Question for moving a 16" South Bend Beast!

Hello all,

I need some help. I just bought a 16" model A Lathe on Ebay and to be honest, I didn't think it through. Because now I have to figure out how to move it. The guy I bought it from put it in a little cubby alcove in an office building with not much room around it, and to make things worse there is a 3" lip at the doorway out of the little closet to the main room with the exit.

I think I can get my 3t cherry picker in there to take as much off of it as I can to make it a bit easier/safer to move but I have a question.

Can I remove the headstock as one piece and later re install it without messing up the alignment? I know this style headstock rests on the ways and is non-adjustable, so Im hoping it will go back together without much issue. If it will mess up the alignment, will it be impossible to tram it back in relatively close?

I cant seem to find anything online about someone removing it like that but I can find tons of posts about completely disassembling the headstock. The lathe is in really nice shape so I'm not really keen on tearing the headstock down if I can avoid it.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Just my 2 cents...
I removed the headstock from my 16 and it uses dowels for alignment so there is not a lot that could go wrong. I am not sure what vintage your lathe is, but mine is a 1959 with an 8ft bed.
I’m pretty sure they were scraped to fit at the factory. The only issue would be if there are any shims under the headstock for whatever reason.
Take a million photos if you are going to take it apart.

I’d bring some good quality slings and be very careful about how you sling it, make sure you do not sling around the lead screw.
Mine has the x brace webbed bed and I used two 5000lb slings and a 2 ton hoist to lift mine by slinging directly to the casting. With care, it can be done.
Just like eating an elephant, one bite at a time.





Good luck.





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Regardless of whether you pull head stock or not, you'll probably want/need to get everything pointed at center to be true. Without knowing history, etc you gotta at least check, so you'll be invested into any corrections anyway. So I wouldn't be too worried if you do indeed pull head stock as a unit.

Not sure what your length of bed is, but a 16" SB lathe with 6' bed is in the vicinity of 2600 lbs.

Harbor freight sells moving dollies fairly cheap, what i'm thinking of are like 4 wheeled skate boards, but wider than a skate board. You could use cherry picker to pick up one end at a time, slip one of those dollies on each end to roll it.

I've used a strap and shackle on tail stock end and go around a cross member between bed ways. Head stock end, removed spindle pulley door, slip strap around pulleys for spindle.

Not sure how wide door way is with 3" lip, if wide enough, i'd go head stock side first with cherry picker lifting that end while you pull backwards. Build some ramps each side of lip, out of wood.

Also not sure plan to get on truck or trailor.

Depending on mechanical ability, pace worked, possible complications you could have tore down in big pieces in 3 to 8 hours. Like this:

1 Tail stock. 2 head stock. 3 quick change gear box with lead screw attached. 4 apron. 5 saddle. 6 bed from motor base and legs.

If you tear down, have rags or spill pads. Oil will leak.

Bed is heaviest, probably 500 lbs. motor base complete 400ish lbs. head stock complete 300-400lbs. tail stock 100 lbs. apron 80 lbs. quick change gear box w/ lead screw 120ish. empty saddle 100ish, complete cross feed etc probably 200ish.

When I bought another larger lathe, and mill the seller showed me a stupid simple, ancient "trick" that I'd failed to remember- pipe.

Any flat area to traverse, just get the machine off the ground enough to slip some heavy wall pipe underneath. We used 1" heavy-wall pipe and while not as large as yours, they could be slid around easily and reposition/ angle the pipes to change directions. Might even use a bottle jack in a tight space to get each end off the ground.

If you honestly feel intimidated by it-which is certainly justified- get a professional rigger if funds permit.

Thanks for they replies guys, you sure took a load off my mind. I think I'll break it down in to pieces, there is no rush to move it and being a 20 year oil field hand I'm comfortable with my slinging and lifting abilities. I thought about rolling it on the pipes but I'll have at most one person to help me move it, so that seemed a bit dangerous to me. Above all else I want to make sure it gets moved safely, or it's not worth having. So like barryw said, "one bite at a time".

Thanks again guys!
p.s. get ready for tons of "how the hell does this thing work" questions coming in the following months

Curious- what's powering it?

texasgunsmith said:

Harbor freight sells moving dollies fairly cheap, what i'm thinking of are like 4 wheeled skate boards, but wider than a skate board. You could use cherry picker to pick up one end at a time, slip one of those dollies on each end to roll it.

Click to expand...

I seem to remember some horror stories posted on here about the HF FURNITURE dollies. Buy, or make some machine skates, 6" x 4" x 3/8" flat stock, some tool steel for axles, and some bearings. Drill a hole in center of flat stock for leveling screw to go thru, that will keep you from losing a skate. You can get a toejack on ebay, under 100 iirc, they work great, easier than prybars, especially in close quarters. On smooth concrete, I moved a 3000lb machine by myself this way, on brushed concrete surface its a little harder, but 2 people with prybars can manage. Only easier ways are lifting with a forklift, or writing a check.

I'm not sure. All I know is its a 3 phase motor. I havent actually been out to see the machine yet. Bought it off Ebay and have to wait until i get time from my day job to go get it.

dalmatiangirl61 said:

I seem to remember some horror stories posted on here about the HF FURNITURE dollies. Buy, or make some machine skates...

Click to expand...

+1 one on making your own skates. And the HF furniture dollies (the little 6" diameter ones) are absolute junk.

dalmatiangirl61 said:

Only easier ways are lifting with a forklift, or writing a check.

Click to expand...

I don't know about this - writing a check for someone else is pretty hard for me!

texasgunsmith said:

Harbor freight sells moving dollies fairly cheap, what i'm thinking of are like 4 wheeled skate boards, but wider than a skate board. You could use cherry picker to pick up one end at a time, slip one of those dollies on each end to roll it.

Click to expand...

Don't use those, not long ago a member bought IIRC 13" SB and dropped it on it's face when the wheels failed on his HF moving dolly.

**EDIT** I found the thread:
Disaster - toppled new to me 13”...

tobnpr said:

When I bought another larger lathe, and mill the seller showed me a stupid simple, ancient "trick" that I'd failed to remember- pipe.

Any flat area to traverse, just get the machine off the ground enough to slip some heavy wall pipe underneath. We used 1" heavy-wall pipe and while not as large as yours, they could be slid around easily and reposition/ angle the pipes to change directions. Might even use a bottle jack in a tight space to get each end off the ground.

If you honestly feel intimidated by it-which is certainly justified- get a professional rigger if funds permit.

Click to expand...

^^^ Pipe is cheaper and more reliable (sweep the floor clean, any grit will stop the rolling and start the lathe sliding). I used 1" black iron pipe to move my 14 1/2 SB. It has the 10' bed and weighs over a ton. The lathe was up on wood skids which helped tremendously to move it around. With a good floor jack you can lift either end of the lathe to place your rollers. Also you can slide the lathe along the length of the pipes if you need to navigate any bends or if you want to parallel park it.

DO NOT MOVE THIS MACHINE BY YOUR SELF. You might get lucky and not have a disaster (you could also win the lottery or get struck by lightning(. If things start to get squirrley you have no chance of stopping disaster by your self. With two people you will have another set of eyes and most importantly someone who can call 911 if you are pinned! If you aren't comfortable start calling riggers and see what your professional options are. Hiring a flat bed and a front loader will also help move then place and probably be cheaper than riggers.

Good luck and be safe, your best tool is the one between your ears.

For that machine id go with a couple 6x2" bolted and strapped to the feet and a couple 1-1/2" pipes to roll/slide it on. Use a bar to pick it each end at a time and have a bunch of MDF shims 1/4" - 3/4" to block it high enough to get your boards under. Go slow and dont have things so the machine can come down more than 1/2". Having someone 'should', I say should as sometimes they just get in the way.

Heres a decent video of how to use the pipes.

And a few pics of things ive recently moved on bars.


Turn on your common sense, take your time and stay out of the pinch points and youll wonder what all the fuss was about.

Cheers
D

Jsmith111 said:

Hello all,

I need some help. I just bought a 16" model A Lathe on Ebay and to be honest, I didn't think it through. Because now I have to figure out how to move it. The guy I bought it from put it in a little cubby alcove in an office building with not much room around it, and to make things worse there is a 3" lip at the doorway out of the little closet to the main room with the exit.

I think I can get my 3t cherry picker in there to take as much off of it as I can to make it a bit easier/safer to move but I have a question.

Can I remove the headstock as one piece and later re install it without messing up the alignment? I know this style headstock rests on the ways and is non-adjustable, so Im hoping it will go back together without much issue. If it will mess up the alignment, will it be impossible to tram it back in relatively close?

I cant seem to find anything online about someone removing it like that but I can find tons of posts about completely disassembling the headstock. The lathe is in really nice shape so I'm not really keen on tearing the headstock down if I can avoid it.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Click to expand...

A 16" SB is not a beast, not even close. It is top heavy though and will go over in a heartbeat. Bolt it to a couple of 2 x 10s and use about 5 1" pipes. If the bed is long screw another 2 x 10 on top of the 1st one between the pedestal and legs. This is a small lathe and will move easy, be careful though. Consider a roll back wrecker for the move.

A couple things I used that helped me were a concrete pry bar and a high lift jack but I didn't have a cherry picker. Lets see some pics!