moving a bridgeport and lathe.

At my last house I got them through the garage door, then an immediate right with an 8" step, then 3 more steps (all concrete)

Its easier than you think.

At my shop I flipped the head of the mill 180 degrees and used a chain and brought it though the 7' garage door with my bobcat. lathe was even easier

 

Lots of great advice........however, if you don't have experience in this field ( rigging), hire a professional. It may be cheaper (and safer) in the long run. I'm a machinery hauler by trade and have seen more than one nightmare of guys trying to move machines.
(from pure stupidity ,to too many "chiefs").
If you give it a try just remember to take it slow,use your common sense and if you think something feels unsafe, it probably is! ............good luck!

 

You should really hire a rigger to move these machines. It is incredibly easy to damage a Bridgeport or large lathe trying to move them without the proper equipment. It is one thing to move heavy machinery a couple of feet over a smooth flat floor and something entirely different trying to move the same equipment a couple of miles (or further). Drop one of these precision machines and you will be planning on how to haul it to the scrap dealer. Both the lathe and the mill are top heavy which makes them especially hard to move without the proper equipment. Both are easy to tip over while loading or unloading onto a trailer. If you absolutely must try to move them yourself I can offer the following tips: Rotate the head on the mill until the motor is next to the table to make it less top heavy. Then raise the mill table up to support the head using 2X4's between the table and the mill head/motor. Many/most/all lathes can be lifted using the lifting accessory that comes with Many/most/all lathes... the accessory is nothing more than a fitted bar that goes under the lathe ways and is drilled for an eye bolt. The fitted bar is positioned at the center of gravity, under the ways, and the eye bolt extends up between the ways for a hoist to be attached. It would be smart to consult the manuals for the lathe and the Mill since both contain instructions on how to move them. Both the mill and the lathe and any other reasonably "light" machines can be moved short distances over a smooth floor by using some scrap printed circuit boards inserted under the machines base or legs. The printed circuit boards are made of really tough material which is also very slick. In my experience the printed circuit boards do not tend to slip out from under the legs or base and with sufficient man power the machines will slide fairly easily... just remember to push down low so you don't tip the machine over. I own and have moved my Bridgeport and my 1340 lathe three times. Each time I have hired a rigger since the moves involved long distances, steep driveways etc. I have never regretted the money I spent on the riggers. The machines arrived safe and sound and placed exactly where I wanted them. And, as a bonus, I still had all my fingers and toes!

 

Along with all the other advice, may I add, that while pushing & pulling this stuff around, don't push & pull on the machine handles, they can break off.
Be careful, take your time, plan your movements.
And make DAMN SURE they are secure on whatever you move them with, they won't stay put just because the're heavy!

 

i seen it done with a flat bed tow truck and oil .. thats i i can say .

 

If you bought the machines for a good price, I'd step up and hire a machinery mover and save your backs. Consider it part of the purchase price, same as you would if you had to travel out of town/state to trailer home a car you purchaed.

FWIW, I doubt a Bobcat will be able to safely do the lifting portion. Not enough reach and it will probably tip once it starts to lift the weight.

 

Thanks guys.


The guy who has them says he used a roll back style car trailor and just man handled them in the garage. Pretty much every lever on the mill is broke and welded, but I'm 100% sure it never fell.

This guy's back yard is a weird setup thats real small, garage opens up to dirt basically. No concrete outside of the garage.

the only equipment company I've called so far said their insurance will cover how ever much I have invested but not an actual replacement. This doesn't help me much in case of an accident because I can't find these machines anywhere else thats semi local for a good price. The guy isnt "hooking" me up with them but the price is very fair IMO and I'm sure to replace would cost me more.

I'd rather just do it myself, take my time and get it done. I'm going to look into getting some rollers to roll them out. I also got a buddy who has 2 big electric sissor lifts so we're going to try and borrow both of his trailors. One for each piece. I'm hoping to just roll them out the garage straight onto the trailor.


Also to who ever asked, we are getting the phase converters.

Thanks again.

 

We used an engine hoist to move our Bridgeport and Clausing Lathe. Just rolled them over to a box truck with a lift, then did the reverse when we got them to the new destination.

 

engine hoist the first time and It almost flipped on me....

welded up some heavy duty cars on wheels and lifted it up slowly with a pipe and bottle jack... slid the wheeled dollies under... bolted it to the legs of my lathe and pushed it around.

 

I always hired a local machinery mover when I needed something heavy moved. They moved my Bridgeport and swiveled the head, I guess to get a better center of gravity. They off loaded my mill and latch with a small fork lift once they got to my house, took all of 15 minutes to get both pieces in place.

Most movers will cut you a decent deal on a cash transaction.

Bob

 

When we moved our Bridgeports, we used a rented pallet jack and ramps. Just support the ramps to take out the flex and you'll be fine. Moving a lathe that small, a cherry picker will work just fine. The lathe should come in right about a 1000 lbs.

 

"Also to who ever asked, we are getting the phase converters." I have used both Rotophase phase converters and inverters to power my 3 phase machines. I have also had 3 phase power available at one time. The best of the three options is true 3 phase power... the machines run quieter and cooler. The worst option is the Rotophase... the machines run noisy and lose a certain amount of torque. Worst of all, the Rotophase machines are noisy so don't mount them on a sheetrock wall. The only thing worse than a Rotophase, IMHO, are the "buzz boxes" that can be used to run 3 phase motors. The inverters are the "bees knees" for both the lathe and the mill. The inverters are solid state so there is no noise. The inverters can be used as an infinite speed control as well although you lose some torque when you slow the machine down with an inverter... but since both machines have gearing you simply switch to a lower gear to get the torque back. When using the lathes to cut threads the ability to further slow the machine down is really nice. The inverters are available at about the same price as the Rotophase machines. If you do a search of the machinist forums you will find that the consensus favors the inverters if you don't have 3 phase power.

 

I have moved a few over the years, the pipe method works well to get them out of the buildings then pick them up with our boom wrecker and put on flat bed trailers. I would use 2x6's to disperse the weight

 

these converters are solid state. maybe I was calling them the wrong thing. my bad.

 

Before I tried picking that thing up with a skid steer I would find the weight of what I was lifting, then check the capacity of the skid steer, most of the standard size loaders are only rated to around 1850 lbs. I also would not use a skid steer with wheels for lifting since they tend to tip way before you reach the load capacity. If you can use a tracked skid steer, the tracks move the tip point more to the back. also I would use nothing smaller than a T220 Bobcat or something close to that.

I have moved heavy printing equipment for years and now I load and haul heavy ag equipment every day. we use just about every method to lift and move heavy stuff all day.

One other thing is you might want to check on using a Lull, with that you may (depending on the weight capacity) be able to just reach into the shop, pick up what you need and load it. I say this with out seeing what you are wanting to move and where it is.

Dude

 

I have a set of plastic blocks that I made out of nylon, heavy duty version of furniture sliders. They slide real easy on smoothe concrete. An old guy told me they used to move steam boilers around in basements by setting them on blocks of ice, get it to where you want then just let the ice melt out from under it.

 

^ Rad.

 

as a update we got everything moved. the plan was to use a box truck with a lift gate with capacity up to 4K.

well we got to the old mans backyard and he said the box truck would fit but he forgot about the telephone and cable being about 10 feet off the ground. So we left the box truck in the street and got a local independent roll back wrecker to get in there and yank them out the garage. Pulled one at a time out the garage with the roll back and put them in the box truck. Strapped them down by drilling holes and using eyebolts in the floor. We filled the holes before returning the truck.

then drove them an hour in the box truck to my dads shop, and off loaded them using a forklift and the lift gate.

When transporting them to their final destination we just used a roll back again moving one at a time 15 minutes down the road.

Both pieces are safe and sound. Thanks everyone for the advice and ideas.

 

I flipped the head on my bridgeport and brought through an 8' garage door with my bobcat. No issue