I looked again and I think you're right about the balls being on both sides.
When lifting a Bridgeport, I put the forks under the dovetails and then lift
it up an inch or so. It might slip off the forks, but I don't think it
would tip over at that height. The problem with the forklift is that it
plus the machine won't always fit where I want.

I have a pinch bar with a bevel on the thick end. Could you have a look at
page 2693 (just put 2693 in the search field on the left side of
mcmaster.com) and tell me which is the 60 degree one? I think I'll get one
of those.

Thanks for sharing your knowledge.

"rigger" wrote in message
oups.com...
Looks like the balls protrude on both sides of the plate; at least
that's the way I would design it (if I was smart enough to design
things like that). Lifting one end with a pinch bar, in my opinion, is
the safest way to lift. Fork trucks are great when the weight is high
but not for something like a Bridgeport (which I thought you were
moving; sorry). When you go to 4000# and up you should increase the
thickness of your rollers. On a decently level floor you can roll
15,000# without too much difficulty on 1" rollers. If you move up to
2" rollers you can, subject to the floor condition, roll around items
50,000# and higher (of course your rollers will be solid) as long as
you keep the floor swept in front of the rollers.

Using a 5 ton Simplex style jack means you need to get the machine up
(using a pinch bar or fork lift) about 1 1/2" to just get the jack
underneath it; more than enough to slide rollers under it. Use the bar
(or jack) on the short end of the machine opposite the knee, definitly
not on the long end, which would be a very unstable lifting method.

Just watch those fingers.

dennis
in nca

p.s. The type of pinch bar used is important. The type we used the
most when picking up the end of a 6000#, or under, machine was the type
with a flattened end bent at around 60 degrees. You could usually get
the sharp end of the bar started under almost anything. The other type
of bar you see a lot is the type with the thicker end with a bevel on
it. Those are especially good when you can use a 2X4 under them with
the bevel down (not so easy to get a machine started up with these
unless there is a notch, or something similar to get started with).