Newbee researching machines to buy.

[democracyman]

First I am interested in doing hobbie work, alternative energy work and
prototype invention work. I do want the largest best machine that
I can afford. I live in a rental enough and I do not have a forklift
or a trailer. I need to be able to move my machines by hand. No
steps and I have a shop with concrete floor. I plan to buy a seperate
lathe and milling machine. What I imagine I need to do is get a
large engine crane or something simular? To lift the lathe and
mill I get, to place them on and off some type of roller cart.
And to lift them on their stands. Also it would be nice if I could
also lift the mill and lathe up high enough to get on/off the
bed of a pickup truck. I understand that this would take a large
engine crane if I can find it, also I need to find a cart to
handle this. The shop I have now has a small room, I would
like to get the machines in there as it would be much nicer
to work in there, I would have to be able to get through the
door way.

What do you think of this mill?

http://www.industrialhobbies.com/Mer...ory_Code=Mills

Also this lathe?

http://www.machinetoolonline.com/PM1236.html

verses this grizzly lathe?

http://grizzly.com/products/Gunsmith...h-Stand/G4003G

I looked at the manual for this grizzly it had the feature of tightening
up the spindle if needed. It does look like a better lathe than
others from grizzly.

I do wonder if will be able to move the lathe around or not? May have
to set up a haul trailer if and when I move from my rental.

Thanks for any thoughts.

Dan

Sorry seems that I got in the wrong thread section, still would
like answeres thanks.

[Alan Wright]

I have one of the 12x lathes (G4002), and have recently ordered the same mill you list above. I use a Harbor Freight 2-ton folding shop crane to move machines around. It can handle a 1000 lbs, and can lift it to pickup bed height. I'm not sure yet what problems the IH mill may entail, but I expect it to be no more difficult than the lathe (which was fairly easy).

Alan

[democracyman]

Alan, I thought I would need a cart, if nothing else to get the machines
through the doorway into the shop room. Do you use one? I am glad
that the shop crane will lift up high enough to load and offload from
a truck. Still would like info on the machines I am thinking about.

Thanks
Dan

[Alan Wright]

You may well need a cart (appliance dolly?) of some kind. The shop crane is not very wide (widest point at end of legs), but still would not fit most doorways. I usually bring my machines in with a pickup truck through a garage door, and simply have to off load them and set them up nearby

As for the specific machines, the IH mill is reputedly one of the best RF45 clones, and the PM1236 has a great feature set among the 12x36s. The G4003G has a few features beyond the standard G4002/3, but not ones that I thought useful. There are Yahoo groups where these machines have been discussed extensively (12x36importlathes and mill_drill), and both are popular choices. Any specific questions?

Alan

[Martin 007]

I just bought a knee mill, and I hired a moving company to take it off the truck. They basically got a towing company to haul the fork lift over on a flat bed. Getting it off the pallet was a problem at first. But I ended up buying a gantry crane from Harbor Frieght. I had to cut it down as the min hight was 99" and the home garage is lower. But it did the job. Now I use it for all sorts of stuff. My knee mill is 2700 lbs. I dont think I would trust it on a dolly unless it was custom made. But to move something as heavy just use small heavy guage pipes. When they come out the back move to the front and roll along.

Hope you find some info in there....Good Luck
Doug

[democracyman]

I didn't know about the Gantry Crane, I looked at it and book marked it. I need to get my lathe and mill in and out a small room
in my shop so need to go through a normal door way. Need to lift
the mill and lathe on a cart and then lift it off somehow. The gantry
crane is 59" wide, too wide to go through a door. I may be able to
take the gantry crane apart and put it into the room and lift the lathe
off a cart and put it on the floor? What do you think? Can the crane
be taken apart?
I am going to get a lathe around 1300lbs and the mill
around 1000lbs if I am able to get what I want. I want moderate sized
machines. I don't plan to stay where I am at forever. I plan to build the
cart, heavy duty. I may build it out of steel, if so it can do double duty
as a platform for heat treatment bricks with a propane furnance.

Thanks for the info on the gantry crane, that could help a lot.

Dan

[Martin 007]

Yes it is easy enough to get apart... 4 bolts each side. I decided to use it because the knee mill I got is top heavy and they dont have a big foot or base. I tried first to get the pallet out with two cherry pickers.. (Engine lifts) it didnt work. Anyway good luck with it. Its probably the most dificult part... HA If you can get it on the ground... just use the pipes... its easy. and you can push around something that weighs 4 thousand pounds without breaking a sweat.

[bru102]

I ended up modifying my HF engine hoist to handle machine tools. The extending legs are designed to go under a car while you hoist the engine, and they were a real problem with the mill base and the lathe. The legs aren't far enough apart to cleanly span the base for my RF45, and no way for a 13x40 engine lathe. I cut off the legs so that the boom now extends 12 inches beyond the casters, and added 200lbs of counter weight behind the boom. That 12" is just enough get out over the mill or lathe and pick them cleanly. I'm overstressing things a bit with the 1500 lb lathe at full boom extension, but I only lift it a few inches.

That's my poor man's forklift... next project is better casters since it's very tough to roll with 1500 lbs of lathe and 500 lbs of crane and counterweights.

Hope that helps!

Ray

[bru102]

PS.. Realize that modifying the crane to extend the boom beyond the legs makes it unstable if the load exceeds the counterbalance or happens to swing! I am very carefull any time the load is out that far.

Ray

[tmarks11]

Some points raised about the 4003G previously:
1. Grizzly uses precision NSK or Timken bearings on their gunsmith lathes, much better then most imports.
2. The cast iron stand is MUCH heavier than the sheet metal PM stand.
3. The 4003G comes with a QCTP (PM has 4 way TP)
4. The steady rest and follow rest have bearings on the tips instead of brass bushings (don't know if this is true for the PM).