Getting a Tormach off its pallet and base

Hi,

I have recently taken delivery of a Tormach 1100. It came on a truck, on a pallet, with the create of wood the machine was bolted into on top of the pallet. Neither me nor the delivery guys had any simple way to lift the machine and get the pallet out from under it.

In every delivery video and photo sequence I've seen, no-one else has had a pallet under their machine - just the piece of wood that forms the bottom of the crate!

Tormach (and others) show how you cut down the wooden base to fit a parallel legged engine stand in there to lift the thing.

I couldn't do this because I'd have to cut a shipping pallet and the wooden crate base.

It was a hell of a performance involving false raised floors, jacks, and all sorts of other nonsense to get the damned thing off this double height, too wide, platform.

Has anyone else been left with a pallet under the crate to contend with?

Even better, the first one was delivered broken which I didn't notice until it was on the stand! So I had to get it off the stand to the floor, repeat the whole performance with the new one, then get the broken one back on the double height base... I was thoroughly sick of the sight of both of them it by the time I'd finished. And it's still taking up a quarter of my workshop waiting to be picked up.

David.

You're not alone! My Tormach came on a pallet:

In hindsight it would have been better to ask the delivery driver to drop off the back of the lorry on the opposite side to that shown. At some point during shipping a forklift driver had a wobbly:

Fortunately no damage done inside. It was a right royal PITA getting the mill out of the crate and off the pallet. We had to do a lot of sawing and then a 2 ton engine crane on it's longest extension (500kg) just reached:

Along with the mill I bought the Tormach lifting bar and chains. I figured that if I dropped the mill with some home bodged arrangement I'd be on my own regarding warranty. So better to use the official gear. Later the engine crane just had enough height to lift the mill onto my homemade stand:

I didn't buy the Tormach stand as it was a price too far, wouldn't fit in the space available and back in 2009 they only did 110V versions. Not much use in the UK.

Andrew

Edited By Andrew Johnston on 21/08/2018 10:43:12

Thanks Andrew, very interesting.

I see you too have the splay legged engine lifter, although mine is only rated 1 ton with 250kg at the longest extension.

So you did just chop the pallet to pieces. Well done How did you get over the gravel and up the step into your garage? I had a similar problem, solved by a chain of phone calls to strangers ending at someone with a bobcat with forklift tines on it. Who offered to come around immediately on his way to another job!

I bought their stand but it doesn't seem to have anything to do with power. What I did have to do was:

Get a 240v machine - it looks like the big electronics board inside the cabinet has some different components. But it still has US style power plugs under the cabinet.

Flick the switch on the PP computer power supply to 220v.

Splice in an Australian 12v wall-wart for the power draw bar to replace the US one supplied.

Buy the coolant pump upgrade because it can run from 240v if you change the jumpers in its control box.

I think I had to ensure the auto-oiler pump was 240v rather than 110v too.

This is where the importer had a lot of good advice - he's set many machines up down here so warned me where the tricks with power would be.

Ready-to-use 110v transformers to take US plugs seem to be really expensive down here. I assume there is nothing in there except the transformer and appropriate plugs.

Is that chain going into the T-slot? Doe sit have a long T to spread the load. Anyway interesting they confirm it is strong enough to take half the machine weight.

I had to go and have a look. The T-nut is about 2" long with a tapped hole for a lifting eye. If I recall correctly the T-nut was quite a snug fit in the slot. But the mill isn't that heavy, about 500kg.

Andrew

David: The engine crane isn't mine, it was borrowed from a friend. Afterwards I broke up the pallet and case and recycled the wood and nails. Getting it across the gravel was a PITA. We had to swing it between the legs of the engine crane put it down and then move the crane a few inches at a time. That's why it would have been better to have had it dropped off the other side of the lorry. In the first picture bottom right there are some large hot rolled steel flats propped up. They were used to roll an 18" shaper out of the garage so we could get the mill in. We certainly deserved a beer by the time we finished.

My mill is a Series II; it sounds like the electrics are different. The main feed in is designed for the US 220V outlets. I run it off the UK 240V system. Although I'm sure it doesn't need it the feed comes from an industrial 32A socket. To run the controller the machine has an isolated power input, nominally 110V. But I was told by Tormach it would be fine on 240V. It seems fine and runs the 240V coolant pump without a problem. I originally started with an old XP computer and Mach3. After I had some issues I changed to an early Tormach controller. When they changed to PathPilot a couple of years back I had to buy a new controller as mine was outdated. They said it might run PathPilot but wasn't guaranteed. And if you updated and it didn't work you were stuffed as you couldn't go back to Mach3. The isolated power imput is truly isolated as I run it off a different phase to the main power feed.

I bought the power drawbar a few years back, but I'm embarrassed to say that I haven't got around to fitting it yet.

Andrew

A box of matches would have seen it off the pallet

It would appear that there is very little thought given by makers/suppliers as to how these machines will be handled when they arrive at their new homes. They are not toys and need to be treated with respect while being moved.

Perhaps there is room here for a rethink. ?

I had a similar snag with a Chester 626 milling machine. I am sorry I didn't take any pictures but it was a bit of a challenge.

Luckily it was delivered directly to my garage floor. I used brute force and a steel lever to push the machine over to one side of the pallet before chopping the pallet down to size. I used my brother-in-laws engine crane (similar to Andrews) to remove the machine head and motor followed by the lower half of the machine (the knee and table assembly).

I don't think much thought has been put into the movement by the suppliers or manufacturers. Even the designated lifting point isn't that close to the machines centre of gravity making the lifting quite hazardous.

Phil H

You just need a mate with a small tractor ........

These are industrial machines where there are cranes for lifting. Mounting on a forklift pallet is a standard system for shipping equipment like this.  They are not specifically designed for home workshops.

I wish I had the problem with moving one.

Paul.

Edited By Paul Lousick on 21/08/2018 23:28:41

I agree there probably isn't much the suppliers or shipping companies can do about making it easier. The crate has to be big enough to go around the whole machine. The shipping company gets a crate on a pallet and is told to drop it off somewhere. My driveway has a very low (2m) carport which means the truck can't get anywhere near the workshop, so the drivers do their best but it's pretty limited.

I have a dedicated 15A circuit for the primary power which I guess is just the spindle via the VFD. The secondary power for everything else is just from the workshops general purpose 10A circuits. The 15A was a bit of a pain as by law the sparky had to put a residual current detector on the circuit which the Tormach manual specifically says will not work. So they did what they had to, then had to come back and replace it with a circuit breaker instead.

I have looked at photos of the electrical cabinet for 110v and 220v versions of the series 3 and they are different so I guess Tormach made the changes due to increasing non-US sales.

The PDB is really good. I have sometimes thought about how different it would be without it while stepping on the pedal and swapping tools, and am sure I made the right choice in getting it and installing it before even switching the machine on.

Martin, while all this was happening I was tempted to put a match to it all, but when you've just spent 1/3 your annual wage on the damned thing you have second thoughts on how you treat it. If I stuff up on my manual machines I can get quite angry. This thing is just too expensive to lose my temper around. Dropping it 100mm quickly just wasn't an option! I made a lot of mistakes very quickly when making my first parts, even allowing for the months I spent tinkering with Fusion360 CAM and cutting air first, etc. I just walked away if I had to.

Hello all, if you can push the item under your garage door, you can lift it with one of these . I lifted my Hardinge HLVH off a trailer with this.Theres a plate welded on the top that hooks over the top course of bricks , and bolted through to the outside.

Had the same problem as yours David, a 250kg milling in a crate on a pallet... To move it around I used a crowbar and these **LINK** they are rated 150kg each so in theory good for half a tonne, I did not use the supplied lever as it was too short to make enough force.

So then I could move it around, took it under a chainblock attached to a rafter and hauled it up... ok it's a different machine but the principle should be the same

Edited By ChrisB on 22/08/2018 12:35:20

I noticed in one photo a Pullift (R Williams)being used to lift a load,I once borrowed a pullift to lift a stationary engine,never again,its the only piece of lifting equipment I have used that "let go" with the load lucky the Lister diesel was robust and it only dropped a couple of inches,they are ok for pulling horizontally, but I have never used one for a direct lift again,since then some 40 odd years ago I have aquired a lot more equipment,the chain hoist on a beam is the most reliable,Engine cranes can be useful but legs always seem to get in the way of the load,though I have found that the lifting beam on a 1 tonne crane can be extended by around a couple feet with 4mm wall square steel tube,on lighter loads up to 75 kilos without the crane tipping up,ok for loading up the large 22 inch faceplate onto the lathe,as the legs won't go under the lathe just be careful.

Nigel, yes you are right, I wouldnt lift a heavy load with the Pulllift. I forgot to say that I used a block and tackle for the Hardinge. .

Why not?! We remove and install 2.5 tonnes, £8million aircraft engines twice a week all year round without any issues...not with identical hoists, but similar