Some of you guys may have seen the endless posting I have done in the Mazak forum about my resurrection of this old Mazak QT20n.
I was originally able to borrow a 20,000 lb lift from a local drilling company when I moved the lathe from it's sad home in a field by the airport to its temporary summer home at my friends shop. He was very kind and gave me some space and 480v power so i could work on it and get it running again. I was really hoping to be able to borrow or rent the lift again to move it to my own shop, but the company had some serious insurance crackdowns and was no longer allowed to rent or loan equipment.
I have been in a real bind trying to find a forklift in my area that was capable of moving this thing to my shop. I live in a kinda small area in Colorado, and there were no forklifts anywhere near here that I could rent, borrow or steal with enough capacity.
I didnt have the money to hire a rigger to do the job......if I did, I probably wouldn't have fixed up this turd to begin with. The rigger wanted more money than I have into this lathe. I certainly don't blame him, he's got a lot of investment.......but I just couldn't begin to swing it on my budget. I could be considered poor if I had a little more money.....:D.
So a friend of mine suggested hiring a rolloff type wrecker/recovery company. He had great success with a 12,500lb router earlier this past summer.
I was a bit skeptical, but I'm glad I went through with it. The guy pulled up.....rolled back the bed, put some teflon skid plates under the lathe and had it loaded within 15 minutes using the winch.
Unloading was even less dramatic.....took ten minutes at the most. It just slid down gracefully onto my machinery movers via gravity assist.....and the teflon skate things.
I was totally amazed, as he did everything perfectly....the guy was incredibly anal. Not even a blemish on my newly painted baby.
The best thing of all was that he charged me $100.00 for the whole affair. I could not have been happier.
I just thought I would post this here in case any one else finds themselves in a similar dilemma, as it could be a viable option.
Mike
PS.....thanks a bunch to all the guys on the Mazak forum that helped me through this. I really appreciated the help.:D
I was originally able to borrow a 20,000 lb lift from a local drilling company when I moved the lathe from it's sad home in a field by the airport to its temporary summer home at my friends shop. He was very kind and gave me some space and 480v power so i could work on it and get it running again. I was really hoping to be able to borrow or rent the lift again to move it to my own shop, but the company had some serious insurance crackdowns and was no longer allowed to rent or loan equipment.
I have been in a real bind trying to find a forklift in my area that was capable of moving this thing to my shop. I live in a kinda small area in Colorado, and there were no forklifts anywhere near here that I could rent, borrow or steal with enough capacity.
I didnt have the money to hire a rigger to do the job......if I did, I probably wouldn't have fixed up this turd to begin with. The rigger wanted more money than I have into this lathe. I certainly don't blame him, he's got a lot of investment.......but I just couldn't begin to swing it on my budget. I could be considered poor if I had a little more money.....:D.
So a friend of mine suggested hiring a rolloff type wrecker/recovery company. He had great success with a 12,500lb router earlier this past summer.
I was a bit skeptical, but I'm glad I went through with it. The guy pulled up.....rolled back the bed, put some teflon skid plates under the lathe and had it loaded within 15 minutes using the winch.
Unloading was even less dramatic.....took ten minutes at the most. It just slid down gracefully onto my machinery movers via gravity assist.....and the teflon skate things.
I was totally amazed, as he did everything perfectly....the guy was incredibly anal. Not even a blemish on my newly painted baby.
The best thing of all was that he charged me $100.00 for the whole affair. I could not have been happier.
I just thought I would post this here in case any one else finds themselves in a similar dilemma, as it could be a viable option.
Mike
PS.....thanks a bunch to all the guys on the Mazak forum that helped me through this. I really appreciated the help.:D