David Richards on youtube has a very old HBM.. I wonder if he could offer you any insight...Cheers.. Ramsay 1
My G&L25T looks exactly the same as the one that Dave Richards owns.
Mine is a 1946, so we have much newer machines.
As to counterweights, I moved my G&L about 15 miles and did not restrain
the counterweight. No catastrophic damage, but when I took the covers
off the column, I found a small (1" or so) broken corner of the webbing
from the column casting. No harm, but just re-enforces the idea that one
needs to restrain the counterweights in these machines when moving them.
I moved my Rockford openside planer 660 miles, and it has 2 counterweights.
The column actually has some holes in it that you can stick bars through,
and lower the counterweights down to sit on them. I did that and also
used a tractor tire innertube to blow up and further stabilize the weights.
This seemed to work well. No broken anything in transit.
--Doozer