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What's the machine have you' moved with just a pinch bar and round stock for rollers?

marka12161

Stainless
Joined
Dec 23, 2016
Location
Oswego, NY USA
On Edit, sorry, I omitted the word "heaviest" in the title

No room in my shop to maneuver a fork truck. I've moved a 5000-ish lb shaper by myself without too much trouble. I need to move my monarch lathe at about 6500 lbs. We'll see how that goes.

What's the heaviest machine you've moved with just pinch bars and how big a "crew" did you have?
 
K&T 2CH, Ida Know the weight precisely, 5-6k#? Crew size 1. Worked fine, as long as the pipes were oriented correctly. Remember that you can execute a turn by arranging the pipes in an arc, but if the pipes are oriented not radially or parallel, they can bind up.

Regards.

Mike
 
Fellows gear shapers, I roll and slide them on 1/2" round steel rod with pry bars by myself. I'm told they are 8K lbs, definitely too much for a 5K forklift.
 
The heaviest for me was my old Samuel Flagg planer (thought it was built by D. Chamberlain when I bought it). Probably weighed just over 3000 lbs - a lightweight by the other posts here! :)
Used a 2x4 as a pinch bar. Half way through moving it I decided to play the Bangles' song "Walk Like an Egyptian" on my phone! Fun way to spend a pretty June day! Just me.

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Irby
 

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I've always used skates, but 12k lbs is about my top end, alone, with just a prybar (on good level concrete). Less than 4k lbs skates/rollers aren't even necessary if you can get a bite anywhere under the machine for your bar.
 
Anybody ever moved anything in the 15000 - 20000 lb range?

I need skates at that weight. I tried UHMW pads, sliding on bars, etc, didn't work for me. 2" pipe might work but I worry about rolling off something that high without several attentive helpers, and it would need to be thick pipe to not go oval. With skates 20k is not a problem, I can nudge it around by myself but I get tired after about 3-6 feet.
 
8000 lb vmcs but I also use a floor jack to get the machine high enough for 2" galvanized pipe rollers. I have some others but those are my go-to rollers. IME 5000 lbs is about as much as I can lift with my pinch bar, I weigh 165 lbs.
 
Anybody ever moved anything in the 15000 - 20000 lb range?

I moved my 7.5 tonne steel boat on its welded steel cradle over a smooth concrete floor using 75mm pipe rollers and a heavy pry bar.

The next time I used machinery skates and my 4WD pickup.

Other than that, 3.7 tonne horizontal boring mill. Wasn't too hard.

PDW
 
I moved my 6000 pound Graziano by myself 20 feet into the garage. I made a 6 inch heavy angle iron cross member under the headstock end with 6 inch steel wheels running on two 6000 series bearings each. I used the pinch bar on the tailstock end to walk it in about an inch at a time.
 
14,500 LB P&W Jig Bore - but cheated a bit in making the 90 degree corner.

Borrowed the 25 ton ram off the shop press and arranged for it to push against floor while at a slight tilt to "ooch" the machine around the bend

As far as a "crew" I was alone.

Photo is before I turned it. "Notch" refers to cut out in gable to clear top (and bottoms of trusses) with one gear box cover off

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This was in 2003, so I was a bit less of a GEEZER then
 
I had to swing the headstock end of Little Belle' 90* on skates, by hand on Christmas Eve after the steering knuckle broke on the 20K truck that I had rented for the job.

Belle' is one of our 40" swing Large and Shapely original NC tape lathes, built in 1972.
Not sure if that constitutes "anitique" machinery or not? Where's the cut-off?

She likely goes 22-24K#.

Yes, my back was hurting to say the least!

Oh yes - crew of one...


----------------------

Think Snow Eh!
Ox
 
14,000# DeVlieg and 13,000# 4K by myself. The DeVlieg on 1 1/2" solid rollers, and the 4K on 3/4" solid rollers. For better motive force than a bar, you can weld a nut to the end of the bar and turn it with a ratchet.

26,000# DeVlieg with one skinny helper. We rolled that one 20', turned it 90 degrees, and rolled it another 5' on 1 1/2 solid bars.
 
...26,000# DeVlieg with one skinny helper. We rolled that one 20', turned it 90 degrees, and rolled it another 5' on 1 1/2 solid bars.

How long did that take?? I'll admit that I usually just grab the forklift instead of trying to muscle thru moves like that, but I moved my 2B36 before I had the forklifts, about the same distance and that was a pretty good workout for at least 2hrs. I guess I'm out of shape...
 
I moved four items around the 3500 LB range. Using 1/2" dowels of varying lengths, and a selection of prybars.
Two of these items were on a level shop floor, the other two, a lathe and a mill were rolled into the back of a snowmobile trailer to head hundreds of miles north to Chetwynd, B.C.
We managed to roll these units off the forks of a fork lift and into the S/B Trailer without dropping them, and didn't damage the drop down rear tailgate which did not allow the forklift to enter straight on, it was tense, but slow and steady they got in there.
Then to top it off the Dodge Cummins powered dually had a failed front crank seal and aftercooler which were fixed before making the 500 plus mile trip.
Thank goodness for a shop in the back yard!
 








 
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