having 1000 pound equipment delivered?

[Travis Conner]

How do you guys move things like this into your shop, especially when you're out in the country and don't even have concrete driveways to easily roll it into the shop? A lot of times when you buy something they just drop it off at the end of your driveway supposedly.

[Travis Conner]

As ridiculous as it sounds, it really does sound like a forklift would make a great 2nd hand helper. I mean when you have a shop with 10 different tools that all weight a minimum of 500 pounds a piece, ocassionally you want to move them around. It would have to be a pneamatic tire forklift though to be able to drive on the crushed concrete. Luckily that is pretty solid.

[Jim Becker]

I can't get large trucks into my property because of a sharp, 90º turn in the driveway, so big stuff I either pick up at the terminal on my trailer or do a transfer from a semi to a roll-back in a parking lot nearby. The latter is how I handled my CNC machine...$100 and that big crate was right at my shop door.

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[Alex Zeller]

I use an automotive engine lift. I have a jig I made that's an H shape with a chain in each corner. It's adjustable in multiple ways. About the only thing it doesn't work on is tall stuff like the bandsaw. Otherwise it works well and it's narrow enough to get through a 36" door. I modified the folding legs on the engine lift to maximize the space between them. When I lift something up I slide 2x4s on top of the legs and rest the tool on it so it can't sway when moving. For dirt/ gravel I have some old sheet of plywood.

I'm currently using my basement that a vehicle can't access the door but a side by side pulling a small trailer can. The walk out basement door is about a foot above the ground which turns out to be very close to the height of the back of the trailer. So when bringing stuff into the basement I back the trailer up to the door, slide some plywood between the floor and the deck of the trailer, and then the engine lift works perfectly. My real shop (some day) is an unused cabin that's on piers about 3' above the ground. I haven't used it yet because I need to put a deck on it for bringing in tools and remove the two posts in the center so it'll be wide open inside.

[Patrick Kane]

Typically, a trailer and a pallet jack is how i move 90% of the machines that show up. Gravel complicates the pallet jack slightly, but depending on how compacted the gravel is, the jack should roll moderately well. You could always overlap OSB sheets and leap from them as you drag the tool into your shop. Ive seen guys do that on their yards. I just moved a 1500+/- lb table saw last week, and it would have been a challenge on loose gravel. On asphalt/concrete it was pretty easy.

[Scott Bernstein]

I live in a suburb, but my concrete driveway has a 25% grade.... I have hired a rigging crew for my heavy tools - worth every penny.

[Adam Herman]

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and a strap or chain. i have forks for the 3 point as well.

[Warren Lake]

this one was too heavy for the bob cat so he went back for this. What a beautiful machine

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[Andrew Hughes]

I use a trailer, chain hoist and pallet jack.
I have a cement driveway and a cracked up slab thanks to my live oak tree.

[roger wiegand]

Hiring actual riggers who have both skill and the correct equipment is by far the easiest and safest approach, albeit expensive. I've moved plenty of way too big things with a combination of comealongs, hoists, Johnson bars, piano dollies, and all the other tools of the trade. I've never gotten a forklift license, so haven't used one of those. DW has pretty much put a halt to my heavy moving, at least for the over 500 lb category, and I can't say I'm too unhappy.

Yes, where I live it costs $800 to get the competent guys just to show up; they get most jobs done in under that initial hour and aren't too fussy about billing for a few minutes over (and they do bring their crane, just in case). Also where I live a consult with the orthopod and a course of PT will trivially run up that much of a bill; that's only if you're lucky and the injury is minor. After the time I spent a month with back pain that made it too agonizing to get to the toilet I thought that enough was probably enough. I only had to do it twice more before the lesson sank in. :rolleyes:

I know money is hard to come by, but so is health. It just takes one momentary slip.

[Matt Day]

You gotta make do. You can always get a pallet jack and a couple/few sheets of plywood and leapfrog. If it’s uphill, use a come along attached to a tree. Assuming you don’t rent bigger equipment.

[Richard Coers]

Yup, definitely a roll back. Had 3,000 pounds of Hapfo copy lathe brought to my garage. The 2,000 main lathe didn't want to slide and had to work to get it off, but the 1,000 extension slid like a dream.

[Jim Matthews]

Hiring actual riggers who have both skill and the correct equipment is by far the easiest and safest approach, albeit expensive.

Also where I live a consult with the orthopod and a course of PT will trivially run up that much of a bill; that's only if you're lucky and the injury is minor. After the time I spent a month with back pain that made it too agonizing to get to the toilet I thought that enough was probably enough. I only had to do it twice more before the lesson sank in. :rolleyes:

I know money is hard to come by, but so is health. It just takes one momentary slip.

Lotsa fence leaners give the opposing counsel.

A couple weeks in traction make hiring pros look cheap.

There's a reason pain and suffering awards have such a high dollar value attached.

[Mike Wilkins]

Every machine in my shop was moved by myself with a combination of leverage and cheap Harbor Freight furniture dollies. The delivery driver used a pallet jack to unload my Hammer J/P machine to the end of my driveway and sat it there. I rented a pallet jack, laid some el-cheapo plywood on the grassy back yard and leaf-frogged the pallet jack/machine over the plywood to the shop in the back yard.
When my Laguna sliding table saw was delivered I asked to be allowed to pick it up at the freight terminal. Rented a U-Haul trailer and moved it to my shop, where I placed the machine on the dollies and moved it into the shop. Using 2 X 4 and a crow bar I lowered the machine in its permanent place in the shop. This machine weighs 1000 lbs.
Use of brains and leverage has saved my back many times.

[Ron Selzer]

bought my 980 lb, 15" wide belt sander (with my right foot in a non weight bearing cast) wife drove the pickup
was loaded with a forklift by the guy I bought it from
$75 to local lawn care firm got it out of pickup and in garage, used a Skid Steer with forks
$300 to a local moving company got it down in the basement where I wanted it and the small drum sander up and out in the garage
beat the pants off of disassembling it, moving parts down and then reassembling
will gladly pay $300 again when time to move my new jointer or jointer/planer down to basement shop

[Bill Dufour]

You should be able to find a pallet jack for $100-120. they can be rebuilt with new seals for $35 if needed. There is a web page where a guy shortened his by 16 inches. I am looking at getting a narrow one which will be more maneuverable but also more tippy for tall loads.
Bil lD

[Andy D Jones]

snip...

You could always overlap OSB sheets and leap from them as you drag the tool into your shop.

snip...


Now, that's a mental picture I just can't stop laughing at!

I just love spelling correction. "C, O, R, R, E, C, T, I, O, N"

-- Andy - Arlington TX

[Roger Feeley]

+1 on Rogers point.

when moving from Kansas to Virginia, I had to move a bunch of machines from my basement to my garage where they became the movers problem. I got a team of three riggers for three hours for $1100.00. I had disassembled the machines as best I could without removing motors. I removed the wings and rails from the table saw. I removed the bed from the big bandsaw. I disassembled the lathe. I had bubble wrapped all those bits of cast iron.

I also beefed up my basement stairs with 4x4 posts under the midpoint and under the top. I was adamant about the stairs and the crew really appreciated it. After I showed them how those stairs had originally been constructed, they said they would have walked away had I not added structure.

They got it all done and then some. I considered it money well spent. If you are moving something that big up some stairs and it gets away, someone is going to be seriously injured or killed.

[Benjimin Young]

I have used a scaffold to hold a chain hoist and then place dolly's under but that was a 600 lb item and lot smaller. Perhaps you could try small air bags to get each corner up on shims and then put it on dollys ....

[Travis Conner]

A pallet jack won't roll on crush concrete/asphalt Bill.

[Mike Cutler]

How do you guys move things like this into your shop, especially when you're out in the country and don't even have concrete driveways to easily roll it into the shop? A lot of times when you buy something they just drop it off at the end of your driveway supposedly.

Carefully.
A thousand lbs. is a lot of weight. If it gets away from you, that's a lot of mass in motion.
Given the scenario you've presented, you might be better off hiring it out. You're looking a $1000.00 in equipment purchases just to protect your investment, move it safely, and get it off the shipping pallet. Then you still need to know how to use that equipment.
Hire it out, watch how it is done, then decide if you want to make the investment in equipment to handle that type of situation on your own.

PS
They do make pallet jacks that will roll over dirt and stones, but they're pretty restricted in weight ratings, as they have semi pneumatic/solid tires. They still require two people.

[Warren Lake]

ive had to move some heavy stuff over sand and just used 5/8" outdoor pressure treated ply and rollled from one sheet to the next one, maybe not ideal but it worked fine. I move my own stuff, would have spent a fortune, have more machines instead. Nothing lost or damaged, pick ups were different depending on each place,

[Andrew Seemann]

I have a steep driveway, and my shop is about 70 feet away from the driveway. For my 8" Jet jointer, we leveled the lift gate of the semi with my pickup and slid the pallet onto the bed of the truck. I drove it up the driveway to the shop barn doors. Fortunately, when I built the shop, I had planned for this exact situation. I have 12 foot long 6x6s built up in the Vs of the trusses, and resting on one gable wall., with another 6x6 spanning them. My rough guess is that the chain I have hooked over it would support roughly 1500 pounds. If necessary, I could brace under the 6x6 and lift more weight than my truck could carry. I used a come-a-long to lift the top off the truck and set it onto the jointer base.

When I first moved the tools into the shop, I had rented a bobcat with forks to raise the shingles to the roof, and then used that to move the heavy equipment into the shop from where it was stored in my garage.

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[Phillip Mitchell]

Before I owned a pallet jack, I moved a few heavy tools (1500 lbs +) off of trailers and across the yard about 40’ with 3 or 4 black iron pipes, a come along and slings / straps and a homemade wooden ramp to transition from the back of the trailer to the ground level and then from yard grade through the walkout door and into the basement floor. It’s slow, but it will certainly work if you are on flat ground. Helps to have a couple of good, long pry bars and another person to help you shuffle and place pipes, etc whilst holding the load in position.

The pallet jack and 3 sheets of 5/8” plywood is a good bit easier, but a similar approach that I’d recommend if the driveway is reasonably flat. If not, I’d consider finding a neighbor that has a skid steer with forks or renting one for the day.

I know everybody’s budget and tolerance is different, but if I paid riggers to move heavy tools every time I acquired one or needed to move it, I’d have a lot less nice tools than I do now and would have no experience or confidence with tackling these situations that are another part of woodworking, IMO. Every shop access ingress / driveway / yard is different too, though and I’m fortunate to have my shop in my basement that has a reasonably sized walkout door and a side yard that is pretty much flat and a straight shot from my driveway.

When I moved my 2000# Oliver jointer into the basement shop, I gave my neighbor a 6 pack to bring over his skid steer to lift it out of the truck bed and set it down right outside my basement door with slings that I had set on the machine for lifting before he showed up. I had a set of heavy duty 4” steel casters that I bolted to the bottom of the machine temporarily and paid out 2 more 6 packs to a pair of friends to help me drive it down a homemade ramp for the 4” drop from the yard into the basement and into position, then a bottle jack/car jack to take the steel casters off. Every machine and situation is a little different.

Maybe you said already and I missed it, what is the specific tool you’re needing to move and what’s the driveway grade like? Flat?

[Travis Conner]

What did it cost to rent a bobcat Andrew? I tried renting a forklift and they want like $700.00 plus 200 to drop it off. 3 day minimum.

[Phillip Mitchell]

I’ve rented a skid steer with forks (had to pay a little extra for the forks) delivered for about $350 for one day. Around here, you can rent it for a Saturday and they will drop it off Friday afternoon and pick it up Monday AM. You can only put 8 hrs of run time on the machine during the rental time though. This was a nearly new, rubber tracked 75 HP Kubota. I would imagine an older, wheeled machine could be a bit less.

[andrew whicker]

can they transfer it onto a flatbed trailer?

I just moved stuff yesterday and Friday into a new shop. The shop has a gravel parking lot and a small concrete apron coming out of the overhead door. We used an engine hoist to grab things off of the trailer from the apron and roll it into the garage. Worked pretty well.

[Andrew Seemann]

Around here it tends to be around $200 - $300 a day, depending on size; trailer and/or delivery is usually extra. Sometimes places will let you take it Friday afternoon and return it Monday morning and only charge a 4 hour rental. The main problem is having a truck big enough to pick it up, some places want a 3/4 ton minimum.

[Jim Becker]

I still favor the method I previously mentioned...transfer from the semi truck to a roll-back for that final mile right to the shop door. $100 or so max and much less expensive than renting a skid steer or forklift with pneumatic tires, most likely. Zero physical labor for you until it's literally at your shop or even just inside if whatever it is can be slid off the roll-back right through the doors.