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Small Scale Riggers NH/MA

Scra99tch

Plastic
Joined
Apr 14, 2007
Location
Wilton NH
I was wondering if anyone has any contacts they use for small jobs. Most places want 350+$ an hour and a four hour minimum for any job which is reasonable but for a hobby machinist probably not ideal. I understand insurance and equipment cost money but I figure some places may just want to fill in time they have where they are not busy.

I am looking to move a leblond lathe 15x54 out of a ground level floor into a parking lot and wanted to use a tilt bed tow truck to haul it up. I was thinking some rol-a-lifts would work awesome in this case but not sure how the lathe will behave on swivels traveling up the ramp.

Thanks
 
I was wondering if anyone has any contacts they use for small jobs. Most places want 350+$ an hour and a four hour minimum for any job which is reasonable but for a hobby machinist probably not ideal. I understand insurance and equipment cost money but I figure some places may just want to fill in time they have where they are not busy.

I am looking to move a leblond lathe 15x54 out of a ground level floor into a parking lot and wanted to use a tilt bed tow truck to haul it up. I was thinking some rol-a-lifts would work awesome in this case but not sure how the lathe will behave on swivels traveling up the ramp.

Thanks

You don't doo anything to the lathe when using a roll back.
No "Swivels"....You simply let them slide it.

I would bolt if firmly to timbers myself. And then let them slide it.
Main objective with the timbers is to make it "wider" and less chance of tipping over.
 
ive moved large machines on a tilt deck. just pull up flat. the other end, pull it off.
something that small you can rent a forklift and buy straps for $500 to lift it.
 
Yeah, get friendly with a local tow driver. If you agree that their AAA towing takes priority and don't rush them, they can be reliable. DO know how to move machines, they aint riggers.
 
C'mon man I'm just keeping the cost down, you'd berate me even more if I told you what I was getting and for what price (hopefully).


Its going to be a 30 min job for a forklift seems quite excessive for ~$1400.
 
Just getting it up on those said timbers is the exciting part I guess. Head stock on first should I just make a sled for that part or for the whole lathe?
I figure an engine lift on the tail end to help it up and over the ridge on the tow truck and a sled type sleigh on the head stock would work well.
 
C'mon man I'm just keeping the cost down, you'd berate me even more if I told you what I was getting and for what price (hopefully).


Its going to be a 30 min job for a forklift seems quite excessive for ~$1400.

I have forklifts and heavy trailers with winches and trucks to tow them with. I won't bring a forklift to a job unless it's making a few thousand dollars.

One of my closest friends has a nice 8.3 Cummins digger derrick truck with a 25K crane. He would do anything for me with that crane no charge. If I took advantage of that I bet he wouldn't keep that truck around for too many years. I pay him $1000 every time we use his crane and make him take the money and I also machine parts for his crane whenever he needs it. I make sure he knows how much I appreciate having his help and equipment at my call.

Forklifts are not easy to move to a jobsite. Just because they have wheels doesn't make them especially portable. They are very heavy.

If you need to move a machine it's always most economical to skip the forklift altogether. Use a rollback or a small crane.
 
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C'mon man I'm just keeping the cost down, you'd berate me even more if I told you what I was getting and for what price (hopefully).


Its going to be a 30 min job for a forklift seems quite excessive for ~$1400.

Just getting it up on those said timbers is the exciting part I guess. Head stock on first should I just make a sled for that part or for the whole lathe?
I figure an engine lift on the tail end to help it up and over the ridge on the tow truck and a sled type sleigh on the head stock would work well.

You really, really need to ask over here:
Forum list | The Hobby-Machinist
where you won't get your panties twisted up so.
 
I'm only a hobbyist as well, but I've had a proper A-Z/class one CDL for over 20 years with a whole lot more than a million miles on it, operated everything from a forklift to some of the largest open pit mining equipment in the world. I'm trained to do heavy lifts and rigging. Frankly if you have to ask how to arrange and best rig a job this simple you shouldn't even be trying it. These big boy toys come with big boy costs. If you don't already know enough to figure the job out yourself and refuse to pay what a proper trained expert costs, then your buying something well above your own skill levels just to move it simply because your trying to do it cheap but without any of the proper knowledge to safely do so. This is about the equivalent of going online and asking about do it yourself surgery with a dull kitchen knife.
 
I'm only a hobbyist as well, but I've had a proper A-Z/class one CDL for over 20 years with a whole lot more than a million miles on it, operated everything from a forklift to some of the largest open pit mining equipment in the world. I'm trained to do heavy lifts and rigging. Frankly if you have to ask how to arrange and best rig a job this simple you shouldn't even be trying it. These big boy toys come with big boy costs. If you don't already know enough to figure the job out yourself and refuse to pay what a proper trained expert costs, then your buying something well above your own skill levels just to move it simply because your trying to do it cheap but without any of the proper knowledge to safely do so. This is about the equivalent of going online and asking about do it yourself surgery with a dull kitchen knife.

I "really" appreciate these responses that are informative and lengthy. This is not so much about how to do the job as I have moved a similar sized machine safely with proper equipment but this is more per the title of the thread a call for a medium to small sized outfit who would be in my geographical area that may have the equipment to do this.

Instead of bringing a tractor trailer down my road where a tilt back tow truck would suffice. It seems most of these riggers are for 10+ ton machinery and not the 2 ton variety I am looking at.

That was the purpose of this thread that is all.

Thanks
 
If you are not finding a small rigging company, that should tell you all you need to know. Either fork out the cash for the licensed/insured/bonded big boys, or hire a fly by night crew that might not deliver it un-broken, or do it yourself. A toe jack is $100, use it to get machine up on skids, build out-riggers into skid so it cannot tip, call in a rollback to winch it on and deliver to your door.
 
(sigh) You sure as hell don't need a tractor trailer at all unless the distance involved requires a LTL freight quote first. It's roughly a couple of tons, amateurs move there own weekend boats that are a whole lot larger and heavier than this with their daily drivers all the time. And I still can't figure out why most seem to think either a proper rigging company or those roll backs are about the only options available. You've provided no real information or pictures of where that lathe is, how your going to get it out into the open or close enough to where it can be picked up and loaded, or how far it has to go to the delivery point. Add the exact known machine weight as well. Pipe rollers, castors or machine skates are only for getting the machine out to where it can be then be loaded for transport. Only a fool would leave them in place during transport. As others have mentioned, bolting it down to wooden beams or a large heavy skid before loading then provides much better stability. All your doing is duplicating what the factory does to ship them when new and for the same reasons. A single or tandem axle flat deck truck with a Hiab might even do it. Check lumber and building supply company's to see if anyone's interested. But there's independent owner/operators with those as well. You'd need that total weight and it's H,W,L dimensions, without those it's impossible for anyone to calculate they can even pick it up and move it with the equipment they have. Failing that, someone with a back hoe or excavator business and smaller truck used for transporting those machines might be able to pick it up, load and do the whole job. Obviously none of these are proper riggers, so exactly how and where to properly pick it up or tie the machine down for transport to prevent any damage is your responsibility. Hell I could rent a 3/4 ton pick up and one of those drop deck hydraulic trailers and move anything myself. A complex move this ain't, it really couldn't be more simple. If you've moved anything like this before then you should have been able to figure any of this out yourself. Since you apparently didn't or refuse to use basic logic, then pay a pro to do it. Christ I've had to first build the access road into where some loads were going and then level it's location out of blasted rock before I could even start to move a whole lot larger, heavier and in most cases much more expensive items than this over terrain no wheeled vehicle could even climb.
 
I am not sure the OP is being unreasonable.

I paid a major rigger 2500 bucks to take delivery of my Brother, drive it 30 miles, un crate it, move it into my shop, and rough level it. So a grand for a pickup and drop off might seem high

So, moving say a bridgeport or medium sized lathe is no more risky than towing a 3000 pound car the same distance.

All this hoo haw about licensed and bonded, AAA will tow an 80k car for 100 bucks plus mileage


Lighten up a bit.

How many conversations about, oh, gee pity to see this go for scrap, well, if it costs a grand to move a 500 dollar machine, you gotta pay me 500 bucks to take it

I had to pay 400 bucks to have the old VMCs clogging up my shop hauled away so they could scrap them....
 
I suspect there are a number of guys capable of handling this job fairly close who would do it for half (700) or less. Just find one of them and make a deal. Properly vet them first.

Hodge
 
The idea of using timbers is appealing but having the lathe anymore than an inch off the ground scares me.

Just getting it up on those said timbers is the exciting part I guess. Head stock on first should I just make a sled for that part or for the whole lathe?
I figure an engine lift on the tail end to help it up and over the ridge on the tow truck and a sled type sleigh on the head stock would work well.

This is not so much about how to do the job as I have moved a similar sized machine safely with proper equipment


That was the purpose of this thread that is all.

Thanks

Your previous postings make it clear to some of us that you have NO "prior experience" moving anything more than a pencil.
Stop changing your story.
 
C'mon guys. Give him a break. We were all in that situation once.

As to how I would advise moving it...

Jack along the central axis at the tailstock end to pick it up just enough to get a beam under it and lag it. Lower that, pick up the headstock end and do the same. Get the driver to pull straight on it, preferably the heavy end.

The rollback drivers I know around here are damn good. Not all are, but you can certainly get an idea of skill by calling around. And they do have insurance if they screw up.
 








 
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