On 2007-12-05, Dave August wrote:
Joe,

When I bought my 5914 the guy I bought it from could load it into a pickup.

To get it off the truck here at home, I got a 2 ton nylon strap, made a
sling around the spindle and around the end of the bed, and got a tow truck
to lift it and set it on some Harbor Freight furniture dollies, and rolled
it into my shop, used an engine hoist to lift and drop it on the floor..
Strap cost $20, Tow truck cost $50, dollies cost $20... Gave a friend a
sixpack for use of the hoist :-)

Mine (5418 with a bed turret) came via a high flatbed truck
(bolted to a large pallet), and I had made a ramp of five 10' 2x4s
bolted edge up to three lengths of pressure-treated decking board. That
was used to slide it down from the flatbed into my 3/4 ton pickup in the
driveway -- over the tailgate, headstock towards the cab. It was then
tied to the corner anchors at the front of the pickup's bed. I then
drove it up the driveway, and backed up to the shop (ex garage) door. I
jacked up the rear end of the ramp so I could open the tailgate and
unhook the stays so it would swing below the angle which the ramp would
take, and then pulled the ramp and lathe back towards the end of the
bed. Once near there, I ran some mountain climbing rope from one corner
of the truck bed, around the base of the lathe pedestal, back to the
other corner and three turns around a carabiner clipped to that corner,
and into the hads of my wife to pay out a little at a time. With the
help of a friend, I slid the ramp down until the end touched the floor,
then slid the lathe and pallet down until it was almost off the ramp. I
used a floor jack to lift the ramp enough so that I could drive the
pickup out from under the end of the ramp. I then lowered it in stages
with the aid of cribbing until I could leave it stable and close the
door to the shop.

The next day, I used a borrowed hydraulic engine hoist to lift
it (via a loop of web strap under both ends of the chip pan right
against the pedestal cabinets) and remove it from the pallet. (I tied
off the webbing at a stable balance point, so it did not suddenly go
headstock down.)

Once the pallet was removed, I set the lathe down on cribbing
(2x4s and 4x4s) (since otherwise it would be resting on the legs of the
engine hoist), removed the hoist, and lowered each end a bit at a time
until it was on the floor.

If indeed it's in good shape you'll love it. :-) And if it didn't come
with a Royal collet closer, go get one.

Mine came with a lever-style collet closer -- but with no
maker's name visible. I later had to extend the drawtube when I swapped
out the original 2-1/4x8 nose spindle and replaced it with an L-00
spindle. And of *course* it came with the closer, since it also came
with a bed turret and no normal tailstock.

It has been an excellent lathe since I got it (and presumably
was one before I got it, too. :-)

Enjoy,
DoN.

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