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Machinery moving skis

kustomizer

Diamond
Joined
Aug 17, 2007
Location
North Fork Idaho
I am moving my shop from California to Idaho, the rigging quotes scared me so I am moving them myself. I don't have a forklift large enough to lift my machines so I bought a hydraulic dovetail trailer and built a set of these skis to move them. I jack up the machine and bolt these to the machine with leveling bolts, pull it to the door with the forklift then up onto the trailer with the winch on my pickup. I then jack it up a bit so I can pull the pins to remove the rollers, chain it down and away we go. I have moved 2 so far and they work well. When I unload them I run the forks inside the skis and back up lowering as I go until the machine is on the floor and move it into position, replace the skis with the leveling pads. We bought a pair of 3 ton racing jacks to lift the machines on to the skis and to steer them as we move through the shop. They are 7 feet long and made of 5 x 7 x 5/16 wall tube. Perhaps this will help someone else

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nice idea- our machines are bigger, but could see advantages of similar setup...

thoughts- yours are obviously up to the task as its already proven- but- plating around the fork hole/leveling bolt bolt access holes might be good as thats about the highest stress point, and is cut out, think i'd opt to put the rollers just outside the pockets again for strength(and ease of 'steering') but i really like the wide footprint- should a roller go thru the floor, no chance of machine tipping...
we used to have a bunch of NATCO and Moline gang drills, converted with massive rockford drill heads... 15' tall, 6'x8' bases and we made big 'skates' to trailer them thru the shop on- each skate had 4 needle bearing supported 4" rollers with 2" pins, and the skates ended up 5" thick. these machines tooled weighed close to 50,000 and I saw cement pop a couple times under the rollers- my biggest worry was if one went THRU the floor, the machine would be damaged at a minimum, or literally fall over- so once machine was up on the skates i'd bolt wood full width across it using leveling holes- should a roller break thru, would have both a wood cushion and only 1/2" of drop till the wood would catch it, preventing it toppling... other guys that moved them usually wouldnt take the time to add wood, just pulled them on the rollers- luckily no one ever broke the floor and flopped a machine over... but several times one end of the skate would bust thru, hanging things up... your tube idea with the rollers integral is NICE- makes a lot of sense in many ways- built in 'shipping feet' to spread loads out on trailer, anti tip, easy side fork access, etc... really good setup.
forks pocketed too are smart- one of our guys was forking a new haas off a trailer, table wasnt clamped- was on a slight incline, table started rolling, weight shifted, machine slid when table hit the stops, off the forks she went- luckily missing everyone and the trailer, but they absolutely destroyed a new machine. had the table been bolted(ball bearing/no brakes on x/y, haas' NEED tables secured) and/or fork pockets existed, it couldnt have slid off the forks...
we dont have the big drills anymore, all the semi wheels have been drilled on single spindle cncs the last 15 years or so- much slower than our old 20 spindle geared heads (drilled all 10 lugholes and all 10 3" handholes at once- 3" coolant lines!), and our big iron/steel vertical broaching jobs all went overseas/machines to the scrapyards, so we havent moved much big stuff in a long long time... biggest we have now is the vertical lathes, but they are usually in the 25-35k range, and we boom them from the top... however if the big jobs ever come back, will definitely be wanting to fabricate some roller skids like these- even if just tubes that our skates could be pocketed into :)
 
I forgot to mention that I put a 1 inch aluminum rod with a flat cut on it in a tool holder, then clamped it in a vise to all axis are secured, I still have to pull the vises at the other end to tram.
 
I forgot to mention that I put a 1 inch aluminum rod with a flat cut on it in a tool holder, then clamped it in a vise to all axis are secured, I still have to pull the vises at the other end to tram.

Great job on the move!
Just note that when you secure the mill table as you did it puts a shock loading from the machine being bumped during transport (mass of the table trying to move) into the spindle bearings .
More preferred is make a fixture that grabs the Z outside of the spindle.
Done is done, just a note for next time
Not trying to be a wise ass


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"More preferred is make a fixture that grabs the Z outside of the spindle.
Done is done, just a note for next time
Not trying to be a wise ass"

I just found a few of those brackets and will use them next time, 35 years in one building has allowed a few things to become somewhay hard to locate.
thanks
 
Amazing how that crap shows up after your need for it is gone. Or the thing you find is for the tool/machine/ vehicle that you sold ten years ago



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I needed to move a bigger-than-forklift-capacity mill a while back. I made HDPE feet to skid it on (over smooth shop floor). I could lift corners, so I used short bolts to keep machine from sliding off plastic pad, allowing it to slide on the floor instead. Worked great, and no floor marring. Wouldn't have worked so well for trailer loading, though...
 
/edited

I needed to move a bigger-than-forklift-capacity mill a while back. I made HDPE feet to skid it over our smooth shop floor. I was able to lift each of the corners, so I used short bolts to keep the machine from sliding off its plastic pads, insuring it would slide on the floor instead.

The method worked great, and there was no floor marring.

It probably wouldn't have worked so well for traversing the rougher non-slip ribbed, rough, or diamond-plate surfaces of loading ramps or trailer decks, though.

/end editing

Outsmarted ourselves in an office move onct about that "marring" thing.

Grabbed a cut-off of thick slippery plastic at Read plastics outta the drops bin. Bolted a lip atop one end.

We'd set a "book box" or Xerox paper box on the plate, slide it down the hall.

"Outsmart" part was temp-hire youngsters got to having too much fun trying to set speed records!

Speed was enough to melt the tips and leave a visible trail in the cheap glue-down poly carpet of the hallway!

Good job the plate didn't cooperate and friction-weld itself solid right in the middle of the traveled way!

Oh, well.... danged carpet was only there to walk on, anyway.....
 
I spoke with California hwy patrol, Nevada state police and Idaho police before I ordered the trailer about length, weight, scales etc and was told by all 3 that as long as I was hauling my own stuff and it looked like it was safe and secure, there was little chance I would have problems. So far, knock on my wooden head, we have had no trouble.
our back haul is her Ford explorer with an 18 foot cargo trailer on my 34 foot flatbed trailer with about 5 feet of her trailer hanging over the back
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