Moving a Clausing 1300

I have been given a Clausing 1300 Lathe with what he says is a 40" bed. So I am headed out this weekend to make the 800 mile round trip to pick it up and bring it back to my shop.

My plan is to take all the back seating out of my Suburban, lay down plywood and tarping to protect the interior, remove the lathe from the base and transport it in the interior of the vehicle. I will have four people to load it and two to unload.

Will this work? Is there anything I am missing or any pitfalls I need to watch for?

Thanks

I don't know how much oil that lathe holds (if any), but remember when you lay it down that 1 qt. of oil will cover approx. 9,563 sq. ft.

What does that Clausing weigh? 750lbs at least? That leaves each one of you holding over 175lbs, with the headstock end being most of the weight (both those guys are holding 250lbs).

Never moved a Clausing, but we moved the SB 10L at work out of a basement that was inaccessible to lifting machinery (besides a freight elevator). It was on a cabinet, but the wood cabinet isn't where the weight was, I'll assure you. There were about five of us giving it all we had and I wished we had three more. We slid it onto a pickup from a loading dock and unloaded it with a forklift.

Getting that big lathe into the back end of a suburban is going to be very interesting with only four people, unless it is comprised of the local high school or college football front line. I don't think there's any way on this earth that two people can pick that thing up, much less unload it from the confines of a Suburban.

I strongly suggest a nice single axle flatbed trailer with appropriate ratchet straps, tarps, etc...

Tip one, drain oil!

Removing the base will hopefully allow me to keep the actual lathe upright, but you are right. It would be bad to mix old oil and new leather.

Tip Two, not the answer I wanted to hear.

I was hoping to aviod needing a trailer. I can drag around my 600lb sewing maching by myself, but there is a big differance between sliding on concrete and lifting into a confined space. To get it out I had planned to slide the entire package (plywood, lathe and all) right out the back onto a heavy bench and then use a large chery picker to put it back on the stand. But we may not even be able to get it in to begin with.

Your basic idea might be workable, but is this cherrypicker a chinese two ton? If so, realize that chinese tons apparently are NOT the same as USA tons. I have heard at least two reports of dropped loads using these things simply picking up engines. Lousy Mig welds failed and the whole works collapsed. One was no problem, the other trapped a guys leg (no serious injury) and bashed the fender of his car (only a 3.0L Nisaan 300ZX V-6, not a supercharged 502 Chevy mind you).

If you can pick up one end at a time with the crane, you might have something. Reach inside the Suburban. Swing one end out with the crane, get back inside and haul the other end out.

Now, all that said, how about get a little single axle Uhaul for the weekend ($50). Have a wrecker meet you and load it for $50 (max), drive home without worrying about oil all over the interior, and have another wrecker waiting to unload it for another $50. No ruined interiors, no torn carpet, no medical bills due to hernia or crushing injuries from a very heavy object falling on somebody (which also breaks said very heavy object, rendering it useless). I'd give $150 plus gas for a Clausing any day of the week.

I'd guess that a 36" C-C Clausing 1300 lathe weighs at least 1,000 lbs and probably closer to 1,500 lbs, maybe more. An old Ebay auction list the weight at 2,300 lbs but who knows if that is correct. You might need a lot more than plywood and tarping to protect that Suburban.

Mike

OK bear with me, the only other heavy gear I have moved was my Baby Bridgeport and that was on a pallet with a pallet jack so this is kinda new to me.

When you say "wrecker", exactly what do you mean? And how do you order one up?

This is the biggest of the 1300s so would that be a 36" or a 48". Guess that would make a big differance in weight as well.

I'd guess that a 36" C-C Clausing 1300 lathe weighs at least 1,000 lbs and probably closer to 1,500 lbs, maybe more. An old Ebay auction list the weight at 2,300 lbs but who knows if that is correct. You might need a lot more than plywood and tarping to protect that Suburban.

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You might need a lot more than a Suburban! Seriously, you should definitely rent a trailer or flatbed to move a machine with that kind of weight. You won't be steering that Suburban too well with over 1/2 ton of iron in the back.

When you say "wrecker", exactly what do you mean? And how do you order one up?

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A wrecker is a truck equipped with a short boom, and a cable winch, to tow disabled cars. Check with your local auto service stations.

RAS

What about bolting it down to a pallet and using a pallet jack to load and unload to and from the trailer? Thats how I moved the mill and it was 1800lbs. But its still sitting on the pallet, because I have not rented the boom to lift if off. My sewing machine was moved the same way but two of us lifed it on and off the pallet.

Well, I guess it still must be lifted unto the pallets.

This thing just weights alot more than I thought it would.

If the wrecker takes it off the trailer, how do I get it into the shop? Can you rent equipment moving gear?

Removing the base from a 1300 or 1500 Clausing is a lot bigger task than you might realize. The drive motor and VS mechanism is in the headstock end. So, you have to unhook the hydraulic line and the motor wiring. Then, you need a jack to remove the drive belt.

I'd go with what others have said and get a wrecker to load and unload. Rent a trailer and strap the lathe down. You might have to remove the chip guard if it has one. When you get home, call up a wrecker an have him set it down inside your shop.

You might want to remove the 8 leveling screws before moving the lathe. The base on the 1300 is just sheet metal and can be disformed if your not careful.
JR

Along the same safety aspect that RAS raised, think about what that 1000 lb plus hunk of iron just behind the front seat would be doing if your Suburban comes to a sudden, unexpected stop.

HS

Glad Mike Hnery chimed in here. I was using the old SB just as an example, it's a much lighter 10" lathe, so I can CERTAINLY see a 1300 going 1500lbs. As for Ebay weight estimates, I usually find them to be between 50-100% in error on the light side. My favorite was the 16" shaper that was estimated at 1500lbs.... lol, right... maybe the vise.


R.W. The wrecker, tow truck, whatever you wish to call it should be able to back it right into the shop door. While he is at it, he can also get your mill off that pallet. Once you have it in the door of the shop, just use some 4ft lengths of 1/" or so pipe as rollers and you can put it anywhere you want.

You can use a 2x4 and a crowbar to lift the machine enough to get the rollers under it. Put about four pieces of pipe under the machine and use another one or two to leapfrog along, roll, shift the pipe that just came out the back to the front, roll, shift the pipe to the front, etc....

I moved my 7000lb Lodge & Shipley 24x72" 30ft lathe across the floor one night with no assistance other than a big crow bar. Took a couple of hours, but it was not really very hard to do.

If you load on a trailer, make sure the heavy end goes toward the front of the trailer. Tail-heavy trailers don't behave well, especially on a 400-mile trip.

I had a bad experience once with with a car trailer I should have loaded...differently...

One suggestion with a lathe on a trailer is to put some wood blocking between the base cabinet and the front end of the trailer, just to help restrain it when you stop.

Another suggestion, if your rigging equipment will allow it, is to buy some 4x6s from Home Depot, about $8 each last I checked. Get carriage bolts and site-drill the timbers to match the lathe's base cabinets. Set the timbers cross-wise (perpendicular to the lathe bed) and cut them within 1" of the width of the trailer. Set the lathe on the bolts (on the timbers) and apply nuts.

This second idea keeps the lathe from wanting to tip front-back, (won't tip end to end under normal circumstances) won't let it slide too far front-back, and provides a nice framework for temporarily nailing up the blocking from the first idea to keep it sliding fore-aft.

Like Highspeed mentioned, there's no telling when you have to make an aggressive vehicle maneuver. I hope you never do but you don't want the lathe nailing you from behind or tipped over in the trailer as that would be a nasty mess to sort out.

I would also triple tie the tailstock handwheel to something solid, relying on 2 different pieces of rope. There's one too many horror stories out there about the tailstock that fell off "on the way home" and your new toy is then going to be a new piece of junk.

-Matt

When I bought my 16"x60" Goodway, we moved it on a tilt-bed aluminum car hauler a-la Rider , that came with a hand winch. The shop I bought it from had a little lift truck that was only able to lift one end at a time.So he manuvered the lathe to the door,lifted the headstock up and we drove the trailer under,until it was resting on the bed. We then pushed with the fork lift,from the tailstock end, and pulled with the winch until it was on the trailer,and latched it down but good.Upon arriving home,and easing my dad's murmorings of "we should have hired riggers" He then asked "how we gonna get this thing off the trailer without the fork truck? " Well that's the easy part,I replied. We backed the trailer into a bay in the shop,tilted the bed of the trailer,jimmy barred the lathe 'til the tailstock was on the ground and then, chained the lathe to a big block and beam post at the end of the bay, and slowly pulled the trailer from under the lathe. (Big exhale) Now we just had to position it in the shop, which was accopmlished with a floor jack and a engine hoist.(lift tailstock end with engine hoist, insert floor jack, move engine hoist to headstock end,and lift with engine hoist just enough to move where you need.)I would not reccomend putting a lathe of that size in a 'Burban, I would find a small trailer to tow behind instead, perferrably with a wooden deck to ease in the installation of cribbing,(stop blocks)that can be nailed/screwed to the deck. If you think the deck is marginal for it's thickness, some 3/4 plywood under the machinery feet will help spread the weight out. I will mention that I was a little wet behind the ears and had a -lot stronger back!Good luck, Shawn

Rollers are good. I have used them to move my #1 Brown and Sharpe milling machine. If you have a slight bump to go over, you can assist the movement of the machine with a pinch bar. I have 2, one about 2' long that is easy to use when trying to lift the machine to put rollers under, and one about 6' long when I really need leverage. If you have to go downhill, get something to hold it back. If you only have 3' to 5' of a slight downgrade, you probably can use a piece of 3/4" rope, with several wraps around something sturdy. Anything more of 5' of a slight downgrade requires the mechanical advantage of a come-a-long, or a block and tackle, anchored to something sturdy. Going upgrade will also require a block and tackle.

I note you are from California. I know it never rains in California, but, if it were mine, I would put a tarp on it, just to keep the road dust off it.

Tow trucks (wreckers) are useful. You do not want a ramp truck, which is a truck with a tilting body. What you want is the old-fashioned kind, with a boom, a winch, and a cable. Some of the new ones do not use a cable, but a hydraulically operated low boom. It is great for hauling cars, but I do not think this will go high enough to load a trailer.

Thermo1

Rollers and dragging won't work too good on a 1300. As I stated before, the base is made of sheet metal with reinforcing welded in where the levelers go. If you want to try rolling or dragging, you need to put it on a skid first.
JR

Is the 1300 an oil bath headstock like the 1500, if so, that's a lot of oil.

As a friend of mine used to say: "There's a lot of gravity in that thing".

As has already been said, rent a trailer for the day. It's a whole lot easier to manhandle something into an open trailer than it is into a vehicle. When it's time to unload, you'll have better access as well.