Mike Berger wrote:

I'm looking for a mill for my home shop. I've passed up a few
great deals on Bridgeports (and a really nice hardinge lathe)
because my shop is located in the basement. It's dry, there's
lots of headroom, and it has a nice concrete floor. But it's
still downstairs. I'm trying to limit any machines that go
downstairs to 1000 pounds or so (per subassembly if they can
be disassembled without a lot of trouble!).



Why?

Why not take the time to change around those "steps" that go down to
that basement so that they are removable? Then you can set up a
permanent or temporary hoist assembly over the "pit". Now you can take
up and down almost anything you like at will.

If you disguise the whole thing appropriately it will look like part of
the house and get good WAF (Wife Approval Factor) rating! :- )

The other option is to create a nice metal floor assembly that you can
do a similar trick with (lifting done with a hoist or two - electric
being kewl). The advantage to the liftable floor is that you can stow
the hoist mounts only a foot or so above the top lift level, making the
thing stealth...

An appropriate use of pipes (etc...) for the "floor" to "track" on will
inprove the handling and safety aspects... you can use the "deadman"
elevator brake trick too, so if the hoist cable/chain gives up the thing
won't hurtle to the floor at high speed...

For extra protection, some auto (truck) coil springs around said pipes
assuming the required extra depth of the pit will add another layer of
"soft landing" safety...

Go for it.


_-_-bear