8' high mill through a 7' high door?

[iandm]

Hello,

I am a member of the University of Victoria Formula SAE team. Next week we will be taking delivery of a Bridgeport Series 2 Interact II that was donated to our team. Our first challenge will be in getting the machine into our garage. The door is only 6'11" tall, and I'm told that the mill is around 8' tall. How difficult is it to remove the motor / head assembly, and put it back together properly? Thanks in advance.

www.fsae.uvic.ca

[MrWild]

Not hard.

Raise the table all of the way and put a block of wood between the table and spindle.

With the forktruck also supporting the head assembly, unbolt the entire head from the colume/base assembly.

Slowly lower the table and forks on the forktruck so that the entire assembly tilts forward.

Once the head is tilting forward, place more wood on the table and twist the head to the right (lookig from the front the head would revolve in a clockwise orientation) until the head is laying on it's side on the table.

It will now be low enough to get through the door.

You can also disassemble the entire thing, but this method worked for me and all wires and controls stayed in place.

Once inside, you can use the forklift to raise the head and bolt it back up to the base.

Be CAREFUL, use CAUTION, run AWAY if things start to get out of hand. It's only a machine, you are a flesh and blood entity. Getting crushed hurts.

[snakebit95]

I had to tear-down the entire top-half of the machine to get it under my 7' door. I also called everywhere trying to find a 5000 LB forklift that would fit under a 7' door, and could not find one. I ended-up using a Nissan that was about 1/2" from fitting under the door; with hopes I could get it to fit.....NOT!!!. Anyways, I used the old-but-proven way of rolling the machine on pipes to get it inside the shop. Good Luck!!

[Geof]

Your team is supposed to build a mini racing car and you find moving a machine through a low doorway a challenge? Engineers from UBC would dangle it from Lions Gate first just to show how clever they are.

[iandm]

Not as challenging as building a race car, but I would like to have a good idea of what to do before the truck driver and forklift guy, both of whom value their time, show up. Thanks for the informative responses so far.

[bherr]

I had to do the 8' machine thru a 6-8" opening but decided to remove the garage door header instead. Worked great and then just re-installed the header, facia, etc. Set the machine on 2" round steel pipe and rolled into position.
just my .02 worth.
ben

[garagefela]

Originally Posted by bherr I had to do the 8' machine thru a 6-8" opening but decided to remove the garage door header instead. Worked great and then just re-installed the header, facia, etc. Set the machine on 2" round steel pipe and rolled into position. just my .02 worth. ben

Wow, must have got a massive run up and slammed it through the hole!!

Ahh sometimes I think I am the funniest guy on the planet.4 billion people would disagree though.

[cbass]

Originally Posted by Geof Your team is supposed to build a mini racing car and you find moving a machine through a low doorway a challenge? Engineers from UBC would dangle it from Lions Gate first just to show how clever they are.

Geof,

Don't you mean Engineers from UBC would dangle a VW Bug from the Lion's Gate?

Do they still do that?


Carlo

(missing Vancouver, but coming back for Christmas baby! )

[Geof]

Originally Posted by cbass Geof, Don't you mean Engineers from UBC would dangle a VW Bug from the Lion's Gate? Do they still do that? Carlo (missing Vancouver, but coming back for Christmas baby! )

Not long after they did the Lions Gate thing they dangled one from the Golden Gate; that did create a ruckus! I think now they have cooled it on that sort of stunt; the anti-terrorism laws can be stretched to encompass that type of thing these days.

[iandm]

Back on topic - got the machine into our garage ok. Getting the head back on was a bit of a pain, but its done. Now just need to order a transformer and then the learning curve begins. It came with more tooling than I've ever seen in my life.

[cbass]

Congratulations!

I bet you can't wait... Baby steps, baby steps...

C