New boy says hello

[Old Minger]

Here's the skinny on the milling machine.

I went to see the chap and its a genuine offer. However the one caveat is the machine must be out of its current location by Friday, but it is in one pig of a place for access. It must have been delivered in parts and assembled in place, there is no way it could have been delivered in one piece, this thing is huge! Also it is a 600V 3 phase machine meaning I will need to replace the motor and the wiring? There is no tooling that comes with it but there is a set of collets. So, although it maybe free it will still cost me quite a bit of money to make this happen so my question is, is it worth it? What would be reasonable costs to pay for it to be dumped at my door in bits. All thoughts gratefully received.

Here is all the info I could get, I swear this chap knows less than me about machines and that's saying something.

The machine is a Bridgeport textron. I don't know what model it is.
I did the physical checks that Darren suggested and it all seems OK from what I could tell, but I know nothing about milling machines. It looks like its been over painted and not very well at that and of course its covered in muck.
I couldn't turn it on as it has been disconnected, in fact the whole place was without power as it gets torn down on Monday to make way for offices.
Did I say it's huge!

I put out a few calls this afternoon to see how much it would cost for a company to dismantle and move it but at this short notice I was having difficulty finding anyone that was either willing or able to help me out. I'm still waiting to hear back from a couple of sources.

What do you say Gents!

Cheers
John

[Old Minger]

I forgot to mention, a couple of moving companies asked for its weight. My searches came back with anything from 2000lbs to 3500lbs. That's quite a difference, any ideas?

[Mayhem]

If you have the room for it then I would try as hard as possible to get it from there to your house. I'd call around and find a moving company that either specialises or has a lot of experience in moving machinery. Tell them that you estimate its weight to be 3500 Lb and get them to take a look. As Al correctly stated, you could always sell it, part it out, or cash it in for scrap.

[f350ca]

The good news is if the building is being demolished you don't need to worry about marking the door jams or scratching the floor as it comes out.

For a few hundred dollars cash the demolition company maybe could cut the building out and lift it on to a uhaul .

[Roadracer_Al]

That is a hefty-duty machine, for sure!

Yeah, if they're demo'ing the building, bring a sledgehammer and sawzall and make the door openings big enough to move the milling machine through.

Google "Egyptian Move" -- you'll want to buy 4~5 pieces of black iron pipe, a "pinch bar" and make yourself a large pile of wedges and blocks.  The wedges want to be cut corner-to-corner from a 4x4 about 2' long.  You'll want to make 4 wedges.   The blocks should be ~1' long, and cut out of 1x4, 2x4 and 4x4.

The wedges perform 3 functions -- they are an infinitely adjustable fulcrum point for your pinch bar, they will support the machine as you build up the block stack, and, they act as a brake if you get on an inclined plane -- just stuff the wedge under the downhill edge of the machine and it *will* stop.

Let's talk about the pinch bar -- it's NOT a crowbar.  Basically, one end has a slight kick up, this end is used to lift the machine.  I have a 3' pinch bar, and I can lift the geared headstock end of my 16x40 lathe with one hand on the pinch bar. It's only lifting it 1/4" for 2 feet of movement at the far end of the handle, just enough for you to get a wedge in under it.

The pointy end is used to move the machine - it gets poked under the back edge of the machine, and when you lift, the machine slides down the pinch bar and moves forward.  The pointy end can actually dig slightly into concrete, and will absolute F up a tile floor.



Always make sure you have at least 3 pipes under the machine at all times. To go straight, make the pipes parallel to each other, arranged perpendicular to the path of travel. To turn, fan the pipes out.

Lifting into a truck or trailer is a different skill set. Know and accept that you won't be able to do it with an engine hoist. It's usually a very bad plan to lift from the bottom (i.e. avoid the temptation to lift it with a fork truck -- machines tend to slide around on the steel forks unpredictably. If the fork truck will reach high enough, you can lift from above using a fork truck. A backhoe or a tow truck have also been used with success.

Knowing how and where to lift the machine from is crucial. Some mills have a very large threaded hole in the top of the ram. You can get a lifting eye (which is not the same as a hardware store eye bolt) and lift from that point. There may be marks on the ram where it will balance correctly, otherwise, test the balance and move the ram until it lifts straight up without tilting. If it doesn't have a lifting eye, then a sling around the ram is generally accepted as safe. Don't lift by the table, you can easily bend the lead screws.

It's a good idea to get the knee all the way down, the table centered, and the head spun around so the motor is below the ram.