Bernard, I think your best bet would be to pay the quarry to load the large
stone onto the truck and trailer for you. (Safer, and easier,by far). Remove
the truck cap, and take a couple of heavy wood pallets with you. (free, or
very cheap at stores, factories). Cut a sheet of 1/2" OSB sheathing or
plywood in half to nail onto the pallets, to keep stone from hanging into
the fork area of the pallets. Get there, unhook trailer, roll smaller stones
onto pallets as tightly as possible (try to get some stretch wrap from
campus shipping). Have the quarry load these into truck bed for a fee,
tickets to a campus event, beer or whatever. Play up the poor, creative
student angle. Take a campus hottie or two with you, keep her in sight. More
powerful than beer or money.
Rehook trailer and get the quarry to load the large stone for you, centered
ever so slightly forward of the trailer axle centerline(s), so the trailer
is not tail-heavy. (causes weaving vehicle). Strap load down with ratchet
strapping or chains and binders. Take pictures of hotties with quarry
workers, posed in front of loaded stone. (They will forget all about money)
Drive home carefully and at a lower speed than normal. Get the campus
forklift to unload everything for you, and consider drawing attention to the
event via professors, the school newspaper, etc., to enhance the possibility
of getting the forklift service and other needed help for free.
Now that your stone is on pallets, further movement is much simpler. A
pallet jack may possibly be borrowed from campus shipping/receiving to move
the stones around inside the work area. With this system, you face lesser
physical danger in meeting your goal. My motto is "Work Smarter, not
Harder".
The above methods are known as "Social Engineering" and are as important in
life, or more so, than physical skills. Look at the pretty lady with a flat
tire. SOMEONE will change that tire for her!

Just my take.
RJ

"Bernard Arnest" wrote in message
...
Hi!

It's actually a 1-ton piece of marble, but this group is active,
and mills and lathes can easily exceed that weight; so I should get
some solid advice here.

I've outlined several ideas in mind, in order of which I might
try first. Go ahead and say what you'd do without reading the below,
if you don't have time; if you do, please read and comment/critique
before I injure myself!



A friend has a diesel truck that may or may not hold 3000# in the
bed, and definitely can tow a trailer; the ones uhaul rents for $25/
day can take 1650# (maybe home depot has some heavier duty ones?)
I am to take as much marble back from the quarry in one trip as I
can; it's a long ways away, and the marble they are giving me for
free, it is scrap to them and they know I am a college student.

Plan A
is to borrow the truck, rent the trailer, and on the way out purchase
a 2nd-hand forklift I have lined up (craigslist ad). It can lift
3000#, weights nearly 1000 itself, has 4 3"diameter wheels.
Arrive at the quarry, lay down plywood because it'll be muddy and
snowy there, unload the lift;
use a longer and wider version of a crowbar to pry two sides of the
1500# hunk of marble up and onto 2x4s,
slip the forklift under the raised block, turn it and back along the
plywood to the truck. Hopefully, be able to manually push the block
deeper into the truck? Maybe with rollers, if we can get them under?
But we can't stand up in the bed, there's a cap over it. My friend
thinks that there isn't a spot to bolt a come-along either, there's a
fuel tank at the front of the bed. Then load up a few rather smaller
(150-500#) blocks, load some into the trailer, and tip the forklift
into the trailer too.

Plan B
don't buy the forklift; instead pay the quarry to load up the truck so
that we can take another 1000# back. Awkwardly use scissor platform
back at the workshop, saving money but maybe increasing headache-- the
scissor lift doesn't go to the full height of the truck bed, and we'd
have to slide the stone more. Campus facilities has forklifts, real
motorized ones, across the street-- but it's a crapshoot whether
they'll help a student for free or charge the $75 base rate for a
job. Even after I get the blocks back, I'll need to shuffle them
around workbenches as I work on one or another (carving).

Plan C
Count on being able to remove the bed's cap, or, rent a home depot
truck for $200 for the necessary hours; and build myself a small
gantry crane?
Borrowing the hoist from a different friend, purchasing the I-beams
and pneumatic tires, and welding something up. This might work better
on the muddy, gravely, non-level quarry ground?
I've never moved so much weight, so I'm scared that maybe 3000#, on
plywood on loose gravel on open, non-level mud at the quarry will
prove impossible to push or control with two guys. It's not a paved
and polished warehouse floor. This is why I'm considering building a
gantry crane

Plan D
Some kind of ramp, winch, and roller system (renting a HD truck to
take the winch)? How to support the ramp?



thanks!!
-Bernard