Moving a Boxford.. Best way?

[JPSantos]

Hi all, hope someone can give some advice here.

I'm moving home and need to move my small Boxford lathe, into the back of a van.
I'll be using an engine crane and hoist, to help balance the weight and there will be 3 of us doing this.

My question is, I'm thinking of using the blocks in the middle of the bed to lift it up, as you see on the photos, using the hoist there, with 1/2 threaded rod and nuts to connect the angled pieces under the blocks.

Will this be OK or lifting there I risk damaging the bed? Can't see any other way of doing it because everything is in the way, the gearbox, or the led screw, etc.. Unless I take it all apart, which I was trying to avoid...

Thank you

 

[Overland]

Adjust carriage and tailstock location to balance machine.
Bob

 

[jim rozen]

Slings yes. Once in the van it will be VERY top-heavy. That's the typical failure mode where the machine goes over on its face, breaking handles and gearbox tumblers off. This could be a good chance to disassemble and clean it up a bit. Otherwise consider spiking it to some timbers to widen the front-to-back dimension.

 

[Bill D]

My harrison has a threaded lift hole in the bed cross piece to the right of the chuck. Almost perfect balance, with chuck removed, is easy to achieve. I made it slightly tailstock heavy and used a web cargo strap to keep it level. I did not want it to tip vertical, headstock down if something shifted.
I removed the tailstock after it was loaded because I did not trust the lock down lever. That also lowers the COG a tiny bit.
Bill D