Moving a heavy lathe

I have been gifted an old Harrison 11 in perfect condition. I need to get it out of a workshop and 50 miles down the motorway. I cant afford a bespoke mover to do it for me. Idea is to strip it down (alas removing bed from base - I know!) and move it out by hand and hopefully lift into a van. Ant idea if this will work or will it still be too heavy? We are big chaps!

Strip it down- no. Scaffold poles and big lever. Engine hoist , flatbed trailer.

Fizzy, I moved my L5 on a trailer 360 miles, used multiple scaffold boards and supported them with axle stands. I then used the trailers manual winch to haul it on board using rollers made from old 2" galv pipe. I had some help from the seller but handled it mostly alone including the off load and positioning. If you have help you should manage it without too much sweat. Avoid dismantling if at all possible!! Trailer was a car transporter borrowed from a mate.

Nathan.

You need one of these:

Hi Fizzy

If you can get enough height on the engine lift, then I agree with Capnahab. Stripping it is not the best idea if you can avoid it.

My hoist is sturdy enough, but wouldn't lift a lathe high enough, so I moved a reasonable sized Denford lathe and a Horizon mill on a hired car transporter/trailer. The sort that hitches to a car, has a tilting bed, a winch and a full solid bed (ie, not one with just a non-structural central composite board strip). I did it single handed and without drama, but not both at the same time.

On both machines I made bars (twice the lathe width) with swivelling wheels on the end, which I bolted to the machine through the feet holes to make them stable and let me move them around OK.

So get it to the trailer, drop the bed, use the winch to get it so far up the bed (to the centre of the pivot point), wind the bed down, then position the lathe in the middle and make sure it's absolutely secure. Drop off is the reverse.

It's probably a bit over the top and unconventional for most, but it worked well for me and because the car trailers are long and wide, they are very stable.

BUT I warn again, not all trailers have the right construction.....

Cheers - Will

Neil, as Editor, do you have a special direct help line to them, just in case things go badly wrong, such as a postal strike ?

Cheers Will

You will have read several of Brains' articles in MEW, but he uses a pseudonym

Neil

and it ISN'T Stub Mandrel

I moved my Harrison L5 using a 1 ton capacity braked trailer hitched to my car. I got the lathe off the trailer using an engine crane, and rolled it on shortened scaffold tubes into its place in the garage. All single handed.

> and it ISN'T Stub Mandrel

No strings attached (or is it no visible means of support?)

I have used 2 rows of scaffold boards and rollers to move from shed, over lawn.

A gorilla bar or crowbar at least 1m long is very useful for lifting the end of the machine to get a timber or roller underneath.

Hi top low floor Transit is my vehicle of choice.

2 ton folding engine crane, several slings rated at at least twice the weight to be lifted, several lengths of 4X2 (100X50mm) timber, several ratchet straps for securing load. (if you have to do an emergency stop you will want the load to stop too)

It's possible to do the job single handed but a helper with the ability to concentrate on the job in hand makes it much easier.

Find a flat surface to load into vehicle, engine cranes do not roll very well unless the surface is smooth, I find it easier to raise the load and reverse the vehicle/ trailer rather than shove the load.

Dave

Nifty trick I learned when I bought my first "big" lathe a harrison L5a. No engine crane available.

2 long hefty planks side by side with a slight gap between and a short piece of heavy angle iron nailed on the end.

block and tackle attached to angle iron in gap between planks.

3 x lengths of 20mm solid round bar as rollers.

lay planks to form a ramp but with plenty of length stuck up in fresh air.

slowly and carefully drag the lathe up the planks using the rollers, when it reaches the fulcrum point it will tip into 

the trailer, or in my case a transit van.

Mine was only a 10 mile journey so I left it sat on the planks and simply reversed the operation at the destination end.

Edited By Alan Waddington 2 on 21/02/2015 09:05:47

Edited By Alan Waddington 2 on 21/02/2015 09:06:38

I put my Student in the back of a transit van. I think it had a double rear axle, cant remember. Poor thing snaked like a good un and 5 miles was a long way.

I had to break my lathe into bits, and I agree with the comments above, it should be your last option. I had to get mine through a house and up some stairs. It took 4 of us just to move the cabinet.

plan, plan, plan. you don't want to be picking it up of the road.

I reckon to move up to a ton by myself. Engine cranes are sort of ok, and I have used them, but they have two disadvantages. One, the reach at higher loads is quite short, and two the height to which they can lift is limited. In both cases I have found that it means the machine needs to right at the back of the trailer before you can lift it off. In which case you might as well roll off the trailer anyway. Here's how I moved my Britan repetition lathe:

The lathe is actually sitting on a pallet truck, which makes moving a doodle. Note that the trailer has a rear door that can also be used a ramp. That makes life a whole lot easier.

A word of warning though; if the lathe is on any sort of stand or cabinet it will be top heavy. And if it starts to go over there ain't no way you're going to stop it. Ideally for transport it would be bolted to substantial timbers that act as outriggers, as well as being tied to the trailer sides.

Personally I wouldn't break the lathe down unless absolutely necessary. I moved my repetition lathe and cylindrical grinder as one. My shaper and surface grinder were broken down into smaller parts, as there were convenient break down points without disturbing alignment.

Andrew

As already said don't strip it down you'll regret it in the long run. If you have some distance to move it prior to loading/ unloading it's worth making a couple of dollies. They are basically 2ft or so 3/4" shuttering ply or better each with 4 castors 75mm or greater dia. you can get the on ebay and most sellers state the rated loading. Size the ply to suit the cabinet don't make them too big as this can make using the engine crane more difficult. Once on the dollies the whole thing is infinitely more manouverable than using scaff poles. One issue you may have is getting the engine crane near enough to lift it as the legs forming the V get in the way. One solution is to get the lathe up on blocks so the crane legs can slide underneath, I used a trollley jack to lift one end of the lathe; push the jack as close to the END of the machine as poss. Place a length of 4x2 between the lifting pad of the jack and wedge it under the lip of the coolant tray with great care jack it up. the jack may want to come back towards you but the lathe won't slide at the far end as long as you only jack an inch or so. Place packing ( eg the ply off cut from dolly construction, you want the packing to be consistent) under the raised end and proceed to the other end & repeat. Block paviours make great packing but only use them flat. it sounds long winded but only takes 15 mins.

The key is to plan all stages and do a walk through. Don't take risks. If you need to stop & go & get something, do so. don't leave the load hanging on the crane. Do the lift on a weekday or Saturday so that there is a good chance of getting what you need in a local store.

I once used my bike lift to move an Harrison 140, I lifted it the first 8 inches with bars and blocks of wood, then rollered it onto the bike lift backed the van upto it and slid the lathe into the van, metal on metal slides very easily, at the other end I used an engine crane, lifted the lathe then drove the van away, having said that I moved house recently and this time I used a Hiyab which was much much better and far safer.

Its already been stated on here in past threads, moving a lathe along uneven ground is easily achieved with the use of either long round bars and or angle iron box section whatever and slide the item along these used like rails, it moves far easier than you would think.

Got the above tip from JS

Shaun

When we moved house the removal company moved all my kit, they just used a pallet truck and a transit with a tail lift. The tail lift struggled to lift my Marlow mill but once the bloke got off the tail lift it went up easily. They did have an advantage as both machines were already off the ground. Think the quote was £300.00 to move the machines but that did include a ferry crossing so that would have added £120.00 included in the quote. A Harrison is probably too heavy for a transit tail lift as they seem to be 500kg but a 7.5 tonne truck should have one rated at 1000kg.

Bob

or

Edited By Bob Brown 1 on 21/02/2015 12:35:33

A Harrison L5 weighs 750kg

It is not an underdrive by the looks of things so not such a problem to take it off the stand. Motor and changegear cover seem to need removing. then may need to set ti on a couple of 4x4 to give clearance for the changegears. The top is just a slightly more solid version of a typical 12in chinese gearhead which weigh in at 500kg and are a doddle to move once you get them safely down to stable ground level. It's the tippy-tippy danger while on the stand that doubles the problems.

Thought I had a big job on last week getting my new Warco Lathe into the house (pallet was labelled 180Kg) but seems it was nothing compared with the stories and weights above. We had to reopen an old gate not used for many a year into an adjoining field and bring the lathe across the whole length of the field and down a very steep grassy bank so that we could unload right outside the door. Simply lifted the lathe in the trailer with an engine hoist, laid the trailer door on top of the hoist legs and drove the trailer out of the way - then lowered the Lathe onto a trolley I made for the job and wheeled along lengths of board into the house. As has been said planning and having everything ready was the key, including picking a dry day..

Best of luck with it.

Regards

Allan.