Chknives
Aluminum
- Joined
- Jan 16, 2015
- Location
- Oregon city, Oregon
I just recently purchased an American pacemaker 14x54 from 1951and would like to share the process in which I took to move it. Beware I didn't make all the decisions, so some of the practices may be unsafe. Please be responsible when moving these beasts. Anyway back to the moving part! Here's a little back story before. The owner received the machine from his father who passed away recently. He has had the lathe for as long as he can remember (he's at least 40-50) and said he loved the machine but he already had a machine that replaced it. A new 26" jet with that 4 1/8 through hole, his father purchased it instead of getting the pacemaker rebuilt. He also had a bunch of cncs, a Carlton radial, hlv-h clone, and some other I didn't see. He is a previous Boeing programmer/machinist and is a lot smarter than he looks ( no offense intended). He also had a bunch of tractors, cars, a steamer car, and a 1929 Chevy I think. Very nice property his family had owned for generations. The lathe is from hyster forklift company and in which his father worked. You will see hyster forklifts used to move the lathe.
The first thing we did is drag the lathe out with a forklift and machine skates. We tried lifting it with 1 forklift but both couldn't lift the lathe sufficiently. So we used 2 forklifts and fork extensions. We lifted it on 2 4x8 blocks to not damage the lathe and clutch rod. When the lathe was suspended 6in off the ground he full on pushed on the tailstock and said " it ain't moving that's for sure" I laughed in amazement after being scared a little. My dad backed up below the lathe with the tilting trailer and then we set it on plywood so we could get it off the trailer. Later we tied it down with tie downs and didn't use padding on ways because they were new and soft enough that I knew they wouldn't damage the ways. The tie downs around the tailstock handle are the slack portion and I did not do that part even though no one will believe me. I tied the chuck guard so it wouldn't fling around while driving. It was interesting going down the steep hills and hitting bumps. We stopped to eat and we knew no one was going to mess with the lathe and Thats why there's a pic of us in a parking lot.When we got to my new shop (barn) my dad backed the truck up and started planning the route of attack. Since this was our first time moving a machine over 2700lbs. We decided to use a come along, toe jacks, handymans jack, pipes, pry bars and machine skates . We moved it most of the trailer length before tilting. Had to remove cover to access lifting reliefs easier. We rolled it on pipes with a come along until the angle was too extreme where we had to put a new pipe every inch. So we lifted the lathe put skates under and slowly pushed it down, with a come along of course. We left the machine on skates til the next day and the. Moved it to a temporary location until we put new floor in our shop part. We got 3 cushman chucks and a faceplate 1 3 jaw, another with removable faces of jaws, and a four jaw. It also had a box of spare parts. The owner opened up the cabinet when we first set it on the cabinet and said "we haven't opened this the whole time we've owned this. It was a bunch of spare parts such as a main shifter , new gibs, shifter parts, and a bunch of bearings. I'll post the pics I. A little any advice is greatly appreciated. Thanks for your time and interest.
Carter
The first thing we did is drag the lathe out with a forklift and machine skates. We tried lifting it with 1 forklift but both couldn't lift the lathe sufficiently. So we used 2 forklifts and fork extensions. We lifted it on 2 4x8 blocks to not damage the lathe and clutch rod. When the lathe was suspended 6in off the ground he full on pushed on the tailstock and said " it ain't moving that's for sure" I laughed in amazement after being scared a little. My dad backed up below the lathe with the tilting trailer and then we set it on plywood so we could get it off the trailer. Later we tied it down with tie downs and didn't use padding on ways because they were new and soft enough that I knew they wouldn't damage the ways. The tie downs around the tailstock handle are the slack portion and I did not do that part even though no one will believe me. I tied the chuck guard so it wouldn't fling around while driving. It was interesting going down the steep hills and hitting bumps. We stopped to eat and we knew no one was going to mess with the lathe and Thats why there's a pic of us in a parking lot.When we got to my new shop (barn) my dad backed the truck up and started planning the route of attack. Since this was our first time moving a machine over 2700lbs. We decided to use a come along, toe jacks, handymans jack, pipes, pry bars and machine skates . We moved it most of the trailer length before tilting. Had to remove cover to access lifting reliefs easier. We rolled it on pipes with a come along until the angle was too extreme where we had to put a new pipe every inch. So we lifted the lathe put skates under and slowly pushed it down, with a come along of course. We left the machine on skates til the next day and the. Moved it to a temporary location until we put new floor in our shop part. We got 3 cushman chucks and a faceplate 1 3 jaw, another with removable faces of jaws, and a four jaw. It also had a box of spare parts. The owner opened up the cabinet when we first set it on the cabinet and said "we haven't opened this the whole time we've owned this. It was a bunch of spare parts such as a main shifter , new gibs, shifter parts, and a bunch of bearings. I'll post the pics I. A little any advice is greatly appreciated. Thanks for your time and interest.
Carter
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