Equipment moving suggestions B-Pt EZ trakDX?

At work, we are moving to a new location. Among the things moving is the model shop, in which the main item of trouble is a 9 x 49 table Bridgeport with EZ TrakDX controls.

The management has determined that the stuff will be moved by available personnel, which means a bunch of goons.... at least as far as moving things is concerned, they are OK else-wise.

This thing is pretty bulky, and we do NOT want to damage anything or anybody.

Any suggestions or hints about moving it? We have forklifts available, large trucks, and the thing is right now sitting on 2 x 4s so getting forks under it is OK.

But every surface of it is looks at least somewhat delicate.

The move involves about 6 miles of bumpy streets, with a steepish slope down at the other end of the line into the lot at the new location.

I see lifting as the least of our troubles, and stabilizing as the most troublesome, along with not bashing anything.

The last move was only across the lot at current location, no chanllenges there.

Does anyone know tricks for moving this specific type machine?

If not, I can take a picture to show it more clearly.

But generally there is a large box of guts on the back, an arm with CRT on teh right, and otherwise it is a standard looking newer Bridgeport with power feeds on the axes (that stick out in a major way......).

Safest thing in your situation is to make a skid for it out of wood of at least 5 x 5 feet dimension and either bolt it or metal strap it, to this skid. The skid should use 4 x 4's so it's accessable to both forklift forks or pallet jacks.

But if you don't want to go the skid route it can be lifted by the ram and it quite stable that way. When on the truck, the lowered knee serves as one of the chaining down points (with appropriate carpet, canvas or fire hose to protect ways from chain) and then raise knee to tighten chain, then lock knee.

Just get as close as you can on the non CRT side and lift from the base.

I'd thru-bolt to 2 long timbers (measure and counterbore from below) while the machine is picked up on the forks...being wary it has to be set back down again (clearance to the forklift).

However, I'd guess that the EZ Trak panel came shipped that way from its point of original manufacture, of course slow speeds with your truck are well-advised.

My preferred tie-down point on a Bpt is the 5/8-11 hole in the top of the ram, get 4 straps hooked thru a shouldered eyebolt screwed into that, with the long timbers, and the machine should be virtually untippable.

Any blocking of the timbers to the truck is also highly recommended.

I gotta commend you, Matt....your statement of the obvious at times make me kick myself in the mental a**....I'm sitting here contemplating different ways to suggest on this subject, and you pop out with the obvious " I'd guess that the EZ Trak came shipped that way from...." and the simple beauty of that makes me chuckle (at myself, again)....of COURSE the origional manufacturer of a big-ticket item like this found the best/safest/most secure/CHEAPEST/easiest way to do it.......

The easiest way to move this is with a licensed certified rigger. When calculating the costs of moving it is important to factor the risk and value of said goons backs, as well as lives, as well as that of the milling machine.

I don't know what your window of time is to move this machine however if you have say a few weeks, it is best to call a few riggers and let them know that you have one machine that needs moving between x-y days and that they can move at their convience. If you can pay cash a job like this could cost even less. My guess is the whole move is $500-300 for this one machine.

Maybe if you lay it out to management as risk involved vs money saved they will let you have a pro move this one piece.

I've always felt that money spent on a good honest ethical rigger who is willing to work with you to reduce costs is the best headache free money you can possibly spend. Some where in my head I take a fraction of savings over risk, if the risk is huge and savings potentially low, I go ahead and spend the money. Seems to me paying workmans comp premiums, lost time and profts from one goony actions gone wrong could cover the cost of a few new bridgeports so why risk it even if the risk is minimal. Move the smaller stuff yourself and have a rigger do the one or two heavy things!

I know you are just following orders but having had such great experiences with a good rigger I really think it is worth a second look.

Adam

"GOOD, HONEST, RIGGER" ?????? HUH- $300 to move a Bridgeport mill? You're dreaming. My experience trying to find a good, honest rigger in Massachusets, was not a good one.

Every time I've gotten a quote from a rigger, they come back wanting five hundred dollars an hour for their services. It's not like they just send one guy, they send three at $100.00 or more per hour, plus their forklift, billed out by the hour, and their trucks, billed out by the hour. Plus they charge from the minute they start in their yard until they've chowed down and made it back to their yard.

A Bridgeport mill with EZ trak can't weigh more than three thousand pounds. I unloaded mine with a Gantry crane. It's a toy compared to most machines.

"GOOD, HONEST, RIGGER" ?????? HUH- $300 to move a Bridgeport mill? You're dreaming. My experience trying to find a good, honest rigger in Massachusets, was not a good one

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Shoulda called me m'man...I know one "up there" in MA, who's real good and reasonable...moved my precious Schaublin 160 lathe 3 times (long story), 2 of the times in a difficult situation, and it still was pristine as new when it arrived here in Dogpatch, SC

Contact Brothers Machinery and they'll fix ya up with him !

Shoulda called me m'man...I know one "up there" in MA, who's real good and reasonable...moved my precious Schaublin 160 lathe 3 times (long story), 2 of the times in a difficult situation, and it still was pristine as new when it arrived here in Dogpatch, SC

Contact Brothers Machinery and they'll fix ya up with him !

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That sounds like Ed you are talking about at Interstate Rigging. Yep he's the guy who I call to do all of my moves in Massachusetts. I've hired him 3 times. The last time I hired him I had a lathe I needed moved within a 2 week time period or else I couldn't get the machine. So I called all sorts of riggers. This thing had to come 4miles down a main road to my house. One Rigger OB Hill was 2mile down this main road between the two of us, and wanted $800 for the move. So finally I decided to call Ed which I should have done in the first place. I just didn't really want to pay for him to spend 1.5hrs each way merely driving to my house.

Well I called Ed and told him how I needed to move a machine for little money and if I couldn't get it done it just wouldn't happen. I caught him as he was walking out the door. He told me no way could he move it in that time frame but took my number anyways. Well I get a call around 1pm. Ed says, "Adam how do you feel about moving the machine in an hour? for $275cash?" Call the guy who owns it run in my car to get the cash from the bank, call Ed back sure I'll meet you there!

Turns out that Ed had a job where another company showed up with a larger forklift about 20mins south of me and a job finished an hour earlier, (He's based 1hr 30mins north) to make matters even better he had a lunch meeting in my town that got delayed an hour and had a 2hr slot to either go to the mall and shop for his wife or something, or move my lathe. Thankfully he picked the second. Got the job done for $400 less then my 2nd cheapest quote and I was happy and so was he. I handed him $300 and said to keep the change!

It is like they say you can get something, cheap, now or quality pick any 2! With Ed I've gotten a first rate fast, friendly professional rigger who since he started his company out of his father's machinery sales buisness really specializes in moving machine tools. For $300 I doubt I'd have even been able to rent a truck. Real cheap insurance if you ask me.

If I were in J Tiers shoes I'd call around. Tell them the situation that the boss wants you to move yourself so you need a cheap quote but can do it at their convience and you may find luck is on yourside. With riggers you generally pay from the moment the truck leaves their shop till it returns. However since they drive all over the place if you can get them in the middle of the run for a small job the prices can get much better. Now if I worked for an employer who was willing to put his expensive machines and my back at risk instead of hiring a qualified guy like Ed for $300 I don't know quite what I would be thinking but I'm not sure I'd be too happy.

Maybe you guys aren't as lucky to have a first rate friendly good guy like Ed or his partner around, but when you have the pleasure of watching a professional move your machine around that you were quite afraid of dropping it is a no brainer. See if you can find a good one like this they are a real asset.

Adam

Good thoughts, thank you.

Riggers would be a good plan. But it's a non-starter here.

The main problem here is that the bean counters in management (out of town) hate that shop, so they said "there are no funds available to move the mill".......... The D-Ss would rather pay a lot more and wait longer to get stuff done outside, whiel still holding us to the low development budget and short time schedules.

Now we also need to move a substantial panel saw, not one of those little things, but a chunky item about 9ft tall and 15 ft long. I very much doubt if we could bury the costs one in the other, but that would be the only chance.

But getting a rigger is probably going to be a problem, since we can't admit we are moving some of the stuff..... not "officially" meaning the bean counters.

Does anyone know a reasonable rigger here?

If you've got a machine to move, and you don't have a forklift- first find out what it would cost to rent one. You should be able to get one that will lift eight thousand pounds delivered and picked up for less than three hundred, probably closer to two. Call the local riggers, and find out what they would charge. Then determine which way is cheaper, less of a pain.

If you have dock high loading and unloading you've got it made- don't need a forklift at all. Your "little" addition of a real panel saw, kind of changes the difficulty of just moving a little mill. The panel saw can weigh more than five thousand pounds, and they are a little unweildy. With that in mind only you and your co-workers can determine your pain threshold. The other thing to think about, is in any industrial area, there's always a forklift somewhere. Flip a neighbor some cash and your machines can be quickly loaded. I had to load a machine once in New Jersey, and I walked down the block until I found someone with a, I think they called it a "hi-low" or something like that. New Jawsey talk for a forklift. Nice guy.

Adam, yes... Ed is The Man !

I have a Bridgeport E Z TRAK that I moved from a School to my house. I found that the best way is to drive the fork lift into the front of the machine. Place a 4" X 6" about 3' long under the front of the ram on top od the forks. Try to make sure that the ram is about 2/3 forward. Raise the forks until they contact the 4" X 6". Place another 4" x 6" on top of the table. Move the y axis somewhat forward towards the lift. Raise the knee untill the 4" X 6" on the table contacts the bottom of the forks. You can now raise the forks until the mill comes off the floor. I have moved several mill this way and I have found it to be safer and more balanced than lifting just by the ram itself. You can use straps to pull the bottom towards the lift if you have to go over unlevel ground. This methods completely clears all of the cabinets behing the machine.

Bill Clarke

We have forklifts.

The issue is that it has to go in a truck and a distance on roughish roads, with a down slope to the dock door.

Then it has to go through the warehouse, and out the back and across the parking lot to the shop, which is slightly uphill and a bit rough. The shop is grade level, so it goes right in.

I have already laid down the law on lifting, which is no higher than 6" off the surface. For some reason, forklift drivers seem to think higher is better, and they boost stuff way up.

Whether my "law" will "go" is another matter, there are managers involved......

If they drop it, "there are no funds available" to fix it either.

As soon as you say "IN a truck" as opposed to "ON a truck", my immediate thought is that Don's large skid idea is the safest way to go, assuming "in" means a box truck. IMO, there's no really foolproof means of tying a knee mill off in a typical van body to assure that it can't turn over unless its on a base that makes it tip-resistant by nature. A flatbed truck that allows adequate tie-downs would make the entire move take less time than you'll spend in building a skid that's safe for a box truck move.

if you are bolting to skid or timbers use through bolts not lags. this counts only when you need them, ie if the thing is tipping over! a through bolt is far stronger than a lag especially in sketchy lumber. Also hardwood is called for here, a bunch of 2 x 4s won't hack it, but again this is only important if the thing is tipping over, call your pallet maker they can supply 4 x 4 beach or other hardwood in what ever size you need very cheaply. When trucking put it in the nose of the truck and support it with load bars or extrack or better yetuse a flat bed and strap down with real straps. You may also be able to find a nice heavy duty oversized skid or have one made, pallets give a bit more security when on a fork lift since the bottom boards stabilize the stingers and provide a bit of support against the forks if not perfectly balanced.
Also when working outside on roughesh ground it will pay off to fill the rough spots the day before with some bag mix or lay down soeem plywood of osb.

If you could find out which prison Hackasaw is in you might could get UPS to do a pickup on the aluminum skids he had that the Men in Black came to take him away over

If you could find out which prison Hackasaw is in you might could get UPS to do a pickup on the aluminum skids he had that the Men in Black came to take him away over [Big Grin]

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Serious? What's the back story on that? I must have missed a week here somehow.

Inside joke Mud....just trying to smoke Hackasaw out if he's out there

JT, you have hit on a good point with the forklift.

This ain't a job for a guy who loads skids in semi trucks at warp speeds, just because he's the one "familiar" with the forklift. I'd much rather take a careful/cautious person whose had 15 minutes to test the forklift in the parking lot. A noob operator will usually work slowly and surely.

Let the forklift idle, just enough throttle to keep it moving. Loads just a couple inches off the ground, 6" is even too high for my tastes.

Another tactic is to lift the machines from overhead...there is literally no way you can drop them except if a sling breaks (unlikely if precautions are taken to avoid slicing them on sharp metal edges) or if a sling were to fall over the end of the forks (C-clamp on each fork tightened with as much as you've got short of a cheater pipe)

There is the possibility of the machine rocking somewhat if the operator starts and stops as they might have to do with bumpy terrain, pavement transitions, or inclines, but a couple of rope lines that additional helpers hold as they walk with the load to restrain it from swinging is money/time well-spent.

Like I say, idle the forklift, run like you were driving on a sheet of ice. Gentle movements.

Oh yes, open/flatbed trucks or deckover trailers are a must. No box trucks or fendered-trailers. Pick a good-weather day and forget about the tarps.

Oh yes, open/flatbed trucks or deckover trailers are a must. No box trucks or fendered-trailers. Pick a good-weather day and forget about the tarps.

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Of course I know you mean the typical rental box truck, which are indeed problematic for unskidded machines, but in case some newbie rigger might be reading this, a box truck can be a nice machine transport if outfitted right...with E Track for straps and shoring bars, and electric pallet jack* to move the iron around in there for just the right placement. Or even without E track if curtain side type and chaining points.

The box truck is especially nice when you have alot of "loose" stuff going along with the main machinery..like coolant tanks, bookcases, etc, etc.

And re the weather one often just flat out can't "pick a nice day" Last auction I went to my stuff *had* to be out by the day it turned out to be *pouring* down rain. Sure was nice to pallet jack the machine at their dock into the box truck that day in particular.
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*standard manual jack will work ok up to about 1,000 lbs but after that those small wheels on the jack start sinking into the hardwood floor just enough to make it really hard to push by hand..so electric is much better.