Mike Henry wrote:
I've moved similar tools down to the basement of our townhome, including a
Clausing 5914 lathe, 8520 knee mill, 8540 and 8550 horizontal mills and aKO
Lee S714 surface grinder. They weigh between 650 and about 1,000 lbs each
and all of them were partially disassembled before moving. We could usually
get by with a 2-wheel fridge dolly, but the base on the surface grinder
proved too heavy for that approach and here's what my wife and I used to get
that down:

http://member.newsguy.com/~mphenry/base_move.htm

Basically a HF 400/800 lb winch was rigged to a frame that bore against the
basement doorway frame and the base (400 lb?) was slid down the stairs. It
worked a treat. We didn't reinforce the stairs or doorway and neither
suffered any damage. The same idea was used to move the base and column for
one of the horizontal mills, though that was tied down to the 2-wheel dolly.
As the pictures above show, tools come in through the garage into a utility
room and have to make a sharp 90° turn down the stairs, which really limits
the choices.

The 5400 lathe shouldn't be a problem, so long as you don't mind tearing it
down to major pieces. The bed will probably be the toughest part. The mill
might be another matter as it is 2,000 lbs. Judging from the parts diagram
I'd guess that the column is the heaviest component and is probably 500-750
lbs. If you take that apart, watch for any shims that might have been used
for alignment. I'd be inclined to check alignments before tearing it down
(if that's what you end up doing) as a baseline to check against on
re-assembly.


Very nice Mike. I don't usually recommend dollies or "two wheelers" on
this news group as they generally require a little more knowledge and
strength to control safely. Not knowing people's limitations I usually
suggest the slower methods.

I thought your move of the machine base was elegant and well thought
out. I'm just glad I didn't have to pay you by the hour.

dennis
in nca