The only thing I know about this technique is that it is used by fire
services and rescue personel to rescue people from building collapses,
etc. Does your school have an auto shop? At our high school we moved
our 2400 pound bridgeport clone from the shipping crate outside to an
indoor shop using 5 2 1/2 ton rolling hydraulic shop jacks borrowed
from the autoshop next door. These are the kind of jacks used by
mechanics to lift up cars without the big floor lift, and have steel
rollers to allow them to move loads as well as lift. We simply slid
the jacks under the pallet the machine sat on, jacked it up, removed
the remnants of the pallet, and then muscled the machine into the room,
pushing and repositioning the jacks to move around obstacles. Thus the
need for 5 jacks. You need one for each corner and one to shift the
weight onto in order to reposition the jacks. Hope this is useful.
Let me know if you have any other questions.
Eagle Strike Robotics Team, Los Altos High School