Anyone know Superman? Could use a bit O' help...

[Richard Link]

Ok..so this is a bit of a tool gloat, but at least it's a bit of a self-deprecating tool gloat since I am clearly a certified idiot. And yes...will post pictures to follow tonight.

At any rate, thanks to everyone who gave me advice a few weeks ago concerning a small wide belt sander purchase. I decided to go for the Grizzly G0527 18" wide belt sander with the digital bed height adjustment and LED display. Clearly, I'm easily distracted by colored lights and blinking knobs. At any rate, the machine was on sale (another Creeker saved me $1,000 with some advice, thanks) and the machine was delivered last week. As per other poster's suggestions, I dispensed with hiring 8 mountain gorillas to move it and the very accomodating truck driver deposited the machine on its pallet into the middle of my garage. Easy peasy and well worth the tip.

The good news: very nice looking machine, no damage. The bad news: sitting on a very rickety pallet which appears to have been constructed of popsicle spoons and wobbles terribly. Not normally a big deal, but I had become enamored with the idea of leaving it on its pallet so that it could occasionally be moved around with a pallet jack (which I don't own and have no idea where to store). The rickety quality of the pallet, though, has put that plan in more doubt. Running the sander on this pallet may induce motion sickness and vomiting...

So....I built this sturdy platform and in a self satisfied sort of way put it onto some of those fancy leveling castors (analogous to Zambus but the cheaper ones from Woodcraft). I wheel up to the pallet, lock down the platform and get ready to shimmy that baby onto the platform. Hey, I'm no weight lifter but I spent the last week manhandling "heavy" machinery with come alongs and blocks and rolls of pipe, etc. I'm an "expert" right....nope.

Suffice to say, 900 lbs of vertically oriented wide belt sander is a LOT more than I thought it was. Even 8 mountain gorillas are going to have a tough time shimmying this baby off its popsicle stick and sandpaper and 1/8" plywood pallet onto my platform and their insurance better be paid up.

So, I've been staring at this thing for a few days and making a bunch of calculations that all appear to equal infinity. This seems to be a physics rubix cube. How to get it off the pallet and onto something more stable and/or mobile and preferably not lethal? No idea. Clearly the ancient Egyptians would have beat this thing before breakfast but I am stumped. Rent a forklift (come on....and would that even work)? Rent or buy a pallet jack and do what with it other than live with the popsicle pallet forever? Build a gantry crane in my garage (must be some kind of zoning restriction on that). Leave the pallet where it is and just pour concrete around it to stiffen it up (kidding). Airbags, antigravity, explosives, one of those super lifting helicopters and holes in the roof...

At any rate, I've decided that I'll just ask Superman to pick the thing up and put it on the platform so if anyone has an inside track with him, could you send him in my direction?

Rick

[Jon Stinson]

Do you have any car floor jacks? Might be able to slide some 2x6s on either side of the legs and jack it up that way, remove the rickety pallet and slide your new stand under it and let it back down?

If you just had one jack, you could jack it up, put a bracer under that corner and go around it until you got all four corners up.

Just a thought

[Matt Day]

Can you take advantage of using some pipe as rollers? What about an engine picker, or a chain hoist mounted to the rafters (if you think they can take the load of course)?

Can you dismantle it at all to reduce the weight?

[Jim Foster]

You can rent an engine hoist for the day for a very modest fee; however you should check to see if it will ande the height you need.

[Paul Greathouse]

Four average guys should be able to lift/shimmy it over to the new platform. At 900lbs thats just 225lbs a piece. A few beverages of choice could get it done.

My son and I were able to slide my Grizzly 12" Jointer (884lbs) into position after the tractor set it down but we're a little bigger than average at about 6'4" and 250lbs each.

[Dan Ewalt]

Two options come to mind.

First is renting a pallet jack. SunBelt Rentals are "coupled" with Lowes and are all over the place.

Here is an example. http://www.sunbeltrentals.com/Equipment/equipment.aspx?itemid=0440001&catid=s485

This option is assuming you can get he pallet jack between the existing pallet and the machine. :(

Don't know what kind of money you are wanting to spend or how often you may need to do something like this but second option would be a toe jack. They are used specifically to lift heavy equipment.

Here is a link to an example from Northern Tool
http://www.northerntool.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/product_6970_200349250_200349250

I have used before them to lift/move some of my metal working equipment before I bought my tractor. It would allow you to lift the machine (at least corner by corner) and block it up enough to get your new platform under it.

Either of those would be able to handle the load. The pallet jack would be cheap and the toe jack would be something that "may" come in handy for you down the road.

[Greg Hines, MD]

I would use beams to lift your machine under either side of the table if you can find solid purchase on it. Lift it with a floor jack or hydraulic jack, so that you support it with jack stands. Then lift the other side. You aren't, I presume, talking about lifting it all that high, just enough to slide your new pallet in place.

Doc

[Angie Orfanedes]

Second on renting a pallet jack...unless you want to try those anti-gravity pads from J.C. Whitney.

[Steve Kohn]

I have moved a 12 inch jointer and a WB sander off pallets with just 1 other person. The jointer we shimmied it over to blocks and then pulled the blocks out one side at a time until it was on the floor. Then we simply schooched it the 15 feet to the final position.

The WB sander we shimmied to the base and then walked it onto the mobile base.

Each machine was over 800 lbs. The trick is to work very slowly and not let the center of gravity get away from you. And if it does, stand back and fix the damage later. It is better than ending up in the hospital or worse yet the morgue.

[Scott T Smith]

Do you have any car floor jacks? Might be able to slide some 2x6s on either side of the legs and jack it up that way, remove the rickety pallet and slide your new stand under it and let it back down?

If you just had one jack, you could jack it up, put a bracer under that corner and go around it until you got all four corners up.

Just a thought


+1 I have unloaded many thousands of pounds of equipment off of pallets using the system of a floor jack with an assortment of wooden blocks. My previous Grizzly 15" WBS was unloaded using the floor jack system.

My current 37" WBS is moved using a pallet jack, but I do not leave it on the jack when using it (too unstable - a PJ only has three wheels and tall equipment tends to rock on it). If you do choose to move it around with a PJ, you will need to add some type of spacers underneath it so that you can get the PJ in and out.

A PJ would not be my first choice for getting it off of the pallet though, because they do not handle unequal loads well.

[Bill Huber]

I really don't see how you could use a pallet jack to do anything with that large of a machine unless you can cut the cross braces off to get it under it, but then you have to set it on your base.

It looks to be way to tall for an engine lift so I think you will have to go with the planks and a good floor jack and jack stands.

This is a very ruff drawing but I think you can get the idea. I have taken some really heavy things off pallets this way all by myself. You don't have to left it very much just high enough to get your base under it after you pull the pallet out.

124525

[george wilson]

Just get 4 strong guys. You are making way too much out of this. I made several suggestions in your last post.

I,as I said before,used to worry about piddling weight like you are talking about. Now I easily move 3000# machines by myself. Jon and I moved other lathes that weighed MUCH more than that by ourselves.

Some months ago,I and a few friends moved my 2500# Hardinge HLVH lathe off of a low trailer,down a plywood ramp,and into place in my shop. It is also a rather tall piece of equipment. Lathes are notorious for getting ruined by tipping over.

Your friends are NOT going to LIFT 225# each,they are going to SLIDE it.

[Wes Grass]

Superman? Yeah, he's in the phone book under "Machinery Riggers".

Not gonna be cheap, but peace of mind never is.

Trouble with '4 strong guys' is one of them will be a chicken-sxxt and jump out of the way at the slightest hint things are off balance. And somebody else ... probably you ... will get hurt in the process. 'Probably you', because you're the one with the vested interest in this thing and won't want to see it damaged.

I spun an 8500lb machining center 90° and moved it a couple feet with a few pieces of 1" bar and my back. And a little bit with a crowbar to tweak it into position. If it wasn't parallel to the wall within an 1/8" it was gonna bug me ;-)

And boy was I sore for a couple days.

[george wilson]

Of course,SOME level of competence is called for in ANY situation.:)

[Dino Makropoulos]

This is a job for a sailor.
Few 2x4s , a rope and a good lever.
2 man operation.
One guy on the lever and the other on the rope.
The lever to lift the machine and the rope to secure it.

Archimedes: Give me a long enough lever and I can lift the earth?

[Larry Rasmussen]

I had the warehouse guys at Grizzly drop one of their 2 X 3 foot granite slabs in the trunk of the Corolla one end resting on the rear edge. Built a little table out of old 2x framing material in the scrap pile just under trunk ledge height. Drove the lexus up past the Corolla in the two car garage. Dragged slab onto temporary table then jacked it up a little at a time building the platform up as I went. When at height of finished table, got it pushed or pulled over and positioned on to new surface. I used an old climbing rope, the little jack out of the Corolla and a bunch of blocks. Would have used a come a long hooked to the Lexus axel if I wouldn't have been able to just drag it with the car.

Just get your self positioned in the garage in front of that pallet, push the new platform you made next to it and use the tools you have on hand to move it an inch of two at a time. You shouldn't have to use force just nudge it, push it, pull it. Once I took the first step and got the slab out of the trunk I relaxed and stopped picturing my leg in a cast and had the project done in an hour or two. Just remember when I say dragged it out of the trunk that means 10 attempts with rope popping off in various directions and a bunch of corrections as the weight shifted and started to push the table away in stead of pulling platform on to it, that kind of stuff. Baby steps.

That flat slab is absolutely my favorite tool.

Plus at 399 pounds it's pretty stable.

Good Luck,
Larry Rasmussen
Seattle

[Mike Cruz]

Do I have to tell you this again!!!!!??????

Take it apart, piece by piece. Label each piece with a sticky or painter's tape. Then put it back together where you WANT it to be. Don't worry about the extra parts...you don't REALLY need them.... Jeesh :rolleyes:

[Lawrence Nitz]

Do you have any car floor jacks? Might be able to slide some 2x6s on either side of the legs and jack it up that way, remove the rickety pallet and slide your new stand under it and let it back down?

If you just had one jack, you could jack it up, put a bracer under that corner and go around it until you got all four corners up.

Just a thought

John Stinson has the right idea. Put a couple of longish 2 x 4s or 2 x6s inboard of the sander's feet, on the pallet. Lever or jack thes up about 8" holding the ends of each board on solid blocking. Slide or cut away the shipping pallet. Roll your new base under the sander and let the ends of the boards down till it sits on the wheeled platform. If the boards are loose, pull them out. If not, cut them off even with the edge of the platform and leave them there..

I used the same system with my Grizzly sander, and managed the job alone.
Larry Nitz

[Myk Rian]

I use a chain hoist attached to a ceiling joist. A couple 2x4s from the floor to the joist hold the load so the roof of the garage doesn't cave in.

[johnny means]

Watch this guy. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lRRDzFROMx0 After watching this guy I figured out I could move anything in my shop with a well thought out plan and enough shims and 2x6s.

I managed to move a 10 foot slider acroos a 70 foot shop with no help at all and less exertion than moving a 5x8 of MDF.

First thing you should do is brace that pallet up from below so it doesn't offer up any surprises. A failure there could spell disaster when you start shifting this thing around.
Make your self a bunch of 1/4" shims and start prying that bad boy up one corner at a time working your way around until you have enough height to bridge the pallet with some 2x4s. Now with you prybar or what ever start lifting and removing shims until you on your bridge, pull that POS pallet out and replace with whatever sturdy base you want.

This can be acheived with nothing more than a prybar and some scraps. The key is small increments and pascience.

[Bob Elliott]

I had a garage fire in 2003. When I rebuilt the garage I framed it with an 18" thick glue-lam ridge beam and 2x8 framing. I also have 3/4" plywood decking on top of the joists.

When I pull engines out of cars I throw a 4x4 across the joists and hang a chain come-a-long from the 4x4 and pull the engine. It doesn't even flex.

Before the fire my garage was framed with 2x4's (California - no snow loads means light framing). Anyway, I made supports out of 2x4s that I put on either side of the car that allowed me to use the 4x4 and come-a-long.

What I did was cut a 2x4 so that it fit tightly between the bottom of the joist and the floor. I screwed another long 2x4 so that it ran from the floor to the top of the joist. I marked and labeled all the supports so I could get the system to repeat. Maybe you could use this method to lift the sander and then put the base under it and lower.

[Richard Magbanua]

No offense, but how does someone spend four grand:eek: on a sander for his garage and not have a plan for installing it other than using it on the pallet it came with? It's as though you're asking how to convert it to 110V to pug it in a regular outlet.

Anyways, it sounds like you should be able to swing 300 bucks for a pallet jack from Harbor Freight. Good luck.

[Richard Link]

Ah Richard...I was waiting for some abuse...LOL. Point well taken, though.

At any rate, thanks everyone for all the great input, tongue and cheek and otherwise. Some excellent ideas and quite a few I hadn't considered. Clearly there are a ton of ways to accomplish this goal efficiently and safely.

As it turns out, I found a super cheap pallet jack which moves the thing very easily. I've reinforced the pallet extensively and now everyting is solid, secure and "mobile" if not pretty. If I ultimately decide that I can't take the pallet, I'll certainly adapt one of the jacking strategies suggested by the other posters. In particular, I liked that toe jack technique and such an item might be useful for other tasks as well.

Thanks again everyone.

Rick

[george wilson]

I'm not sure if you could find one cheap,and I know these toe jacks are still made,but I have an old cast iron railroad toe jack. It weighs a lot,and only lifts 3 tons for its size,but it lifts anything I have. I got it cheap,and painted it up.