Which Milling machine and what is its footprint?

You seem to be making a big issue about the lift. I see two breeze block walls in an outhous, not a nicely papered living room. All you have to do is screw some pieces of 4x2 horizontally to the wall near the ceiling, run a bit of 4x4 fencepost between them and you have something to dangle an Haltrac style hoist from. Once you have lifted it up to bench height dangling over the gap you just pop a pallet up against the wall and a plank from that to the bench, lower the machine onto the plank but keep it on the hoist for safety as you slide it into position.
£1000 phooey. For less you could buy a motorbike lift table and throw it away afterwards.

Covid has changed things, but simple ideas from me would be to set a challenge at the local fitness/health centre or get a couple of rugby players in from the clubhouse which is not far away. This is all assuming other routes, like younger relatives is not an option.

Personally I would remove the table, head and (maybe) the cross slide, then lift it in two stages - first to get it off the floor (as high as practical) with an inclined plane arrangement, then a simple lift onto the bench.

I’m now the wrong side of 70 and with a quad bypass, so heavy lifts are mostly mechanical (Aldi electric hoist, teleporter, or pump (pallet) truck are all options for me, dependent on situation. My chain blocks don’t get much use these days. Back in the 1970s I used to remove and replace my cortina engine(s) on my own, using just a rope around the engine. so nowhere near as strong as back then.🙂 But I did load a lot of hay bales with a pitchfork back in my teens and twenties. So SOD is exaggerating a little bit.

As per Bazyle would work. If doing that I would have sufficient pallets/bearers available to insert under the mill so any failure could not mean more than a couple inches of drop to a secure base. My brother and I, together, would likely just lift the thing from about a foot off the ground onto the bench. Job done.

Not enough room in this particular situation but something to bear in mind is ladders. A ladder has to be able to support one fat bloke safely so about 100kg on each step. So there are often situations where you can lean a ladder against a wall, put a step ladder nearby and run a beam between the two for lifting loads of around 100kg.
I had somethig in a wheelbarrow the other day that I didn't want to just tip out so was able to straddle it with a step ladder, secure with ratchet straps, then lower to another trolley. Only about 50kg but way more than I would attempt to lift.
I would not normally recommend using a ratchet strap as a hoist but provided you have some you are familiar with and know for certain will not let go suddenly you might consider them.

Edited By Bazyle on 13/09/2020 14:36:17

Thanks guys, I appreciate the support.

I like some of your ideas Bazyle. I will see what I have, using a fence post seems promising as I have some.

I am making a fuss because I have had a bad back for about 30 years and its currently only a mild hindrance, however I had Covid earlier this year and its taken a lot of strength out of me, so I am particularly wary of doing serious mischief.

I do have some fit neighbours but there is so little room that the chance of an accident is too high, I like controlled lifting so I shall probably try something involving the pallet and plank idea.

Its also worth noting that the bench is 1070mm high, so to get it into the drip tray I would need two motorbike lifts.

This is how we erected the South Bend, I have done it with muscle before but we found it was very tricky here and I opted for a safe method. For the mill job the floor is full so a wall or ceiling mounted crane is needed.

I like your improvisations!

I often use tatchet straps for other than securing loads. Pulling vehicles up ramps, to load on a trailer or controlling heavy items sliding down a plane to unload are two common problems relatively easy to overcome (but can be hard work). Two ratchet straps at least - one to hold the load while the other is adjusted for the next incremental lift or lowering.

The lathe was disassembled using a ratchet strap, ideal for raising it an inch. Unfortunately it wasn't so good at lowering several feet onto the horizontal sack barrow. Bit hairy that. I just wrapped the tail a couple of times round a pole for a brake and eased it down.

The orange flash in the picture is that strap - very robust and useful.

So I bought the pulley block hoist with the white rope. Utter Sh**. It is CE marked against a standard for electric hoists not manual ones, so you need to be able to pull 50kg on a thin rope. Hence the scaffold pole winch. Technically I think it is illegal and I would have sent it back were it not a collection of useful bits that can easily be improved upon to let me hang a bike from the ceiling.

Hi Roger, The trouble with home workshops is that it needs to match what you intend to build, with your loco interest, I see that sheet metal fabrication or metal heating is not catered for. My thought would be to dump the Drummond! And use the valuable space for the above!besides the Southbend is far superior machine tool and can do everything and more than the drummond... noting its rather unsupported lathe mandrel , which surely is for ornamental turning work? .are two lathes really necessary? sometimes a ruthless approach is best! Rather than collective...To change things later with access limitations would be very difficult. Just my thoughts and observations.

Good point Vic,

The Drummond is indeed redundant, however I love machine tools and I will restore it for its own sake with the help of the many pieces of information I have been sent by forum members. It is a century old and deserves a dignified retirement rather than the scrap heap, (possibly indoors if needs be).

It has a place in any modellers shop though, thanks to its versatility in no small part due to the T-slots in the cross slide. The South Bend is a lathe pure and simple, intended for a shop where other machines cover the other types of cut.

I will post a better photo after the milling machine is installed and my fume cabinet is built - that will show where the heating and spraying will occur. Sheet metalwork is an issue, I need a good place for a Formit and they need space around them, I also need a grinding & polishing wheel. So there will always be pressure for space.

Hi Roger, Well I thought I would mention that yes that is a slight failing of the south-bend lathe of no slotted crosslide, however i remember seeing a casting and drawings marketed some years ago to correct this. However The boxford slotted cross slide would be a close fit.... besides you have a mill coming which is superior to lathe milling ops.... even so, i would still dispose of it; simply as sheet metal work needs alot of room to process from 1/2 or 1/4 sheet stock size both from the front and to the rear, not to mention cranking the handle! I have found that they need to be permanently fixed down or move horribly under cranking the handle. Most likely your one would need to be 90 to the wall for access...they are no good on castors...!

Its true the drummond in capable hands can produce good work eg lbsc/ David Curwen but the area it takes ? Versus how much use argument. Locos have a fair amount of sheet metal work...

Another factor to consider is future needs... one chap( in a me article)had declining health and modified his workshop for wheelchair access... the first machine to be sold was by the door entrance...I see you have had covid and are feeling weak, I have seen this before with illness and recovery can be in years or other symptoms of tiredness now being reported after covid unfortunately so it maybe seating is factored in while working...Whatever you do good luck!

Happy days!! Its here.

The weather was good and I was able to prepare a lifting beam (for installing tomorrow) before the machine arrived, then I unpacked it, took off the extremities and slid it off onto a useful trolley. It rode the ramp easily, with a pull from my son, and looks great on the floor, clearly filling the gap that three or four men would have used to pick it up.

I have some gripes with Warco who seem to get their part numbers mixed up and don't know what poly bags are for, but that aside the machine looks fabulous, even if its cover interlock doesn't work and the motor rattles (? Did the demo one do that??)

I am still very pleased and looking forward to tomorrow.

I have photos!

Here is the ramp, the drive slopes up to the door, it was a surprise to see how steep it is.

The text is misbehaving so I shall keep it simple.

The machine was shipped in a box with the loose items distributed in it and some big stuff on top.

I also got a small selection of bits and liquids to get me going.

I ordered a nice vice, but there was an issue with it, so Warco have sent the jaws back and I bought a discounted "rough work" vice to keep me going. I probably should have bought a larger, cheaper one, but it looks OK.

We will see what happens when I get it all back together.

Hi guys.

I have been poorly over the last few weeks so sorry for the delay posting the second stage of the installation.

Having set up the crane I conscripted my son to help out. We pulled it up, got it on the bench, then pulled it back and forth to mark out the holes. The linseed oil for the wooden worktop was an ideal lubricant to pull the tray about with the machine on top, a bit stick-slippy but easy for one to do. Its now in its permanent position, just waiting for a bit of sealant to keep the oil in the tray and to be torqued down and it will be good to go.

The last piccy shows the chunky construction of this particular machine. Its pretty hefty for something that fits on a narrow bench. Its also nice and quiet, although it has an interesting "tick" from the spindle that I want to track down. You will also note that there are no covers on the position encoders. Those jobs are for another post.

It isn't even installed yet and I am very enamoured. This is the same machine used by "ADES WORKSHOP" and in Precision Mathews form "Blondihacks", with nice results, so I am sure it will do for me.

Thank you for all the help. I am sure that the small area shown and the tight fit justifies this thread and your advice was very useful. I hope that it will be a good record of the practical issues for other newbies like me.