Moving EE, low ceiling, advice please

I have an opportunity to get another EE, but it is in a building with a ~9 foot ceiling height. helped move a bridgeport CNC in this very building, using a forklift, with me following along muttering 'I don't like this, I don't like this' because it was sat on the forks of a forklift. I always pick from the top, but ceiling height is too low. All was fine until the front tire of the forklift hit the truck bed, it sagged and over she went.

Luckily I happened to own spares of the few things that broke, so alls well that ends well, but I am not anxious for a repeat performance.

So, what to use to lift a EE and move it through a 100 feet of serpentine hallway to a loading dock?

Use a bar and cribbing to get it up high enough for a pallet jack. That's how I move mine around.

Pallet jack would also be my first choice. The forks on most forklifts can be put on upside down, this will put the fork aprox even with the top of the carriage. If the forklift has no back cage or the cage is removeable, the forks should go to the ceiling. An antique with no free lift will not work for this though.

A second vote for pallet jack. I use a pry bar and toe-jack, crib, and then pallet jack.

Rob F. said:

Pallet jack would also be my first choice. The forks on most forklifts can be put on upside down, this will put the fork aprox even with the top of the carriage.

Click to expand...

ahh, this I was unaware of. I will have to check out what is there. THe few times I paid attention, it seemed like the forks just hang there and are L shaped. I don't know how they would be put upside down.

If I was just moving from one side of the open shop to the other, pallet jack is no problem, but anything else, including getting it off the dock I soooooooooo much prefer hanging it

Machinery movers, AKA piano dollys.

Every tool rental store has them.

DAYTON Machinery Mover Hand Truck, 4000 lb., Steel, Number of Rollers 4, 2 PK - 13V411'|'13V411 - Grainger!

A good skid makes all the difference. This one allowed me to end load my lathe and bumps etc were not an issue.

gustafson said:

ahh, this I was unaware of. I will have to check out what is there. THe few times I paid attention, it seemed like the forks just hang there and are L shaped. I don't know how they would be put upside down.

Click to expand...

Most forks are removed in the very center of the carriage, look on the botom for a notch as wide as one fork. Position fork directly over notch and lift the end to swing away from carriage and out of the notch. At this point the entire fork van be lifted off the carriage, flipped over and re installed. Same for other fork. Just watch out the mast does not rise with the forks until the carriage is at the top of the mast. Some OLD ones the mast goes up at half the speed of the forks.

There is no reason to have concerns about any piece of machinery being lifted from underneath with a fork lift.
Just treat the fork lift like you would the inside of a box-truck, or an open trailer that you would be used to transport the machine hundreds of miles: STRAP it down and STRAP it to the wall or a rigid upright !!

With a fork lift, you have the vertical extension channels with the hydraulic ram or rams. Just strap the lathe or mill to the uprights. The best is to use wood blocks to put between the upright 'L' of the forks, strap tha tower part to the forks.
Then add additional wood blocks or cribbing up higher on the machine, and firmly strap the top part of the machine to the uprights.
Where can it go??

I've seen items picked up with a forklift, where the forks were put through an opening in the machine. like under the bed of a lathe. This is often written in an owners manual as the preferred method to lift an move the machine..
BUT you HAVE to strap the machine to the forklift.
An abrupt stop, or the operator forgetting what he has out front and letting the forks dip below horizontal. and the machine slides right off the ends of the forks..
There is very little friction between two pieces of steel, especially if one is slightly oily, and the other has some paint on it..

So; get under it, and then strap it solidly to the forklift forks and the vertical lift structure, use blocks to strap it firmly in place.. and then drive slowly.

DualValve

I like the skid method with pallet jack. As said before the skid needs to be stout.

car2 said:

Jack/shim up and bolt to some long heavy-duty skids (perpendicular to the bed), or pallet, that a pallet-jack will fit under from the end. A rollback wrecker can accomodate about any dock-height. Roll/pull it up onto the rollback (using rollback winch) with the headstock toward the cab (the rollbacks have a good winch and tie-downs). To remove, hook up winch, take a bit of weight off with the pallet-jack and roll it off (may need to raise/fiddle with the pallet-jack at the ramp/ground intersection). The headstock needs to be toward the cab to keep the center of gravity correct for tilting the bed. The long skids or pallet will reduce tendency to do a faceplant.

Click to expand...

+1 for skid & pallet jack. Travelled to Texas to get mine with a couple of long pinch bars, a pallet jack, some 2x6 and 4x4, a come along and a hydraulic drop bed trailer. No issues getting her jacked up, skid built and moved out of low ceiling shop onto trailer and back to Florida.

Ryan

Another vote for well-built skid plus pallet jack.

If you _really_ want to lift from overhead, beg/borrow/steal an 8' tall rolling gantry crane, lift lathe, traverse to other end of beam, set down, roll gantry forwards without disconnecting hoist, and keep leapfrogging that along. Slow but steady.

gustafson said:

helped move a bridgeport CNC in this very building, using a forklift, with me following along muttering 'I don't like this, I don't like this' because it was sat on the forks of a forklift.

Click to expand...

If it's one of those rigid ram factory CNC bridgeports, there's a hole in the ram casting to put a bar through. A 1-1/2 bar of hot roll or something stuck in there and you can pick it up with the forks on either side of the head, right at its COG.

Not at all related to your question but maybe it'll help in the future or something.

I bet you could move that EE pretty quick with a rented set of rol-a-lifts.

i use round stock . i put it under the machine and just push it, works like a charm . just make sure the stock is long enough where you can just pull it out .