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Modified Pallet Jack for Moving Bridgeport Style Milling Machines

Interesting, but if you move them a lot, maybe you would have a forklift?

And if you don't move them a lot...I move my Bridgeport with an ordinary 2 ton pallet jack, a wide model with short forks. The "forks" are 865mm (34") across. Come in from the side. It means raising the mill about 75mm/3" clear of the floor first, but that's pretty easy with a 3ft wrecking bar and bits of timber packing.
The good thing being the same pallet jack can be used for every other machine and pallet I have too. All of my cabinets etc are on custom made pallets for easy moving (i.e. pallet footprint no larger than cabinet)
 
good thing it's in "excellent" condition..:skip: really nice welds too.

Is there anyone here who would spend 500 on THAT, rather than make your own, if you deemed it useful?
 
Time is money, if I needed it I would give him $500 in a heartbeat.

of corse time is money, but I'll bet if you needed to move a BP right NOW, (or in the am tmro..) you would grab a regular pallet jack or forklift and be done with it..

even with a specific need, (low headroom?) it would be painful to fork over 500 for that! :) just rotate the head, or remove it if dealing with a "doggy door" situation.

hard to imagine that thing saving more than an hour on a single move. money/time, it goes both ways.
 
I prefer to move a Bridgeport by the ram, if at all possible. It's much more stable that way. Forks or strap between the head and column (with padding) on the ram works great. You can usually run the table in or out to get it to hang level.

I guess the modified pallet jack will work but it's almost a solution to a problem that doesn't exist. I guess it would be ok if you moved your mill a whole bunch and didn't have other means.
 
That pallet jack would be handy in the coming days/weeks. Have to get the Wells Index out of the home shop and moved to the farm.

Near zero head height and no fork lift. Will take it out the same way it was put it, pinch bar and rollers. A 2100lb mill is pretty manhandlable, even for skinny me working alone.
 
Looks like quite a lot of thought went into this. The thing I don't understand - why did so many birds shit in those cracks?

I prefer to move a Bridgeport by the ram, if at all possible.

Then you potentially have a swinging mill. And whatever is lifting the mill is tippy and bulky. It also takes a lot more time to rig, compared to lifting the front edge a half inch, and getting this thing slid under.

If you buy used machines, this would be slick and quick. Especially if you need to move the mill longer distances or move multiple mills. A small winch/ratchet might be a nice addition.
 
Interesting, but if you move them a lot, maybe you would have a forklift?

Like the seller says in the link, the advantage to this is you can bring it to an auction or shop selling a machine and quickly move it out of the building.

Sure you could spend an hour or so with a prybar, walking the machine back and forth, shoving strips of wood under it so you can get a std pallet jack in from the side. With this custom jack, you only need to get the machine up a 1/2" or so and then you can get under it and be on your way fast.
 
I just put 4x4 wood blocks under the leveling feet on my B-ports.
Easy to reconfigure the layout of the shop or cell and puts the handles at a more comfortable level.
All of my smaller machines are blocked or sit on tall enough feet so that a standard pallet jack goes right in.
Different jobs running for a bit, grab the machines, move them and save the operators some time.
Toyota and such are big on reconfiguring your machine layout quickly to optimize flow. Saving three steps every 1-2 minutes adds up.
You look at some things differently if it is stupid easy to move machines around.
Bob
 
of corse time is money, but I'll bet if you needed to move a BP right NOW, (or in the am tmro..) you would grab a regular pallet jack or forklift and be done with it..

even with a specific need, (low headroom?) it would be painful to fork over 500 for that! :) just rotate the head, or remove it if dealing with a "doggy door" situation.

hard to imagine that thing saving more than an hour on a single move. money/time, it goes both ways.

Having seen this modified pallet jack in person. I can attest to its usefulness especially in an auction situation . The seller is a machine dealer who is retiring and he has likely moved dozens of bridgeports over the years. The ability to quickly move a bridgeport to a door where he could winch it aboard his rollback I am sure has saved many hours and dollars over the years, Being able to easily move a machine several hundred feet across a factory floor in an auction situation often makes the difference in whether a dealer can buy a machine and make a profit
 
When I lived in Santa Barbara CA, There was a fellow of my acquaintance that made his living RENTING Bridgeport mills in the LA area.

He had devised a trailer system that would Lift Carry and Place two Bridgeport mills that towed behind his 1/2 ton truck. The Idea was similar to the OP photo, but I am unclear of the details. Photos were not so spontaneous then as they are now. The Bridgeport mills on the other hand were very much the same ;-)
 
In my little shop at home I need to move the Bridgeport quite often. I used pipe rollers on the concrete floor but when I got tired of that I looked on the net for a dolly. When I couldn't find anything to my liking I decided to build one. After a number of prototypes I came up with what I call the post dolly. Another buddy of mine liked it and he has a couple in his shop and another shop owner wanted one so it's off we go..

It's pretty simple to get enough lift for rolling on a fairly smooth concrete floor by just tipping the camber adjustment over and stabbing the lift bar into the socket and straightening the post back to vertical will give you a quarter to half inch lift off the floor. On rougher floors with dips and such I just put a racing jack under the lift bar and go up a hole or two in the post.

The Baileigh press just uses a couple of T bolts with receiver tube and off u go.
 

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