Tips for moving a lathe around on skates

[Joe Henderson]

Skates are ok and work fine if you use them right. Four skates will be problematic on any concrete floor because you'll loose one of them when going over a low spot on the floor. Three works better but you still have the problem with turning. Tom Lipton (OxTool fame on YouTube) has a good video about making his style of skate that is adjustable for width. Finding good wheels will be a problem for heavy stuff. Your lathe isn't heavy at all considering. For a comparison a monarch 12 CK which swings 14" will weigh probably twice what the little Jet does.
For maximum stability cribbing up under and between the fore and aft plinths with wood 2x4's or 4x4's and using pipe gives you lots of stability. With heavier machinery you might have to build a support under the midsection to stabilize the skid. You'll have to use pry bars to scoot it around turns. Egyptian technology has been used to good effect for centuries. A good toe jack is very handy for everything around the shop.
That's just my .02 on it. Thousands of ways to skin the cat.

 

[Bill D]

I made wooden scooter boards for each end with four heavy casters on each. I made them 35" long to get through a 36' door. I would have liked longer ones for more stability. maybe four feet would feel safe.
During move I realized geometry would have allowed longer boards since each wheel went through door one at a time at an angle.
in the truck bolt screw it to 2x10's cross wise under the feet. make those 2x10's as long as truck bed width is so it can not shift sideways. A little extra blocking between the front of the bed and the first 2x10 helps prevent it shifting forward. Then four load straps, one to each corner.
Bill D.

 

[the average Joe]

I put some bolts into some of my skates, inserted from the bottom, so that they protrude thru the bolt holes in base of machine so the skate can't walk out, but they still want to turn and only get about 3' of travel before they need to be reset. I have considered using longer bolts and putting a nut on so that they are firmly attached and won't swivel, but have not tried that yet. My skates are homemade and very low profile (1.5"), so if I lose one the machine does not tip very far. The taller the skate, the more a machine will tip if a skate is lost. I find moving machines is easy, but stressful.

This is exactly what I did whe I moved my cnc lathe. I found out the hard way that those skates like to run away and no floor is even enough to keep them all perfectly loaded.

I ended up taking the swivel pads off the top of my skates, and drilling a 1/2-13 hole through the top. Then I bolted the skates through the leveling screw holes and everything got way easier(less scary) after that.

it was kind of a pain to stop every couple feet and re-aim the skates, but it works to your benefit too when you can set them all at a 45 deg angle relative to each other and spin the machine in place.

 

[Ox]

Not more than 3 points of contact, and shove a 1-by, or at least a wad of cardboard between the skates and the machine.



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Think Snow Eh!
Ox

 

[dalmatiangirl61]

Not more than 3 points of contact, and shove a 1-by, or at least a wad of cardboard between the skates and the machine.



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Think Snow Eh!
Ox

That works great in theory, but until the mfrs get the message, it fails in real world practice.

 

[Garwood]

That works great in theory, but until the mfrs get the message, it fails in real world practice.

How? I've done hundreds, maybe a thousand moves on skates. I rigged my HMC on skates over 1/2 mile through a 200K sq ft building.

Always on 3 points. I have never seen a machine that couldn't be set on 3 points. I have guessed the center of mass wrong, especially on small turning centers and had to switch my skates around to one under the head and two under the tail, but have never had 4 skates work.

Four skates is way bad. Disaster bad.

 

[dalmatiangirl61]

Four skates is way bad. Disaster bad.

I'm clearly not using my skates right, because I'm not dumping my machines. I've moved close to a thousand machines on skates, many were made to rest on 4 points, trying to do 3 points would require 6" to 8" blocks of wood, and would not be balanced in that configuration. I moved a couple big punch presses a few months ago, it was scary with 4 skates, would have been a disaster with 3.

 

[Garwood]

I'm clearly not using my skates right, because I'm not dumping my machines. I've moved close to a thousand machines on skates, many were made to rest on 4 points, trying to do 3 points would require 6" to 8" blocks of wood, and would not be balanced in that configuration. I moved a couple big punch presses a few months ago, it was scary with 4 skates, would have been a disaster with 3.

You got me there. I've never skated a punch press. I own 3 of them up to 42K lbs and 15' tall. Never thought putting one on skates was a good idea. I used forklifts and cranes.

 

[dalmatiangirl61]

You got me there. I've never skated a punch press. I own 3 of them up to 42K lbs and 15' tall. Never thought putting one on skates was a good idea. I used forklifts and cranes.

There was no overhead lift/crane in the building, maybe about a foot or 2 of space above them, and would not have trusted the floor joists above to hold them. Doorway was just tall enough to get them out on skates, to a 3' wide loading dock, from there it was a forklift job onto trailer. These were smaller machines, about 8' tall and 4000 lbs, bases were cast iron ornate type with 4 feet to rest on, only thing holding the 2 sides of base together was tie rods, about 3/4" thick, and already bent. I got them out and loaded on a truck without dumping them, I call that success. Yes, it had a pucker factor of 12.

 

[imported_eric_h]

I put some bolts into some of my skates, inserted from the bottom, so that they protrude thru the bolt holes in base of machine so the skate can't walk out, but they still want to turn and only get about 3' of travel before they need to be reset. I have considered using longer bolts and putting a nut on so that they are firmly attached and won't swivel, but have not tried that yet. My skates are homemade and very low profile (1.5"), so if I lose one the machine does not tip very far. The taller the skate, the more a machine will tip if a skate is lost. I find moving machines is easy, but stressful.

QQ for the skates u made how many bearings did u use on each skate? i see some online where they used 8 bearings per skate which for me i think is over kill. I plan on using just 4 x 6204 bearings per skate which will hold the weight im moving. Just curious about your design.

 

[dalmatiangirl61]

QQ for the skates u made how many bearings did u use on each skate? i see some online where they used 8 bearings per skate which for me i think is over kill. I plan on using just 4 x 6204 bearings per skate which will hold the weight im moving. Just curious about your design.

I used 8 per skate, overkill, but cheap import bearings so....

 

[EmGo]

Four skates is way bad. Disaster bad.

I'm going to go with the dogs on this one ... not always but sometimes there just isn't a good place for 3, or even sometimes it's more dangerous, if one of the two-skate corners dips then your third on the other end will allow excess tipping, then 1" of tip quickly turns into 3" of tip which turns into whoosh out goes the skate then crash.

I just go slow, really slow, and make sure the loose skate gets kicked along to remain in the place where it's supposed to be. Then if the load wobbles a tad, the skate is there to catch it.

Not always, but sometimes. Rules are made to be broken

 

[imported_eric_h]

I used 8 per skate, overkill, but cheap import bearings so....

thanks...at least if one bearing goes out u have some redundancy

 

[Garwood]

I'm going to go with the dogs on this one ... not always but sometimes there just isn't a good place for 3, or even sometimes it's more dangerous, if one of the two-skate corners dips then your third on the other end will allow excess tipping, then 1" of tip quickly turns into 3" of tip which turns into whoosh out goes the skate then crash.

I just go slow, really slow, and make sure the loose skate gets kicked along to remain in the place where it's supposed to be. Then if the load wobbles a tad, the skate is there to catch it.

Not always, but sometimes. Rules are made to be broken

Next time any of you guys put a machine on 4 skates I'd like you to post a picture of your setup.

 

[kb0thn]

Next time any of you guys put a machine on 4 skates I'd like you to post a picture of your setup.

I've also never gotten it to work unless there was a pin or something to capture it.

I borrowed skates for a decade and when I finally bought my own, I bought three.