Kim's Shop

[Tennessee Whiskey]

Kim, I'd be nervous about jacking up the corners. That warning sticker is absolutely correct, these lathes are extremely top heavy. Have you tried to come in from the ends of the lathe with the lift. If you pick straight up from the tailstock end just far enough to slide the pallet pieces out that might help. My manual showed the lifting points and rigging layout and that really helped me pick mine up. Just be super careful, I wouldn't want to see you damage your new sweetie and I darn sure wouldn't want you to get hurt. She is a beauty and can't wait to see the first chips. Just remember that she is more top heavy than Dolly Parton 

Whiskey

[PatJ]

I had a similar problem with my new air compressor, but I don't have a lift.

I very precariously leaned the compressor over like the tower of Pisa using a chain hoist tied to the basketball pole that is imbedded in the ground, cut the pallet off of one side, leaned it back the other way, removed the rest of the pallet, and it was on the floor.  A dangerous thing to do with a 450 lb vertical compressor with the motor and compressor on top.
But I lived to tell about it.

I walked it into the shop, sort of using the Egyptian method, leaning, rotating, prying.

I would do as Don mentioned, lift one end, remove the pallet from that end, then lift the other end and do the same, but very carefully.
Not sure if that would give your crane a hernia or not.

I have been known to lift things from the ceiling also.
I added some beams above the ceiling joists in my shop, and put two heavy-duty eyes in the ceiling, and have lifted large items with that using a chain hoist.

I move my lathe across the floor with a prybar, a 1/2" at a time, and then level it with a precision level once I get it where I want it.
You don't want the ways twisted, and my garage floor is not flat.

[Dave Otto]

Hi Kim

What Eric said.

It appears that the sub pallet is smaller that the one the machine is mounted to; so could you pick each end and install blocks 4x4s crosswise at end, then slid the sub pallet out of the way? You could crib it up enough so that when the sub pallet is removed you would have enough room to roll the shop crane into position.

Just some thoughts.

Dave

[Kim]

Good food for thought!  Thanks Eric, Pat, and Dave for the input.

I agree that lifting from the corners doesn't sound so good.  But I'm only talking about raising it 1/4" so I can get the pallet out.  When we were unloading it I saw the thing tilt much more than 1/4" on one side and still stayed upright!  But I realize its nothing to play with!  I certainly don't want to move the center of gravity very much.  If it went a little too far, over it would go, and nothing would stop it!  I am very wary of that!

I'll ponder it more.  If anyone has any other ideas, don't hesitate!

I do like the idea of just trying to get the sub-pallet out.  That would really help.  but unfortunately, its not tall enough for legs of the shop crane to fit under the skids that the lathe is bolted to, and its too wide for the legs to go around it - even on the ends.  I may have to do something destructive to the skids and pallet. But I'll have to do it carefully, since that's what the 1400lbs behemoth is currently resting on!

Thanks for all your help,
Kim

[Dave Otto]

How about a jack centered on the short ends or with enough leverage you could lift it up with a long pry bar. Work on one end at a time until you have enough cribbing under each end to slide the sub pallet out of the way. I have a handy man jack that lift each end with out even breaking a sweat.

Dave

[mklotz]

Just thinking out loud here (i.e., ignore if idiotic)...

Would it be a good safety measure to secure the lathe to an overhead joist with a short choker arranged so the lathe could not get more than, say, ten degrees from vertical whilst removing the pallet?

[Kim]

It's amazing what a day of turkey with your family will do for you!

At some point in the day the same basic idea came to me that you outlined Dave!  I think that'll get me there.  And I do have a nice short jack that should do the trick.

I was also pondering the concept your suggesting Marv.  I'd have to get some tackle to do that though.  And I'm trying to envision a method of using the shop crane as a back-up safety.  It might not be perfect, but if it would keep it from falling over on to the floor (or on me!) that would be a positive.

I'm feeling good about it!  I've got a lot of good options!
Thanks,
Kim

[Kim]

OK, a few pics now.  Here's where I'd left things Wednesday evening.  I wasn't sure how to get the legs of the crane under the lathe so I could lift it up.


But, based on comments, feedback and contemplation, I came up with this.  Seems so completely obvious now of course!


This let me get the shipping pallet out from under the lathe, which was great!  Unfortunately, It needed to be an inch or two higher to get the crane underneath the skid/pallet that the lathe is bolted to.  So I did a couple more back and forths, lifting one end up a bit then the other a bit more till I could get the crane under.

With that big step accomplished, I proceeded to get the crane setup and a strap/harness configured that would allow me to raise the lathe.  During this process I took off the backsplash.  I suppose that seems obvious to everyone, but I thought it was a pretty inspired move!  I'm kind-a surprised that it doesn't say anything about that in the manual!

Anyway, after lots of tries and moving things back and forth by little bits here and there, I think I've got it fairly well balanced.


And that's where I left it for last night.

My plan for today is to shorten the crane boom to bring the lathe in closer to the center of crane (hopefully that will make it easier to move around safely).  Once I get it turned around in the right position, I'll unbolt it from the transport skids and lift it off of that. I want to leave the additional width, provided by the skids, attached to the lathe as long as possible.  A wider base makes it more stable!

Once I get the skids off, then I'll set the lathe on blocks and move the crane around to the head end of the lathe to lift it off the blocks and set it in its final resting place.  I can't just set it down with the crane attached in front as it is because the foot break isn't high enough to clear the legs of the crane.  But it looks quite doable from the headstock end.

Thanks for all the help and encouragement in thinking through this delicate operation!
Kim

[tel]

Good progress - the rest should be a doddle!

[mklotz]

Looking good.  Slow and steady is the way to go.


Just a reminder...

Ensure that you have someone watching (emphasis on NOT participating) when you start lifting.  Zeus forbid anything should go wrong but, were it to do so, you want someone standing by to call the appropriate help.

[Dave Otto]

Hi Kim

Great progress! Glad to see the nice nylon lifting straps; you would hate to scratch up your new baby with chains.

After you remove the pallet you could use the long timers (disassemble the pallet) to span to left and right across the legs of your crane; then lower the lathe onto the timbers while keeping most of the load on the straps. This would keep the lathe from swing around while you are rolling it into place.

Dave

[Kim]

Thanks for the encouragement Tel, Marv, and Dave.  It was pretty straight forward from there on. Actually, the whole thing was quite straight forward.  Just had to come up with a workable plan!

I did pretty much exactly as I described above.  And Dave, while I didn't take apart their pallet,I just used it as a way to distribute the weight on the crane legs so things didn't go spinning around while I was rotating it into position.   It worked well!  it was quite stable!  Here it is part way through the rotation/repositioning process.


I did try using a come-along to help move the crane, but that wasn't as big a help as I thought it would be.  It may be the cheap caster on my Harbor Freight crane, but the casters didn't want to swivel and would just skid sideways across the  shop floor.  The biggest help I found was to rotate the casters individually so they were pointing the way I wanted to go.  Then I could relatively easily move the crane in that direction.

So here we are, mostly in position, ready to unbolt the shipping pallet.


And here it is, AFTER the shipping pallet was removed (you can see it leaning up against the shelves right behind the lathe) and being set down gently on some blocks so I could back the crane out.


Finally, having repositioned the crane over the headstock end, and re-finding a tolerable balance point, it was lifted off the blocks, and was set gently on the ground - well, mostly - I put a chunk of 1x where the feet will be.


Yeah, the nylon straps seemed like a good idea. That yellow one is rated at 2 Tons.  The red ones are only a few hundred pounds, but they aren't supposed to be carrying the weight.  I just added those as a way to help ensure the load didn't shift left or right.   The Yellow strap is one long (20') strap looped around.  I wanted to protect against the possibility that if the lathe were slightly unbalanced it could start to slide to one side and become even MORE unbalanced!  The red straps only connected to one end to prevent that shifting from happening.

I also put some wood blocks against the ways to protect the gearbox knobs.  They might have been OK, but that is a LOT of force, and I'd hate to have one of them get bent or broken!


I'm leaving the crane setup there for now.  I'll have to raise it up again in a few days when the rest of my shipment from Grizzly gets in.  Funny how the big freight item arrived almost a week ahead of all the regular shipped items!  I'd assumed it would be the other way around! Ah well, makes Christmas last longer

Thanks,
Kim

[tel]

Well executed! Ain't it grand when a plan comes together!

[Dave Otto]

Nice work Kim!

Time to kick back have a cold one and admire your new toy

 
Dave

[mklotz]

Congratulations on a dangerous job completed safely.   Once again you've confirmed the wisdom of taking one's time and thinking through each step.

I guess I can discard my alternate suggestion which involved wrapping the lathe in a fire blanket and then setting fire to the pallet to remove it.  Impractical but spectacular!