Wow. This sounds a lot like my experience moving a Bridgeport
Series 1 J-Head from New Hampshire to Virginia, then from my garage
to my walkout basement. I rented one of those box trucks that looks
like an ordinary van with the back hacked off and a box replacing it. I
drove it empty up there, and got my kidneys well bruised in the process.
I was impressed at how the 2000lb mill smoothed out the ride of the van.
When I picked up the mill, we bolted the base to 4x4s and lifted it
with
a forklift into the back of the truck. A little push here and there slid
it into
position, then we jammed more 4x4s in to snug the rig against the sides of

the bed. A network like this kept the mill upright and from sliding
around
in the truck. Then 8 hours of more gentle driving got it home.
My neighbor saw me with the truck backed up to the driveway apron
and the rollup door open. "Whatcha got there?" he says. "It's a MILLING
MACHINE" I said with pride. "How'd ya get it on the truck?" he asks.
"With a forklift" I reply. "Do you know how you're gonna get it off?" he
asks. "No" I reply.
A trip to the Depot followed. Two hours later, I had completed
construction
of a wood ramp made from plywood, 4x6, and 2x4. I went to the basement
and welded up a dock plate from 1/8th stainless steel, and then rolled a
borrowed pallet jack into the truck for the first trial lifts. The truck
was on
a slight incline - between the "crown" of my street and the slight incline
of the
driveway, the back wheels of the truck rested in the gutter. I lifted the
mill
slightly with the pallet jack and thusly got a healthy respect for what it
feels
like to try to muscle 2000 lbs around single-handedly on such an incline.
Remarkably, the mill was off the truck and completely intact 30 minutes
later.
The 30 minutes were a.) 5 minutes of me forming the plan and b.) 25
minutes
of me working up nerve. Time on the ramp was negligible, once the incline

took effect, and I just steered. I zig-zagged it up the driveway and into
the
garage, where it was cleaned up over the following weekends.
Going from the garage around to the walkout basement proved a bit more

challenging. One aborted attempt was to lay plywood down on the grass
and attempt to roll it down the hill on the pallet jack. After nearly
tipping it
over, I had to rope it to the car to drag it back up the hill and get it
back in
the garage. The stuff of neighborhood legend. I finally wound up renting
a
20 foot stakebed truck with a lift gate. I loaded the mill on the truck,
strapped
it down, and drove it around back, where I put it down in front of the
patio
door at the rear of my basement. To my dismay, the second panel of the
sliding glass door was *not* removable - it was actually built into the
door
frame. So I had to remove the table of the mill (freakin' heavy beast to
move
by hand, BTW). This got the width of the mill narrow enough to fit
through
the door, and after a couple of hours of successive lifting and blocking
with
wood, the mill was finally through the door, where it could be easily
moved
about the concrete floor with the pallet jack.
With the rentals of the two trucks and the materials for the ramp, I
spent
a total of about 20 hours and $1300. I got some minor scrapes and
bruises,
and more than a few really scary moments. If I put a price on the time
spent,
I easily exceeded what it would have cost to have pros do the entire move.

Yeah, I proved I could do it, but I didn't save a thing, and like Holly, I
had
a few opportunities to cause serious damage to life and property. Next
time
I'm going pro all the way. But dammit, it *is* cool to have that milling
machine
down in the basement. I believe a lathe will be next.

-Mark

Holly Gates wrote:

Well, yesterday I finished moving my Nichols mill into my basement. I
had it delivered to my work a few months ago, with the plan of taking
it apart and transporting the pieces by car home using a hand truck. I
don't actually have a car, but I am a member of an hourly rental
service called Zipcar, and there are lots of cars close to my home and
work I can use.

The disassembly was going OK, and I got it down to the base and
column, carting all the other pieces home in various Zipcars. But I
just could not get those two pieces apart. They attach via four bolts
inside the base, and are aligned by two pins. I don't know if they
were painted together, glued together by 50 years of machining mung,
or if those pins were a very tight fit, but no amount of hammering
with the deadblow or levering would get them apart. I had thought of
setting up a system with a jack and threaded rod to get them to part,
but I was sort of worried about breaking something. I also tried using
the knee elevations screw to force them apart but it wasn't happening.
I think the base/column must be something like 600-800 pounds. My
table saw is 500 and I can sort of move it around on the floor a
little bit, and can lift up the edge. This mill base couldn't be
budged and didn't seem at all inclined to lift up in the slightest
with human power.

So I developed a scheme to get this thing from work to my basement.
Zipcar recently got a Tacoma pickup in their fleet a few miles from
home, so yesterday I biked over and picked it up, swung by my house to
get a newly purchased HF manual chain hoist and some lifting slings,
then went to work. We have a little walk behind electric fork lift
thingy there, which I used to get the mill horizontal and on top of a
wesco aluminum handtruck in four wheel mode (rated for 800 pounds in
that configuration). Strapped it down with some ratcheting straps, and
got it to the edge of the loading dock. I had planned on using a dock
plate to make a ramp down to the truck bed, but the plate was too wide
for the pickup so I made a sort of ramp with a stepped stack of
pallets, and other pieces of wood. Then I attached a strap from the
lifting eye on top of the mill to the forks of the truck, with some C
clamps on the forks to keep the straps from sliding off the forks.
Next, I drove the lift forward little by little to slide the hand
truck down the ramp into the truck bed. Originally I was going to do
the lowering with the chain hoist, but I figured using the lift would
be faster.

Unfortunately, the pressure from the straps was too much for the
clamps. At one point in the lowering, they popped off and the hand
truck dropped down onto the partially open but mostly vertical
tailgate of the truck, putting some huge dents in it and bending part
of the handtruck. After some cursing and thinking I was able to get it
into the truck fully using the lift. Strapped it into the truck using
ratcheting straps, then swung by the Depot to buy a bunch of 2x6s and
one 2x10. Luckily the tailgate still worked. At my house I built a
ramp down from the pickup bed, and with help from my housemates
lowered the handtruck down the ramp using the chain hoist. Four people
rolled it up my driveway and around to the basement entry.

Next, we rebuilt the ramp on the basement stairs. Rigged the chain
hoist to lower from the concrete base of a nearby light post, and
pushed the handtruck over the edge. A couple scary moments in there,
but we got it down and the hand truck and mill ended up in the
vertical position. Then I build a lifting setup over the mill using
sistered 2x6s for the vertical members and a 2x10 for the horizontal,
screwed into the floor joist so it wouldn't fall over. Hoisted up the
mill and repositioned the hand truck so the mill could be vertical,
and rolled it over to its storage area. Tonight I will clear the place
for it, roll it over there, rebuild the lifting stand, lift it up, and
set it down on a sturdy small pallet where it will hopefully not move
for a while.

So with about $70 for the car rental (plus maybe $100 of car rentals
for other parts of the mill coming home), $80 for the chain hoist, $50
for timbers, and (hopefully?) $200 for the dent repair on the rental
car, it cost me something like $500 to move it home. I got this mill
for $100 on ebay, by the way. Plus probably at least 30 hours of labor
by the time I get it back together.

Too bad I couldn't find my camera yesterday or I would post some pics.
Maybe its for the better though, so I can pretend it wasn't as
reckless an activity as it seems.

Between the cost, the time, and the couple of scary momemts, I think
next time I will hire riggers!

-Holly

On Sun, 28 Nov 2004 18:57:43 GMT, MJ news wrote:
I recently bought a 3000 lb machine. The guy moving it used a boom
truck. I just wanted it placed in the front of my shop and from there
can move it at will. The boom truck was parked at least 30 feet from
the shop door. The guy picked up the machine off the truck bed and
placed it within an inch of where I asked him to put it. Gently. And
worth every cent of the 500 bucks it cost for the move.
ERS

Wow. This sounds a lot like my experience moving a Bridgeport
Series 1 J-Head from New Hampshire to Virginia, then from my garage
to my walkout basement. I rented one of those box trucks that looks
like an ordinary van with the back hacked off and a box replacing it. I
drove it empty up there, and got my kidneys well bruised in the process.
I was impressed at how the 2000lb mill smoothed out the ride of the van.
When I picked up the mill, we bolted the base to 4x4s and lifted it
with
a forklift into the back of the truck. A little push here and there slid
it into
position, then we jammed more 4x4s in to snug the rig against the sides of

the bed. A network like this kept the mill upright and from sliding
around
in the truck. Then 8 hours of more gentle driving got it home.
My neighbor saw me with the truck backed up to the driveway apron
and the rollup door open. "Whatcha got there?" he says. "It's a MILLING
MACHINE" I said with pride. "How'd ya get it on the truck?" he asks.
"With a forklift" I reply. "Do you know how you're gonna get it off?" he
asks. "No" I reply.
A trip to the Depot followed. Two hours later, I had completed
construction
of a wood ramp made from plywood, 4x6, and 2x4. I went to the basement
and welded up a dock plate from 1/8th stainless steel, and then rolled a
borrowed pallet jack into the truck for the first trial lifts. The truck
was on
a slight incline - between the "crown" of my street and the slight incline
of the
driveway, the back wheels of the truck rested in the gutter. I lifted the
mill
slightly with the pallet jack and thusly got a healthy respect for what it
feels
like to try to muscle 2000 lbs around single-handedly on such an incline.
Remarkably, the mill was off the truck and completely intact 30 minutes
later.
The 30 minutes were a.) 5 minutes of me forming the plan and b.) 25
minutes
of me working up nerve. Time on the ramp was negligible, once the incline

took effect, and I just steered. I zig-zagged it up the driveway and into
the
garage, where it was cleaned up over the following weekends.
Going from the garage around to the walkout basement proved a bit more

challenging. One aborted attempt was to lay plywood down on the grass
and attempt to roll it down the hill on the pallet jack. After nearly
tipping it
over, I had to rope it to the car to drag it back up the hill and get it
back in
the garage. The stuff of neighborhood legend. I finally wound up renting
a
20 foot stakebed truck with a lift gate. I loaded the mill on the truck,
strapped
it down, and drove it around back, where I put it down in front of the
patio
door at the rear of my basement. To my dismay, the second panel of the
sliding glass door was *not* removable - it was actually built into the
door
frame. So I had to remove the table of the mill (freakin' heavy beast to
move
by hand, BTW). This got the width of the mill narrow enough to fit
through
the door, and after a couple of hours of successive lifting and blocking
with
wood, the mill was finally through the door, where it could be easily
moved
about the concrete floor with the pallet jack.
With the rentals of the two trucks and the materials for the ramp, I
spent
a total of about 20 hours and $1300. I got some minor scrapes and
bruises,
and more than a few really scary moments. If I put a price on the time
spent,
I easily exceeded what it would have cost to have pros do the entire move.

Yeah, I proved I could do it, but I didn't save a thing, and like Holly, I
had
a few opportunities to cause serious damage to life and property. Next
time
I'm going pro all the way. But dammit, it *is* cool to have that milling
machine
down in the basement. I believe a lathe will be next.

-Mark

Holly Gates wrote:

Well, yesterday I finished moving my Nichols mill into my basement. I
had it delivered to my work a few months ago, with the plan of taking
it apart and transporting the pieces by car home using a hand truck. I
don't actually have a car, but I am a member of an hourly rental
service called Zipcar, and there are lots of cars close to my home and
work I can use.

The disassembly was going OK, and I got it down to the base and
column, carting all the other pieces home in various Zipcars. But I
just could not get those two pieces apart. They attach via four bolts
inside the base, and are aligned by two pins. I don't know if they
were painted together, glued together by 50 years of machining mung,
or if those pins were a very tight fit, but no amount of hammering
with the deadblow or levering would get them apart. I had thought of
setting up a system with a jack and threaded rod to get them to part,
but I was sort of worried about breaking something. I also tried using
the knee elevations screw to force them apart but it wasn't happening.
I think the base/column must be something like 600-800 pounds. My
table saw is 500 and I can sort of move it around on the floor a
little bit, and can lift up the edge. This mill base couldn't be
budged and didn't seem at all inclined to lift up in the slightest
with human power.

So I developed a scheme to get this thing from work to my basement.
Zipcar recently got a Tacoma pickup in their fleet a few miles from
home, so yesterday I biked over and picked it up, swung by my house to
get a newly purchased HF manual chain hoist and some lifting slings,
then went to work. We have a little walk behind electric fork lift
thingy there, which I used to get the mill horizontal and on top of a
wesco aluminum handtruck in four wheel mode (rated for 800 pounds in
that configuration). Strapped it down with some ratcheting straps, and
got it to the edge of the loading dock. I had planned on using a dock
plate to make a ramp down to the truck bed, but the plate was too wide
for the pickup so I made a sort of ramp with a stepped stack of
pallets, and other pieces of wood. Then I attached a strap from the
lifting eye on top of the mill to the forks of the truck, with some C
clamps on the forks to keep the straps from sliding off the forks.
Next, I drove the lift forward little by little to slide the hand
truck down the ramp into the truck bed. Originally I was going to do
the lowering with the chain hoist, but I figured using the lift would
be faster.

Unfortunately, the pressure from the straps was too much for the
clamps. At one point in the lowering, they popped off and the hand
truck dropped down onto the partially open but mostly vertical
tailgate of the truck, putting some huge dents in it and bending part
of the handtruck. After some cursing and thinking I was able to get it
into the truck fully using the lift. Strapped it into the truck using
ratcheting straps, then swung by the Depot to buy a bunch of 2x6s and
one 2x10. Luckily the tailgate still worked. At my house I built a
ramp down from the pickup bed, and with help from my housemates
lowered the handtruck down the ramp using the chain hoist. Four people
rolled it up my driveway and around to the basement entry.

Next, we rebuilt the ramp on the basement stairs. Rigged the chain
hoist to lower from the concrete base of a nearby light post, and
pushed the handtruck over the edge. A couple scary moments in there,
but we got it down and the hand truck and mill ended up in the
vertical position. Then I build a lifting setup over the mill using
sistered 2x6s for the vertical members and a 2x10 for the horizontal,
screwed into the floor joist so it wouldn't fall over. Hoisted up the
mill and repositioned the hand truck so the mill could be vertical,
and rolled it over to its storage area. Tonight I will clear the place
for it, roll it over there, rebuild the lifting stand, lift it up, and
set it down on a sturdy small pallet where it will hopefully not move
for a while.

So with about $70 for the car rental (plus maybe $100 of car rentals
for other parts of the mill coming home), $80 for the chain hoist, $50
for timbers, and (hopefully?) $200 for the dent repair on the rental
car, it cost me something like $500 to move it home. I got this mill
for $100 on ebay, by the way. Plus probably at least 30 hours of labor
by the time I get it back together.

Too bad I couldn't find my camera yesterday or I would post some pics.
Maybe its for the better though, so I can pretend it wasn't as
reckless an activity as it seems.

Between the cost, the time, and the couple of scary momemts, I think
next time I will hire riggers!

-Holly

In article , Eric R Snow says...

On Sun, 28 Nov 2004 18:57:43 GMT, MJ news wrote:
I recently bought a 3000 lb machine. The guy moving it used a boom
truck. I just wanted it placed in the front of my shop and from there
can move it at will. The boom truck was parked at least 30 feet from
the shop door. The guy picked up the machine off the truck bed and
placed it within an inch of where I asked him to put it. Gently. And
worth every cent of the 500 bucks it cost for the move.
ERS

Just don't let him pick up any white cars out of the drink
with it!

Jim


--
==================================================
please reply to:
JRR(zero) at pkmfgvm4 (dot) vnet (dot) ibm (dot) com
==================================================

On 28 Nov 2004 13:22:11 -0800, jim rozen
wrote:

In article , Eric R Snow says...

On Sun, 28 Nov 2004 18:57:43 GMT, MJ news wrote:
I recently bought a 3000 lb machine. The guy moving it used a boom
truck. I just wanted it placed in the front of my shop and from there
can move it at will. The boom truck was parked at least 30 feet from
the shop door. The guy picked up the machine off the truck bed and
placed it within an inch of where I asked him to put it. Gently. And
worth every cent of the 500 bucks it cost for the move.
ERS

Just don't let him pick up any white cars out of the drink
with it!

Jim
Yeah! Though the guy I used probably wouldn't have had the same
trouble. He hoisted a sailboat from the water up onto the Deception
Pass bridge and on a trailer behind his rig. The water is about 200
feet below the bridge.
ERS

I also put a Bridgeport in the basment... Piece by piece with my
backhoe...Putting it back together was the real fun...
I had a friend but my large lathe in the basement to... He used a
Prentice loader... That was wild... Trying to drop it an inch would
drop around 12-14 inches... No control...

When we moved to Maine last year, I borrowed a forklift from a guy in
town--no charge!

It turned out to have a serious leak in the mast hydraulics; I had to
keep goosing the up lever while moving across the driveway between the
moving truck and the barn. Really difficult. The next time I got one
with a driver, worth every penny.

Steve

Kevin Beitz wrote:

I also put a Bridgeport in the basment... Piece by piece with my
backhoe...Putting it back together was the real fun...
I had a friend but my large lathe in the basement to... He used a
Prentice loader... That was wild... Trying to drop it an inch would
drop around 12-14 inches... No control...

On Sun, 28 Nov 2004 18:57:43 GMT, MJ news wrote:
I recently bought a 3000 lb machine. The guy moving it used a boom
truck. I just wanted it placed in the front of my shop and from there
can move it at will. The boom truck was parked at least 30 feet from
the shop door. The guy picked up the machine off the truck bed and
placed it within an inch of where I asked him to put it. Gently. And
worth every cent of the 500 bucks it cost for the move.
ERS
Ok, but you missed out on the "sense of adventure" G
*and* and opportunity to tell some amazing and bone-chilling stories.
Ken.

Eric R Snow wrote:
....
He hoisted a sailboat from the water up onto the Deception
Pass bridge and on a trailer behind his rig. The water is about 200
feet below the bridge.

Boy!, that's sumthin' I would have paid to watch. Too cool!

Follow up to this story:

I got the bill from Zipcar for the dent repair. about $800! @$#@$%!
Insurance has a $500 deductable, but still that seems like a lot for a
dent. Maybe that is just because I am not used to paying for car
repairs. Anyway, it would have been marginally worth it without the
dent, not including my time and the risk factor. With the $500 dent
thrown it, there is no question on the matter. Not to mention the
awkward conversation with my wife on why my $100 milling machine ended
up costing $800 extra. Drat!

-holly