Question About Moving a CNC Lathe

[ThePrecisionist]

The one rigger I was able to find who's schedule matched up with mine wanted 3k to move a 500 dollar cnc lathe that was made during the Carter administration.

It was a fair price for a newer machine, but moving this one(and reading the advice here) taught me a lot about moving machinery and now I have those skills for the next time I impulse buy a cnc machine off Craigslist : )

And like Garwood said, just because they hang a shingle that says "rigger" it doesn't always mean they know what they're doing.

Maybe you should not be basing your business on $500 machines and you would not have these issues. Step out of being an average Joe, Joe!

 

[RC Mech]

If you own your own machine shop there’s a good chance yer mechanically inclined. Rigging is just solid planning and careful execution. And the right equipment.

I helped another member here move a 10k lb CNC lathe from his parking lot into the shop a couple of weeks ago. No forklift, just toe-jacks, skates and a drawbar contraption that fit the receiver on his truck. Took us like 6 hours but we eventually got it exactly where he wanted it.

 

[ThePrecisionist]

10,000 lbs ? My toilet weighs more than that. What kinda sissies are afraid to move little Tonkatoy machines ?

You rock! Have another!

 

[ThePrecisionist]

It all can be done. No, kidding!
God bless ya when it doesn't.
Sorry won't cut it.
Good on ya!

 

[the average Joe]

Maybe you should not be basing your business on $500 machines and you would not have these issues. Step out of being an average Joe, Joe!

I don't do much lathe work, so this machine was the perfect fit for the small amount that does come my way. Also, it had the entire service history, board upgrades and all of the tool holders. All I had to buy were some 3/4 shanks and some inserts and I was good to go.

I even wired it up myself, with more help from people on this forum.

If you want to brag about paying other people to do stuff you can do yourself then you do you, I guess.

 

[ThePrecisionist]

Who was bragging?
Tell me?
I said I was glad I did not risk my equipment. English as a second language course maybe?
You gots to chill!

 

[the average Joe]

Isn't is a little early to be drinking, dude?

 

[ThePrecisionist]

I wouldn't know.
You?

 

[ThePrecisionist]

And Joe,
The question still stands.
The drinking remark shows you have no answer.
How was I was bragging?

 

[ThePrecisionist]

You on the other hand had to go through a laundry list of your accomplishments.
Good for ya!

 

[the average Joe]

I guess I'm not sure what you're trying to accomplish here.

This was a thread where I asked for help and advice on moving a machine without a rigger. That's been done, and now you're here adding nothing to the conversation and being somewhat antagonistic to everyone.

 

[Overland]

Get over it guys. Different strokes, different folks.

Reminds me of a story back in my youth. Pulling a Ryder vertical lathe out of an old shop. This was a lathe with 8 vertical spindles used to machine engine flywheels. Think of a great big Gridley standing up right.
The very professional riggers had a Fordson major tractor, maybe 45 hp, with a big logging winch on the back. The backed it up to a building column and paid out the wire, and wrapped it around the machine. They then simply winched the machine out of the shop to a waiting crane, one column at a time. I don't remember how they got it out through door, must have been a big tree or something.

Rigging is good people taking their time, listening to everyone's input and being careful.
Not rocket science.
Bob

 

[ThePrecisionist]

Sorry you feel that way.
All I said was that I was glad I did not move my machines without professional riggers.
The analogy I used is to say; to get the entire high-performance thing built only to have someone who has a great chance of destroying it handle it in the end procedure. Real riggers know WAY more than you do about loads. Sorry if your delicate ego got hurt. My question to you still stands! And this conversation is more about YOU than anything.
Go get 'em Joe!

 

[Garwood]

Sorry you feel that way.
All I said was that I was glad I did not move my machines without professional riggers.
The analogy I used is to say; to get the entire high-performance thing built only to have someone who has a great chance of destroying it handle it in the end procedure. Real riggers know WAY more than you do about loads. Sorry if your delicate ego got hurt. My question to you still stands! And this conversation is more about YOU than anything.
Go get 'em Joe!

What's your business's name so we can all support it to show our thanks for sharing your knowledge with such humility?

 

[ThePrecisionist]

Why do I need that?

 

[cnctoolcat]

Seller had a 6K Toyota lift from the 2000's.

AFAIK, all Toyota forklifts from the 90's (?) on have the Toyota "SAS" system. Stands for Stability Active System maybe?

SAS is a safety system to prevent the forklift from tilting too-far, lifting too-high, or even steering too-sharp. I have no idea how the system works, but on my two Toyota lifts you can see limit/pressure switches inline with the hydro circuits on the mast, and what appears to be limit switches on the lift and tilt.

For us, it's only noticeable when dumping a chip hopper, which loaded weigh about 3,500 pounds and have a 3+foot load center on the 5k lift. The SAS will only allow about half tilt-forward once the forks are about 4 feet off the ground.

A savvy tech could probably override the SAS system in a pinch...?

 

[EmGo]

A savvy tech could probably override the SAS system in a pinch...?

Can it tell when you stick an 8' bar out the back, hang two pails of drops from that and then you and two of your best fat friends hang off the thing while the girlfriend (she's the lightest) drives ?

As long as the steering wheels hit down once in a while, it's good, yes ?

 

[Garwood]

Sorry you feel that way.
All I said was that I was glad I did not move my machines without professional riggers.
The analogy I used is to say; to get the entire high-performance thing built only to have someone who has a great chance of destroying it handle it in the end procedure. Real riggers know WAY more than you do about loads. Sorry if your delicate ego got hurt. My question to you still stands! And this conversation is more about YOU than anything.
Go get 'em Joe!

Looking at your post history it appears you have a half dozen old Hardinge lathes? Is that accurate?

If that's the case that strikes me as a very small level of rigger interaction to form and broadcast a stern opinion about riggers and how other's handle the situation. It's fine to pay riggers. It's a real asshole move to tell others they're incompetent because they do it themselves.

I have hired riggers to move a dozen or more machines over the past 20 years. I have moved 40 times that number of machines myself. 30 tons is my upper limit. At one point, I wrote up my own business plan for starting a full time rigging company because I was doing it so much for profit. The employees I would need made it not pencil out for a fulltime gig at the level of work I was doing.

I have interacted with riggers extensively. Technically I am a professional rigger. I have all the same equipment and play in the same arena. I just don't have fulltime employees.

I know two real good riggers. Guys that know their shit and make the job look easy. Small companies. Always busy. All the bigger outfits are hit and miss and I know why- Because good employees are hard to find and even good ones make mistakes, destroy machines and must be let go or your insurance will let you go. It happens all the time.

Paying for rigging doesn't make you better or smarter than anyone else. It just means you like to play it safe.

 

[ThePrecisionist]

Great comment. I never said I was smarter than anyone. I never said anything about people who do it themselves are wrong. Again, you said that and you are making this about YOU and whatever problem YOU have. Good luck to ya!

 

[RC Mech]

Paying for rigging doesn't make you better or smarter than anyone else. It just means you like to play it safe.

Exactly, it’s a question of insurance coverage. Moving new, high-dollar machines or having employees makes the risk not worth the reward w/o insurance that specifically covers that vocation.

That said if I want to move my own equipment and have the time for it, I’ll do it. Don’t have the truck to move the 17k lb Mori, but get it out of the shop and onto a truck if need be? Sure, I’m game.

In any event I think this precisionist character is just looking for a fight. Nothing useful added to the thread, brings up drinking as if it’s a slight, has nothing to say but “good luck to ya!”

Maybe he/she is trying to git their post count up eh?