Weight and transportability of a Myford lathe

Maybe they should have used that in the bearings as well.

Hope the welder that was mentioned was certified, maybe some might feel I shouldn't use the word certified as it might be taken as a freudian slip,

John

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Edited By John W1 on 27/08/2015 16:39:49

Lathes are very prone to tipping forwards and breaking the handwheels. I suggest a precautionary 2ft plank going front to back bolted to the feet. Then you could winch it up a couple of planks if it started at ground level.

Earlier this year I sneakily moved to the tailstock end when picking up my Drummond B (120lb?) as the seller looked reasonably young. Turned out we were the same age but as he was a steelworker I figure he was still more able to take the heavy end. Unloaded it on my own with my two trusty planks, plus some ingenuity.

The biggest problem I have is the 9 in boot lip. An estate would be so much easier than my Nippa but wouldn't do 60mpg. Last year I had to take all but the drivers seat out to transport a pillar drill

I have moved ML7s and S7s a few times. Now I use a piece of hardboard or better still a piece of board with a plastic surface. This is placed in the estate car floor and then the lathe, is put on a two wheel sack truck on top of a smooth board. I then reverse the truck onto the back of the car so that the handles rest into the boot. This then allows me with a bit of help, to lift the wheels of the truck up to boot height and then slide the lathe into the car. It is quite easy if the surface of the plastic or hardboard is wiped over with an oily rag before starting. Lifting the lathe onto a bench is best done with a car engine crane, readily available from the hire shop, although I have rigged up two gantries made of 4x2" timber and threaded rod to hoist and get into position, a long process but safe.

Roger,

Another word of advice.

Before you or any helper with you attempt any manual lifting or manipulation make sure that you clean off any oil that may be lurking on the surfaces in the zone of lifting.

I did not and when my son-in-law and I went to lift my Myford into the garage/workshop, my son-in-law (who could lift the side of a house) nearly lost it holding the headstock end because I hadn't cleaned the oil from it.

Just beware!!

Len. P.

I concur with the sack truck method ...

For more details see my album **LINK**

Worked a treat, all safe with little chance of damage, easy two man lift with every thing removed. Makes inspection and cleaning on reassembly a doddle as well.

Regards

Phil H

Roger,

You have had lots of good advice already; but just let me point you to my post of 09/09/2014 17:26:41 on this thread.

Hope it all goes smoothly for you.

MichaelG.

Is it on a stand? My new S7 arrived on the back of a truck on its stand. Delivery man attached two castors to the feet under the headstock while it was dangling from the little crane on the truck, then wheeled it up my drive and into the workshop lifting it at the other end with most of the weight on the wheels. Got it into place, chocked up the end under the wheeles, took em off and all done. Easy peasy. If it hadn't been on a stand it would have been a sod.

My little van has a deep lip at the tailgate. It is worth putting a pallet, or something similar, on the floor . It helps with loading but makes a big difference when it comes to getting it out again.

I am extremely grateful for all the additional advice and shared experiences, especially for the loading of an estate car. Have ordered a Sealy CS990 sack truck, which looked the best of a slightly dubious lot of such things. I suppose I should be thankful that it is not a Harrison L5 lathe such as I have just seen on ebay, with an advertised weight of 700 kilos - almost unbelievable. Due to collect in about a week - will report back.

Hi Roger, just about everything has been said and Bob Y has more or less the same comment as mine, I have shifted both standard and long bed machines several times up and down stairs etc and to different locations. The one thing I did was make a "handle" similar to Bob's T piece but mine was a piece of 3"x2" timber about 3ft long drilled with a 1/2" hole and a suitable plate under the bed ways at the front close to the chuck, thus clamping the wood to the bed with about 18" either side so two can lift the heavy end with a good grip and one at the rear. Found this made a safe lift with ease. Just make sure the wood does not have any inappropriate knots !

John

When i bought my secondhand ML7, two of us lifted into the back of a Renault 16, (so that tells you how long ago).

Since then Two of us (males - me + not he same chap each time) have lifted the machine on four or five occasions.

Last time was 12 years ago, when I sold it, and helped install it in the new home.

The only thing with a ML7 with motor is that the headstock end is WAY off balance, so holding the motor is a job for one of your hands whilst the other supports the headstock. But it can be lifted and carried. Obviously, if you can load it onto a truck of some sort , moving distances is easier than carrying (until you find it too wide to fit through the doorway!)

A Norton box may help the balance, but will make the headstock end heavier.

If you can borrow / hire a small crane, removing the chuck, moving tailstock away from the chuck as far as possible , before slinging and lifting (fitting a steady there as well may help) will help balance end to end. But it will be desperate to capsize, so do keep at least one hand on, or an additional ratchet strap or something, to stabilise it.

Do be careful lifting from/ or lowering to, a low starting point; osteopaths get rich that way.

Summary: as long as you are both reasonably fit, awkward but not impossible.

Yes do protect the car floor with hardboard (minimum) or ply is better.

When in the final position, DO level carefully. Myford beds are not rigid, so you need to be very careful fixing down so that there is no twist between headstock and tailstock. Won't matter if the headstock is higher or lower than the tailstock, but any twist and it will never turn parallel. Even an extra nip on a holding down bolt will affect the twist.

Have hours of fun afterwards!

Howard

Roger the L5, L5A, newer 11" and 140 are dead easy to move with no pun - one hand and at least three rollers. Can upload on to a 2ft high raised trailer bed with three people by pushing up a ramp, well that's the way it was collected whole just chuck and tailstock removed retaining rear coolant tank.

Takes me back a bit collected an ML7 fully tooled with makers one piece cabinet and all extras in a mark 1 XR2. Just a pensioner about 70 and me to lift both items in. Just removed tailstock. Mrs and me unloaded. Lifted ML7 on to its blocks and stand, but was stronger then.

I hope this is a sensible place to post this. As already pointed out handling/moving an inherently unbalanced Myford with the motor still attached is asking for trouble. Adjusting or removing a motor unit with the lathe up against a wall is a total pain.

If the motor is the usual B56 resilient mount type it is possible to remove the mount clamp arms at each end after supporting the motor casing on packing boards/folding wedges and then drop and slide the motor out to the right, in the tailstock direction, with relative ease. The clamp arm pairs at each end are secured with a single machine screw and semi-captive nut. (This procedure assumes the motor pulley is not in place.) Removing the motor this way rather than removing the frame securing bolts retains the frame alignment and belt tension set up on the motorising board.

The pictures show an S7B on a transport trolley alongside the new bench location waiting to be slid across on to the timber bearers. This is up against the workshop wall. The empty B56 mount arms are at the top of the pic. The subsequent pictures show the motor casing packed up with timber boards into the waiting frame arms. Lifting the motor up into the arms while slipping the boards underneath is the hardest part. Folding wedges applied in opposing directions help here. The motor retaining clamp arms are then hooked over the frame hooks and clamped together with the screw/nut before finally removing the packing boards.

If the electrical cables are long enough they can naturally be left in place whether fitting or removing the motor. Apologies for the pictures being a little posed and “Haynes Manual” style. Simply a shortage of hands to hold the camera comfortably! The intention is to show there is easy access to re-assemble and tighten up the clamp arms at both ends of the motor.

Peter

It is way beyond a door stop Nick but it can be handled by one person.

I bolted mine to some 2m long wooden beams with a castor at each end (about 5"x 2" section). I used the beams to 'lever' the lathe out of the car and onto its stand.

I won't do that again because it was mad but it can be done. The main snag seems to be its relatively fragile belt guards and its awkward shape.

Phil H

The Raglans weigh considerably more, but after removing motor, tailstock, chuck and (sometimes the carriage) I could quite easily load/unload the rest of the machine into/out of a Citroen Saxo on my own. Done it several times. Saxo is in the past, but I anticipate it being easier with a Peugeot 106 (if the rear is long enough🙂.

Lifting the main body is definitely a two man job unless lifting kit is available (I usually manoeuvre them on my own but the last LJ was carried down a set of stairs by two of us - yes, it wax set up in a bedroom workshop!). I just take a set of wheels, a piece of ply board and a few tools with me.

A bit like Ray Lyons moved myfords (back 4 years ago). Except a rather heavier lump and a small hatchback.

I've just moved my S7, but went about it a different way.
I'm using a link drive belt in the headstock, which made life easier.

Split the belt, and remove the belt cover.
Disconnect motor from the connection strip at the back, noting which wires connect where.
The whole casting which supports the motor, countershaft, clutch, and primary belt guards can be removed as one unit.
There's 4 horizontal bolts into the headstock casting, and one captive stud at the bottom.
slacken the nut a bit on the latter, and remove the four bolts; I did add a wooden block and wedge to support the motor, to save breaking the casting around the single stud.
The whole assembly can then be removed as one unit; easier than one might imagine as the location point for the fixed stud is slotted, to the casting can just be lifted straight up.
That then leaves you with the bed in reasonable balance when you undo the four nuts which fix it to the base.

It struck me that there was far less chance of it overbalancing that way.

Bill

In the days when I was young, two of us lifted a ML7 c/w motor over the lip and into the boot of a Renault 16.

Since then twice two of us managed to lift it into and out of the succeeding workshops, and into the trailer of the eventual purchaser. I work on the basis of not disturbing things unless absolutely necessary., to avoid making new problems.

It was unwieldy, because of the offset weight of the motor, but by no means impossible.

I did position the Tailstock and Saddle to try to balance the lathe, as much as possible.

My helper just happened to be a different person each time.

Howard.

I trust that wasn't because of the long-term health effects of helping out...

Neil

Funny! My neighbours kept moving away.

To avoid lifting the lathe?

Does the unicorn grease stop the animals from squeaking, or is it to make them run faster, and more difficult to find?

Howard

Never do that, I did it on another sitation and ended up in hospital and had a serious surgical operation. The rope broke a cervical vertebra and nearly lamed me from neck and down.

Terje