #50 frame fall over when trying to get it onto a car trailer, over wooden ramps, trying to shift weight onto the engine hoist (same orange 2-ton as yours) and the hoist scooted.

Luckily I had a BIG friend with me who was in the right place and bodily stopped it right before it would have been a lost cause. I think it would have punched right through the trailer deck.

It seems as though I always have help loading, and have to unload alone. I don't have a bay door on my shop, so machines come in through walk-in doors.

When I moved my 12x37 lathe in lately, I was alone of course, and had to get the lathe off my tailgate and shifted onto the hoist inside the shop door again. That lathe is unbalanced when hanging, and there was a moment when it began to roll halfway through the door. Again, lucky I was in the right place to stop it before it became too heavy.

I think I'm going to retro fit a bay door into the side this summer. At least to be able to get my heavy stuff out when I move...
 
Javan- I have thought about that very thing. My Dad has a few different mobile bases on his wood working stuff (table saw, band saw, jointer, etc.) and I like the idea. The base would just have to be 37.895 times more stout for a metal working machine. ;) :)


Speaking of shop requisites... I always thought I wanted a shop with 14' walls so I had lots of head-room, could have vertical steel storage, and room for a bridge crane and loft. The downside being that's a huge volume of air to heat or cool. One really nice aspect of tall walls though, is it makes the shop feel bigger. A family friend has a shop that's the exact same footprint (36'X48') but with 14' walls, and his shop seems much bigger than mine.

When we found this house/shop for sale, the only thing I didn't like about the shop was that I wanted a little taller ceilings. After being here for a year and a half though, I have found they're fine.

The one thing I would REALLY like to change, would be to take out the 16' wide X 7' high overhead door, re-frame that wall, and put in two 6' wide X ~8' tall carriage doors. A 12' wide opening would still be plenty wide to get a car, trailer, or machine inside, but would give me more wall space and allow only one door to be open in the winter while forging. But Salem talking about having to get machines through a man door makes me feel very fortunate to have that overhead door! :eek:

Salem, that HF engine hoist is some of the best $160 I've spent. It was supposed to be on sale for $200, but for some reason they knocked another $40 off. I used it, in one way or another, to move just about everything in the shop! If you get a couple of lifting slings, some shackles, and a piece of chain with hooks... it's amazing how much you can do with the engine hoist!!! :thumbup: :)

I think I'm going to cut the fold down legs and add a section of tubing to each one, so that I can get the hoist to straddle wider items. Bigger, heavier casters would be a big improvement too... even though you're not supposed to move anything that's in a lifted position ;)
 
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