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Help! How many turners are required to move a new lathe?

Bryan Field

Bryan Field

Joined
Apr 3, 2023
Messages
127
Likes
159
Location
Peterborough, NH
I just ordered a 500 lb lathe from Acme tools. I paid for the liftgate service. How have you gotten your heavy lathes into your workshops after delivery? It will have to come through my garage and up a set of four stairs to get into the shop.
 
When I got my ONEWAY the truck driver used his pallet jack to put it in the garage.
Next day 3 club members showed up to help assemble it and move it into the shop.
No stairs. But we could have handled stairs before assembly.

I should add that the pulleys did not line up- my friend who owned a oneway put the headstock on backwards.
Easily corrected. And we only ridiculed him a little.

A pizza lunch should attract enough club members to help.
 
I was planning on pizza and beer and some disassembly/re-assembly. If the driver has a pallet jack, we are all set. I'm more concerned about if he doesn't. o they usually?
 
Sounds like a play on the old lightbulb joke :) I like your pizza and beer idea I would think that would attract a lot of help. You could also ask on your local social media page (ie, Facebook) for help. The college kids are about to be out for winter break. I would think knowledgeable help would be great but what you really need is muscle power.
 
I had to move my AB across a bunch of gravel. I used some 4 by 4s to lever it up off the crate, put the mobility wheels on, and used 2 sheets of wafer board to roll it on. I guess it depends on your individual situation. I did get a whole wood shop into the basement of a place where I used to live. I rebuilt the stairs to make sure they would handle the weight of planer and jointer. I didn't have a lathe at that time. Getting the lathe up your stairs shouldn't be much of a problem if there are enough hands. When I got my 3520A, I got it into my shop and assembled by myself. It was on a flat concrete driveway. Not too much trouble, but I was a lot stronger back then.... Almost 30 years ago.

robo hippy
 
Lathes often come disassembled in a box or on a pallet. Headstock, tailstock, banjo, bed, and legs are usually separate (or can be disassembled). That reduces the weight etc of each piece to something usually manageable by a couple people or maybe even one person with a dolly and/or hand truck. As I recall, when my Jet 1642 was delivered, they dropped it in the driveway and I unboxed it right there, then hand-truck'ed the parts down to the basement. They came back up the same way when we moved.
 
Bryan Field said:
I was planning on pizza and beer and some disassembly/re-assembly. If the driver has a pallet jack, we are all set. I'm more concerned about if he doesn't. o they usually?
Click to expand...
He's got to have one to get cargo onto the liftgate. Beyond just getting it on the ground, depends on the driver.
When my Problematic 4224 was delivered way back, we were on a corner lot in a sub with very hilly, narrow streets. Our road was an uphill and our driveway was stupid-steep up. The driver looked at it all and said the best he could do was leave it on the corner. I put a chain thru the pallet and pulled it with my truck up to my garage, then 3 friends came over and we scooted it down a narrow path to our side entry walkout. I used a few pipes to roll it across the carpet and into my shop area at the far corner of the basement.

Our basement was way higher than the road, so when we moved a couple years later, The lathe went out the same door and downhill thru the woods to the road.

A guy was giving away an upright player piano, so I borrowed a trailer and used my machine mover dollies to load it. We have 3 steps up from our garage, and the trailer was about the same height. I backed the trailer in, jackknifed it sideways, and used some planks and made a ramp and was able to singlehandedly move it in. Just thought I'd throw that out in case you have access to a trailer. It can helpp equalize the height difference.
 
If it is a lift gate he will have a pallet jack. Should be able to do it with two but the more the merrier. I did mine by myself but it is only 350 pounds.
 
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I had a Nova Galaxy lathe delivered and I needed to get it into the basement. I'm too old to carry the very heavy cast iron components so I phoned a couple of courier companies. One quoted me Can$175 for a truck (obviously not needed) and two men for a minimum of one hour. They carried everything into the basement and helped me put it together. Then, because there was still time on the clock, they carried my old General lathe up into the garage.
I reckon it was well worth the money.
 
Bryan Field said:
Once we get it into the garage, I'm pretty sure it can be disassembled o get it up the stairs and into the sho
Click to expand...

Looks like a nice lathe. Our club has an old nova DVR - lots of power, stable for roughing, terrible controls.
Nova put decent controls on the nebula.

The head stock will be heavy and with the controller wires you don’t want to pull loose or damage.
 
Friend with a tractor if you have uneven ground to go over?

My Kubota BX22 is sitting in the background.
My neighbor's BX25 has better lift capacity.

IMG_8373.JPG
 
I would NOT give any comercial driver alcohol! You'd be responseable for them getting a DUI driving a company vehicle. Ask me how I know that?
 
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