What's the height from the floor to the top of the ram on a Bridgeport
J / 2J vertical mill?

Reason I'm asking is to try and determine if a Harbor Freight shop
crane (2 ton) has enough height / reach to slide under the end of a
trailer and lift it up off of the trailer. The other alternative is
to slide it down a ramp of some sort with a comealong winching it
down. I'm not thrilled about sliding a top heavy item with a narrow
base down a ramp.

RWL

On 2008-10-04, GeoLane at PTD dot NET GeoLane wrote:
What's the height from the floor to the top of the ram on a Bridgeport
J / 2J vertical mill?

download the manual from my site

http://igor.chudov.com/manuals/Bridgeport/

Reason I'm asking is to try and determine if a Harbor Freight shop
crane (2 ton) has enough height / reach to slide under the end of a
trailer and lift it up off of the trailer.


Absolutely NOT. Not by far. I own both a bridgy and the crane. The
crane is indispensable, but cannot even approach a Bridgy.

The other alternative is
to slide it down a ramp of some sort with a comealong winching it
down. I'm not thrilled about sliding a top heavy item with a narrow
base down a ramp.

You can make it a lot less top heavy, and bolt to a makeshift pallet.

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On Fri, 03 Oct 2008 20:35:36 -0500, Ignoramus26581
wrote:

On 2008-10-04, GeoLane at PTD dot NET GeoLane wrote:
What's the height from the floor to the top of the ram on a Bridgeport
J / 2J vertical mill?

download the manual from my site

http://igor.chudov.com/manuals/Bridgeport/


Thanks, but not in the manual I need. The round ram one has the
dimension to the middle of the round ram as 54", but the manual for
the J head model doesn't have a dimension for the ram height at all. I
did some crude measurements on the J head drawing and assuming that
things are to scale it should be around 59-60", but I don't know if
that's close enough. I'm going down to Harbor Freight tomorrow AM,
hopefully to buy the 2T shop crane. I need to add BP ram height to
trailer deck height to see if the crane's boom can lift it. Can one
of you guys measure your Bridgie and post it?

RWL

GeoLane at PTD dot NET writes:

Can one of you guys measure your Bridgie and post it?

60 inches from floor to top of ram (that is, where the 5/8-11 lifting eye
goes). This is the J head model, aka 1J, not the newer 2J or older M head.

Suggest you get some 10 ft sections of SuperStrut from Home Depot, and C-
clamp them across the hoist legs, as outriggers to provide some backup
stability. Just might save your bacon if she decides to tip. Your sturdy,
rigid little hoist will start to feel like it's made of springy fishing
rods once you load it up with 2000 lbs of Bridgeport.

On Sat, 04 Oct 2008 02:11:21 -0500, Richard J Kinch
wrote:
Suggest you get some 10 ft sections of SuperStrut from Home Depot, and C-
clamp them across the hoist legs, as outriggers to provide some backup
stability. Just might save your bacon if she decides to tip. Your sturdy,
rigid little hoist will start to feel like it's made of springy fishing
rods once you load it up with 2000 lbs of Bridgeport.

Is there another name for SuperStrut. I looked also for Unistrut at
the home depot web site but couldn't find any listing for it. Any
place besides Home Depot to look for this sort of steel?

Outriggers might have made things do-able if I'd had them last
Thursday when I brought the Bridgie home. The crane was sitting on
level dirt, but it was uneven enough that it tilted slighly to one
side when we were picking up the BP, so in the end I had to get the
neighbor to bring over his Bobcat and lift it off for me.

Lots of little things need to be fixed on this machine, so I'll be
posting a bunch of questions.

Hoping to get the TECO VFD set up on Tuesday.

RWL

On Sun, 19 Oct 2008 21:16:18 -0400, GeoLane at PTD dot NET GeoLane at
PTD dot NET wrote:

Is there another name for SuperStrut. I looked also for Unistrut at
the home depot web site but couldn't find any listing for it. Any
place besides Home Depot to look for this sort of steel?

Electrical supply house. Most sell to the public.

Wes

GeoLane at PTD dot NET wrote in message
...

On Sat, 04 Oct 2008 02:11:21 -0500, Richard J Kinch
wrote:
Suggest you get some 10 ft sections of SuperStrut from Home Depot, and C-
clamp them across the hoist legs, as outriggers to provide some backup
stability. Just might save your bacon if she decides to tip. Your sturdy,
rigid little hoist will start to feel like it's made of springy fishing
rods once you load it up with 2000 lbs of Bridgeport.

Is there another name for SuperStrut. I looked also for Unistrut at
the home depot web site but couldn't find any listing for it. Any
place besides Home Depot to look for this sort of steel?

Outriggers might have made things do-able if I'd had them last
Thursday when I brought the Bridgie home. The crane was sitting on
level dirt, but it was uneven enough that it tilted slighly to one
side when we were picking up the BP, so in the end I had to get the
neighbor to bring over his Bobcat and lift it off for me.

Lots of little things need to be fixed on this machine, so I'll be
posting a bunch of questions.

Hoping to get the TECO VFD set up on Tuesday.

RWL


Don't waste your time at the Home Depot web site. It's in the electrical aisle at the
stores....

On Sun, 19 Oct 2008 21:16:18 -0400, the infamous GeoLane at PTD dot
NET GeoLane at PTD dot NET scrawled the following:


On Sat, 04 Oct 2008 02:11:21 -0500, Richard J Kinch
wrote:
Suggest you get some 10 ft sections of SuperStrut from Home Depot, and C-
clamp them across the hoist legs, as outriggers to provide some backup
stability. Just might save your bacon if she decides to tip. Your sturdy,
rigid little hoist will start to feel like it's made of springy fishing
rods once you load it up with 2000 lbs of Bridgeport.

Is there another name for SuperStrut. I looked also for Unistrut at
the home depot web site but couldn't find any listing for it. Any
place besides Home Depot to look for this sort of steel?

I bought some 1-5/8" square Unistrut at HD last year, when I bought my
truck. I cut it and used it in place of the $165 (through Toyota) bed
rail system. Cost: $20 for a 10' stick, $20 more for some t-nuts,
bolts, & pipe clamps. The low-profile stuff (1-5/8" x 13/16", no
holes) was $15/stick.

They don't show it online, but it's in the electrical section.
Sparkies use it for hanging conduit. (Right, Bruce?)

If you can't find it at your local HD, call some of the electrical
supply houses (Platt Electric Supply up here in PNW) for it. It'll be
$35-44 a stick, but you'll find it. What a crock!

Cheaper source, plus (outrageous?) shipping fees
http://www.idealtruevalue.com/servlet/the-U-cln-Unistrut-Electrical-Raceway/Categories



Outriggers might have made things do-able if I'd had them last
Thursday when I brought the Bridgie home. The crane was sitting on
level dirt, but it was uneven enough that it tilted slighly to one
side when we were picking up the BP, so in the end I had to get the
neighbor to bring over his Bobcat and lift it off for me.

Hey, nice neighbors!

--
"Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it whether it
exists or not, diagnosing it incorrectly, and applying the wrong
remedy." -- Ernest Benn

Ignoramus26581 wrote:

Reason I'm asking is to try and determine if a Harbor Freight shop
crane (2 ton) has enough height / reach to slide under the end of a
trailer and lift it up off of the trailer.

Absolutely NOT. Not by far. I own both a bridgy and the crane. The
crane is indispensable, but cannot even approach a Bridgy.

I used a generic 2-ton import engine hoist to lift a Bridgeport off of
a flatbed trailer. It worked fine with the legs all the way extended
and every bolt tightened. Just don't try to roll the hoist around with
the mill in the air - the caster pins will just crumple. I made a dolly
with a lot of clearance underneath to roll over the engine hoist legs.

Pick up mill. Move trailer out from underneath it. Roll dolly under mill.
Let down on dolly. Roll mill to where you need it. Reposition engine hoist.
Lift mill slightly. Remove dolly. Set mill down gently between hoist legs
(make sure ahead of time it will fit!). Remove engine hoist & dolly,
skid mill slightly to get it into final position.

Grant
** Posted from http://www.teranews.com **

Grant Erwin wrote:

Ignoramus26581 wrote:

Reason I'm asking is to try and determine if a Harbor Freight shop
crane (2 ton) has enough height / reach to slide under the end of a
trailer and lift it up off of the trailer.

Absolutely NOT. Not by far. I own both a bridgy and the crane. The
crane is indispensable, but cannot even approach a Bridgy.

I used a generic 2-ton import engine hoist to lift a Bridgeport off of
a flatbed trailer. It worked fine with the legs all the way extended
and every bolt tightened. Just don't try to roll the hoist around with
the mill in the air - the caster pins will just crumple. I made a dolly
with a lot of clearance underneath to roll over the engine hoist legs.

Pick up mill. Move trailer out from underneath it. Roll dolly under mill.
Let down on dolly. Roll mill to where you need it. Reposition engine hoist.
Lift mill slightly. Remove dolly. Set mill down gently between hoist legs
(make sure ahead of time it will fit!). Remove engine hoist & dolly,
skid mill slightly to get it into final position.

Grant
** Posted from http://www.teranews.com **

I highly recommend using the hoist to remove the head/ram assembly from
the base and moving them separately. This is a simple matter of removing
the four bolts that attach it to the base. When moving a Bridgeport with
something like an engine hoist this makes the process a lot easier and
safer by significantly lowering the CG as well as the total weight
lifted at one time.

Pete C. wrote:
Grant Erwin wrote:

Ignoramus26581 wrote:


Reason I'm asking is to try and determine if a Harbor Freight shop
crane (2 ton) has enough height / reach to slide under the end of a
trailer and lift it up off of the trailer.

Absolutely NOT. Not by far. I own both a bridgy and the crane. The
crane is indispensable, but cannot even approach a Bridgy.

I used a generic 2-ton import engine hoist to lift a Bridgeport off of
a flatbed trailer. It worked fine with the legs all the way extended
and every bolt tightened. Just don't try to roll the hoist around with
the mill in the air - the caster pins will just crumple. I made a dolly
with a lot of clearance underneath to roll over the engine hoist legs.

Pick up mill. Move trailer out from underneath it. Roll dolly under mill.
Let down on dolly. Roll mill to where you need it. Reposition engine hoist.
Lift mill slightly. Remove dolly. Set mill down gently between hoist legs
(make sure ahead of time it will fit!). Remove engine hoist & dolly,
skid mill slightly to get it into final position.

Grant
** Posted from http://www.teranews.com **


I highly recommend using the hoist to remove the head/ram assembly from
the base and moving them separately. This is a simple matter of removing
the four bolts that attach it to the base. When moving a Bridgeport with
something like an engine hoist this makes the process a lot easier and
safer by significantly lowering the CG as well as the total weight
lifted at one time.

It would be easy and safe until the head/ram assembly tips over on you.
The mill's CG is pretty much under the 5/8-11 hole on top of the ram,
but if you lift the ram/head by that lifting hole, there's no guarantee
that it will be balanced at all. So do it dang carefully.

Plus, that leaves you with no good way to lift the mill. The lifting eye
is gone, as are the front/back of the ram. The former is the way to lift
with a single point, the latter are the way to pick up the mill using
a sling to a single hook or using a forklift. With the top off the mill,
all bets are off. Maybe you could bolt some chain to the body, using the
4 holes on top where the ram connected.

Have you ever done this, Pete?

Grant
** Posted from http://www.teranews.com **

Grant Erwin wrote:

Pete C. wrote:
Grant Erwin wrote:

Ignoramus26581 wrote:


Reason I'm asking is to try and determine if a Harbor Freight shop
crane (2 ton) has enough height / reach to slide under the end of a
trailer and lift it up off of the trailer.

Absolutely NOT. Not by far. I own both a bridgy and the crane. The
crane is indispensable, but cannot even approach a Bridgy.

I used a generic 2-ton import engine hoist to lift a Bridgeport off of
a flatbed trailer. It worked fine with the legs all the way extended
and every bolt tightened. Just don't try to roll the hoist around with
the mill in the air - the caster pins will just crumple. I made a dolly
with a lot of clearance underneath to roll over the engine hoist legs.

Pick up mill. Move trailer out from underneath it. Roll dolly under mill.
Let down on dolly. Roll mill to where you need it. Reposition engine hoist.
Lift mill slightly. Remove dolly. Set mill down gently between hoist legs
(make sure ahead of time it will fit!). Remove engine hoist & dolly,
skid mill slightly to get it into final position.

Grant
** Posted from http://www.teranews.com **


I highly recommend using the hoist to remove the head/ram assembly from
the base and moving them separately. This is a simple matter of removing
the four bolts that attach it to the base. When moving a Bridgeport with
something like an engine hoist this makes the process a lot easier and
safer by significantly lowering the CG as well as the total weight
lifted at one time.

It would be easy and safe until the head/ram assembly tips over on you.
The mill's CG is pretty much under the 5/8-11 hole on top of the ram,
but if you lift the ram/head by that lifting hole, there's no guarantee
that it will be balanced at all. So do it dang carefully.

Plus, that leaves you with no good way to lift the mill. The lifting eye
is gone, as are the front/back of the ram. The former is the way to lift
with a single point, the latter are the way to pick up the mill using
a sling to a single hook or using a forklift. With the top off the mill,
all bets are off. Maybe you could bolt some chain to the body, using the
4 holes on top where the ram connected.

Have you ever done this, Pete?

Several times before I got a forklift. The lift point for the base is a
piece of unistrut attached across the two front holes on the base where
the ram attaches.

GeoLane at PTD dot NET GeoLane at PTD dot NET wrote:

What's the height from the floor to the top of the ram on a Bridgeport
J / 2J vertical mill?

Reason I'm asking is to try and determine if a Harbor Freight shop
crane (2 ton) has enough height / reach to slide under the end of a
trailer and lift it up off of the trailer. The other alternative is
to slide it down a ramp of some sort with a comealong winching it
down. I'm not thrilled about sliding a top heavy item with a narrow
base down a ramp.

RWL

I put up a couple pages from a manual here.

http://www.garage-machinist.com/Brid...portHeight.jpg
http://www.garage-machinist.com/Brid...eportWidth.jpg

Some dimensions are on it and you can scale the rest.

I'd consider removing the head from the machine and stowing it in your truck.
Then take off the ram, turret, and adaptor off, a good 350#+ off and lashing that down,
then put the headless base on your trailer.

http://wess.freeshell.org/usenet/rec...C02983_vga.jpg


It is pretty stable then.

HTH,

Wes

On Sat, 04 Oct 2008 03:06:36 -0400, Wes wrote:

I put up a couple pages from a manual here.

http://www.garage-machinist.com/Brid...portHeight.jpg

Thanks. Iggy had that diagram too. That's the one I used to do the
calculation that it should be about 59-60". Sadly, the measurement
itself isn't on the diagram and an inch or two may be critical
depending on the height of the trailer.

I've found a couple sites with photos of how you guys have moved your
BPs. If I can lift the entire mill without removing the head, that
would be easiest. Probably going to have to roll it on pipes on
planks over the level grass to the back door of the cellar. Yeah,
when I built my house 22 years ago I made sure I had a walk in door
after having to pull a Clausing lathe and my Hardinge UM mill up
steps. Shoulda had a wider door put in to eliminate the need for
possibly having to remove the BP's table, but money was tighter then.

Thanks to all of you for your suggestions / help so far and thanks
Richard for measuring yours. Off now to Harbor Freight in
Harrisburg. There's one that will be closer to me in Williamsport
starting Nov 1st. My first trip to a HF store today.


RWL in beautiful central PA
(on a rainy Saturday AM )