Heavy machinery moving

[Jonathan Shaw]

At Tuesday's CNC meeting we agreed to look seriously at getting a used mill as one option. 

I just bid (and lost) on a series 2 bridgeport (more discussion in the LSH CNC group). A big issue that this has brought up is moving such a machine.

The cheapest I got quoted to move this 2555kg machine (say 2m x 2m x 2.5m) from Birmingham was £700, and that was probably just to our loading bay, not down the the basement. This could be about the same as the price of the machine itself (or more!). It seems important to investigate this more as it might be one of the most difficult and expensive parts of the whole process of getting ourselves a working quality CNC machine. 

Before we bid seriously on another machine, we need to have a better understanding of how to most economically move such a machine.

Does anyone out there have experience with moving heavy machinery?

Any ideas for a firm that has cheap rates for this kind of work?

Anyone have access free or cheap to a HIAB truck? A forklift?

Do we just need it delivered to our loading bay, or do we need outside help getting it in place in the basement?

How would we roll it into the lift and along the basement?

If we dismantled it, how would be reassemble the components in the basement? Presumably the bits weight several hundred kg each?

If we did dismantle it, how much would the heaviest bit left be?

How much is the lift rated to carry?

All thoughts much appreciated

Jonathan

[Marc Barto]

Thanks Jonathan for your time and efforts. 

Regarding the lift, weigh up to 4050kgs (http://wiki.london.hackspace.org.uk/view/Lift) 

[Russ Garrett]

As far as I'm aware, proper big mills are a big pain to disassemble,
and they're usually transported in one piece. The turret from a
bridgeport weighs in excess of 250kg and will need a hoist to remove
(and reattach). Just as a comparison: the entire 3-in-1 weighs about
250kg assembled.

The issue with the lift is going to be size rather than carrying
capacity, but I'd like to double check with our lift contractors
before we put anything seriously heavy in it.

The other issue is getting it in the lift: it either needs lifting to
loading bay level, or moving round inside to the ground entrance
(which I think is unlikely to work).

Moving it around inside: I have no idea. My normal approach is useless
here. My recommendation to look at specialist machinery movers. I
don't want anyone dropping a Bridgeport on their toe.

Russ

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[Nigel Worsley]

> Does anyone out there have experience with moving heavy machinery?

A little.

> Any ideas for a firm that has cheap rates for this kind of work?

I could check with the people we use at work, but I think they are into rather bigger stuff (typically 25 tonnes for us).

> Do we just need it delivered to our loading bay, or do we need outside help getting it in place in the basement?

Delivery to the loading bay should be fine.

> How would we roll it into the lift and along the basement?

Pallet trucks are good for up to 2500kg, moving skates are the usual method of handling bigger stuff. This sort of thing:
http://www.safetyliftingear.com/home/item_overview.asp?id=376&groupid=3&subgroupid=4
Bottle jacks are usually used to lift the item on and off the skates or pallet.

I can probably borrow skates and bottle jacks from work, and maybe a pallet truck.

> If we dismantled it, how would be reassemble the components in the basement?

With great difficulty. It would probably need careful realignment afterwards too. Best avoided if possible.

Nigle

[Simon Howes]

I'd recommend against a cnc bridgeport.
There's a reason they're going cheap
Very low spindle speed but high torque (not suited to small things and small end mills)
weird oldskool electronics that are very expensive to replace
...and very heavy high torque, making even replacing with a modern equivalent expensive
  Many expensive parts

Don't get me wrong, I love the oldskool bridgeports. We'd probably do quite well with a manual one...

Many of the newer cnc machines are much smaller and lighter with high speed spindles. Sadly, this is recognized by other hobbyists in the market so they tend to cost a bit more.

I saw the most amazing cnc mill in a factory once. My friend had bought it for £700. It was making doors for a door company. It was so tall it wouldn't fit in my mates house! it was a beautiful machine, with all sorts of toolchangers and multiple xyz stages(!) but sadly he had to let it go. It was too massive :/

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[Adrian Godwin]

There's a guy called landylift who advertises on the homeworkshop site. Nottinghack used him for their bridgy and found him very economical. Based up north so probably best for a purchase from there.

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[invent_or]

We move safes using mostly a set of crowbars and steel bars as rollers. On a flat hard surface it is fairly easy.

It's hard to say without seeing the item, but extreme weight has crushing risks, and floor loadings have to be considered - lifts and stairs, and floor boards, especially with point loads from things like pinchbars or the small roller units ("skates") sometimes used. A flat bottom makes life far easier, except for at the start and finish - mind fingers and toes! A toe jack or a roller-crowbar can be used to start the lift, or, if you don't care about the ground, hammer a crowbar under the edge, and get the first bars under it, repeat at the other end, then drag and push as you see fit, moving the bars as you'd expect.

Single steps aren't too bad, as you can slide things down wooden pallets or planks. Multiple steps are for specialist movers! Stairs are fun, even for the pros...

N

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[AndHab]

Landylift seems to be based somewhere in West Yorkshire, could get a little bit expensive to have something brought down to London even if we get a machine from somewhere in the Rhubarb Triangle.

On Thursday, 15 August 2013 21:27:21 UTC+1, artg...@googlemail.com wrote:

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[Jonathan Shaw]

Thanks guys - that's been really helpful.

I'm wondering if we would be satisfied with something a lot lighter, thereby saving a fortune on the moving of it. 

What's the most kg (and height) we could transport with an ordinary self-drive hired vehicle? 

Often there's loading equipment where we would collect from. If we could drive it ourselves in a flat-bed truck and and then roll it off the back of that directly onto our loading bay at lift height, that would be great.

For rolling it around (if Nigle could not borrow from his work), Jewson's rent a pallet truck 525mm x 1150mm  max load 2200kg for £40. Might need 2.

Jonathan