Lathe unloaded at last...

[John Hill]

Lathe gets unloaded at last!  we have been in the new house for more than a week and all that time my lathe has been sitting on the trailer while I organised some means of unloading it (I also had a lot of other stuff to unpack too! )


DSCN0284 by aardvark_akubra, on Flickr

Here it is on the trailer all roped up and hooked onto the chain lift that is hanging from a 'U' bolt I had*** made to fit over the lintel of that door and up to a beam in the loft space.




DSCN0286 by aardvark_akubra, on Flickr

Two minutes later the trailer is gone and it is hanging in mid air!  Not even a creak from the beam.



DSCN0287 by aardvark_akubra, on Flickr

A bit of huffing and puffing and the lathe is positioned under the new skylight in the new workshop.




DSCN0289 by aardvark_akubra, on Flickr
I used Egyptian techniques to get it into position..




***I had to have someone make the 'U' bolt as all my workshop is still packed in a shipping container.

[dsquire]

John

Glad to see that with your good planning that it went safely and according to plan. That was a well planed idea to but the beam there to take that kind of weight.   

Just curious, how close did the gross weight of the container come to what you had calculated it to be?   

Cheers 

Don

[John Hill]

John

Glad to see that with your good planning that it went safely and according to plan. That was a well planed idea to but the beam there to take that kind of weight.   

Just curious, how close did the gross weight of the container come to what you had calculated it to be?   

Cheers 

Don

Hi Don

I thought the container was 8 tons, the truck driver thought it was heavier than that but the railways check in scales said 8.2 tonnes.  So I was quite happy with my home made load cell.

[dsquire]

John

I would have to say that was a pretty good calculation that you made then to get that close. Thanks for the info John. Good luck with the rest of the unpacking. 

Cheers 

Don

[Bogstandard]

That's it John, get the important bits done first.

You can live without furniture and food for a little while yet.

John

[John Hill]

John

I would have to say that was a pretty good calculation that you made then to get that close. Thanks for the info John. Good luck with the rest of the unpacking. 

Cheers 

Don

Don, I made a 10 ton load cell and 'weighed' each end of the container, which is not the most accurate way of doing it, so I was quite pleased it came out that close.  Plus I think my load cell probably weighs light as I used the area of the piston instead of the total cross section area of the bore which is a trifle more to allow for an 'O' ring.

[John Hill]

That's it John, get the important bits done first.

You can live without furniture and food for a little while yet.

John

Thanks John, we are well advanced with the unpacking and most of the furniture and curtains etc are ordered.  There is a very nice fish and chip shop about 5 minutes walk from here!  The pub is much further but cancer treatment some how beggared up the enjoyment of that.

[Jonny]

Must admit pretty good calculation there bet most wouldnt be with 10%.

Glad unpacked and lathe positioned, now the hard works starts.

Wish i had a beam but no where to put it without loosing a lot of room. Now faced with moving similar arrangement heavier lathe on the floor and no where to swing a cat. The other lathe dead easy one handed similar weight.

[John Hill]

Jonny, the new house has roof trusses all engineer designed and approved by the building inspector's department at our District Council office and I was not about to queer the pitch by adding timber up there during the build process.  So what I did was waited till the house was built and put some heavier timber in the loft over the door lintel then used the long 'U' bolt to get the strong point to hook on to, the door posts support the end of my beam plus the lintel is pretty deep anyway..

If you do have a loft space you can always put your beam or truss up there and if necessary put posts against the walls to hold support the ends of your truss.

I might still build a truss in the loft to give me a strong point out in the room more but meanwhile this one over the door has proved adequate to unload the lathe.  It was only just high enough though and I had to put really short ropes on the lathe to get enough head room.  The first time I measured I made a mistake and considered taking the wheels off the trailer and moving it under the strong point on trolley jacks, but it did not come to that.

John

[Jonny]

I do have apex roof and rafters fully insulated and boarded over.
No wall space i can spare, laden with shelving and work benches etc.

Ideally needs to go longitudinally approx 18foot. As is i could get one around 5 feet in across brick pillars but the lathes already the other side of it.
Did make two four wheel trolley's but cant get the thing up on to it, the supermarket should use smaller wheels
Moved it in so far inch by inch constantly moving two each end 1 1/4" stainless tubes.
Got it off a trailer with a 1 tonne engine hoist and short rope through the bed eye bolt, same with bigger mill.

Other lathe dead easy on your own, 4 scaffold poles, push lathe until its on three, then put last one at front, all one handed.

[John Hill]

I do have apex roof and rafters fully insulated and boarded over.
No wall space i can spare, laden with shelving and work benches etc.

Ideally needs to go longitudinally approx 18foot. As is i could get one around 5 feet in across brick pillars but the lathes already the other side of it.
Did make two four wheel trolley's but cant get the thing up on to it, the supermarket should use smaller wheels
Moved it in so far inch by inch constantly moving two each end 1 1/4" stainless tubes.
Got it off a trailer with a 1 tonne engine hoist and short rope through the bed eye bolt, same with bigger mill.

Other lathe dead easy on your own, 4 scaffold poles, push lathe until its on three, then put last one at front, all one handed.

Jonny, you could use a number of wooden wedges to get that heavy lathe off the floor enough to get something under it.  Considering that lathes usually have a very small foot print (i.e. top heavy) I suggest doing what I did and bolt the base to some longer pieces of timber and that makes the rollers easier to use too.

[Hobby-Machinist]

Great planning and "pre-thinking" things out John, you made it look easy!

Best,