I mounted my 10x24 Enco by lifting it near the head, with the tailstock
end pointed away from the jack, aligned with the lift beam. I slid the
tailstock around to balance it. With the lathe just off the floor, I
move the whole works over to the wall so the left leg of the lift was
against the wall. Raised the lathe, slide the stand under it, bolted the
two together, then did final positioning. the overhang at the rear of
the lathe leaves plenty of room for a lathe leg.
This works only if you have sufficient working room to the left of
the lathe.

wrote:
Hi,

I recently bought a 12" x 36" lathe with stand. I unpacked the lathe
and attempted to use a engine crane to place it on the stand. As I
found out, unfortunately the legs of the engine crane would not pass
under the lateral brace and even if it did, do to the center of
gravity of the lift point (near the headstock), one of the legs needs
to pass through the stand columns anyway. This is one of those
generic 12x36 lathe stands as I'm sure you've seen.

So I was reading Bill's recent lathe adventures and some one mentioned
to twist the lathe lengthways, with the headstock toward the crane
column, lower the lathe it on the floor, then recouple (so it doesn't
twist back, lift and straddle it onto the stand length ways? .

Is this the way to do it? I was tired when I gave up on it last night,
but it seems like a resonable idea. With my mills I built my own
stands, with the use of a pallet jack and crane in mind so this isn't
an issue. But this is first heavy piece of gear I've got that came
with a stand. When I got sick and tired of it last night I was certain
that I would need to spend a couple hundred dollars on some steel and
weld up a custom stand this weekend, but I would just as soon use the
stand I paid for if possible.

Any pointers?

Thanks
Mal