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.