Help/Ideas - Lifting Large Planer to Add Mobile Base - Byrd Head Install Too!

[Patrick Irish]

Here's my Powermatic planer. It's sitting on a pallet. I ended up buying a used pallet jack to move it around. I want to toss the pallet and weld up an angle iron mobile base. I also have four 700lb casters I planned to weld to the bottom of the mobile base.

https://i.ibb.co/HK2m27F/EB61-BDEF-F901-4029-BF75-59-CE84-B164-B5.jpg


Any idea on the best way to lift this and get a mobile base underneath?

I have access to an engine hoist, one with the long arms that generally go underneath the car. I only need to lift it maybe an inch higher than the current height.

Whats the best way to lift a planer like this also? There aren't lifting bars.

Idea of base I'm thinking of:

https://s3.amazonaws.com/vs-lumberjocks.com/mxmg9a5.jpg



Also, my Byrd head came early AND it included extra cutters and looks like a wrench too! This install will be a solid weekend job, lots of gears to pull and itemizing parts I have to take off. Head easily weighs 40lbs.

https://i.ibb.co/pP4QgLv/05-FC5-D61-014-E-4-D68-AFE4-90172-E9-B99-BB.jpg

[Carl Beckett]

I tend to just use a 2x4 and blocks to pry one end up at a time. Then block it if I want to keep it above ground. YMMV, but sometimes simple works fine

[Jared Sankovich]

Not ideal due to the length of lifting slings, but it worked.
472057

Really though a bar and some blocking will get it up.

Why not just add skids and move it with the pallet jack?

[derek labian]

I tend to just use a 2x4 and blocks to pry one end up at a time. Then block it if I want to keep it above ground. YMMV, but sometimes simple works fine


+1. I've also used a long pry bar to get it up and then a long board along with blocking.

[Patrick Irish]

Not ideal due to the length of lifting slings, but it worked.
472057

Really though a bar and some blocking will get it up.

Why not just add skids and move it with the pallet jack?

As I think more about the work in welding the frame and adding caster, going the skid route might be an idea.

I have a pallet jack already so moving it around is fine. Not as easy as 4 swiveling casters though.

As for the skids, It would be nice to find some 6x6 and cut two pieces to wrong front to back and hopefully allow for space for the pallet jack. The placer I think has holes in the cores so I could run lags into the 6x6 skids (or 4x4s) so when I lift with the pallet jack they dont go anywhere.

Also with skids, I can do on side at a time and might not have to hoist it up, just pry on side and then the other. Something to think about.

I need to lookup the casters I got (bought them 4 years ago) and see what they are rated. I believe they are 800lbs each so 4 is 3200lbs. That's seems good. I might be kicking myself for not getting Footmaster or Zambus style that are leveling.

[Keegan Shields]

I bought a decent pallet jack off of CL for $150. Same price as a mobile base but super handy. Just keep your tools on pallets and you're good to go!

[Jared Sankovich]

As I think more about the work in welding the frame and adding caster, going the skid route might be an idea.

I have a pallet jack already so moving it around is fine. Not as easy as 4 swiveling casters though.

As for the skids, It would be nice to find some 6x6 and cut two pieces to wrong front to back and hopefully allow for space for the pallet jack. The placer I think has holes in the cores so I could run lags into the 6x6 skids (or 4x4s) so when I lift with the pallet jack they dont go anywhere.

Also with skids, I can do on side at a time and might not have to hoist it up, just pry on side and then the other. Something to think about.

I need to lookup the casters I got (bought them 4 years ago) and see what they are rated. I believe they are 800lbs each so 4 is 3200lbs. That's seems good. I might be kicking myself for not getting Footmaster or Zambus style that are leveling.


4x6 or 4x4 work well.
472067

[Bill Dufour]

Run two 4x4's through the machine with just the lightest cut . Long enough that at least one foot extends past the bed at both ends. Place one at either side of the table. Then place lifting straps around them both at infeed and outfeed. Hoist with the engine hoist. You may need a spreader bar so no undue stress is placed into the top section. Or use the longest straps possible to reduce the crush angle.

Do test lift to see if there is any tendency to tip fore or aft. I doubt it but may be you will need safety straps to prevent high end from slipping off straps.
Bill D

[Bill Dufour]

An load leveler would work well as a spreader beam. $45 at horrible fright.
Bill D.

https://www.harborfreight.com/2-ton-capacity-load-leveler-60659.html

[Leigh Betsch]

I have a toe jack that I use to lift and crib stuff off the the floor until I can get under it with my pallet jack. But I just looked and now they sell for $267+!
I’d just lever it up and get cribbing under it until you can get a pallet jack under it, like suggested above.

[Richard Coers]

Why and how often do you want to move a machine of that size? At that weight, any speck of anything on the floor will stop it. I bought a Yates American that was even bigger than that. It came on a flat bed truck with 4x6s under it, I never put the machine on the floor. All the years I had it, it's always been on those 4x6s. Even the guy that bought it, kept it on the 4x6s.

[Wes Grass]

Pry bar and blocks got me to here:

472156

Just had to be patient, and vigilant. Strapped a pallet on the back and laid it on it's back with an engine hoist.

It has a solid bottom, obviously. I'd be looking for a way to support the planer so the frame can be assembled around it, even it that means doing the final welds in place.

[Warren Lake]

ill raise or lower a machine depending on the working height I want. My SCM is raised and still lots lower than the General I started on and i liked that height better. Lifting I lift from the bottom of machines when being moved but reasons for that, I have my own way with chains then up to usually a fork on a farm tractor.

This is the lightest of the Wadkin Planers i can see at 1,500 lbs approx others are 2,400 - 3,500 or more. This is from the manual for the B5 or B6. You can see the block of wood in each side then they raised the table up till it likely bottomed on the bottom of the machine casing. Care would need to be used if there are anti kick back pawls there. Id have to look into a machine and see what is there but if they put it in the manual then it would be fine for that machine.

Last machine I moved would have liked a tow jack. I did look at them there was no time and even pickup only an hour and half work window. My usual pry bar that can move mountains did not work and it was only till a statement made by someone got me thinking. I put a five foot pipe over my pry bar. bent it but got a bit of movement. Bar sprang back undamaged. Surprise machine was bolted to the floor with no time to find or access the bolts. Ended up breaking it out of the floor pulling the inserts out and breaking the concrete in three out of three of the bolt locations. Machine likely installed back in 1968 and done right at the time.



472157

[Charles Coolidge]

I believe they are 800lbs each so 4 is 3200lbs.

That Powermatic is a BEAST I want one! If you are going to fabricate a mobile base take a look at this pedal assembly. I have had two machines in the past with this 3 wheel (2 straight, 1 swivel) configuration. Easily the best mobile base ever. You can do 360's with the machine easily, it's foot operated and best of all is when the mono step swivel caster is released the machine plants itself down solid onto the two leveling pads on the mobile base. Best planted mobile base I have used.

https://www.grizzly.com/parts/grizzly-pedal-assembly/p0656231

I purchased two of these pedal assemblies from Grizzly recently, $61.56 each to fab a mobile base for my planer and jointer. The Grizzly photo doesn't do it justice, it's quite LARGE. They use one of these on their 783lb 20 inch planer. My Makita driver shown for scale.

472176

472177

Here's their 20" with this pedal assembly

472178

[Charles Coolidge]

Not ideal due to the length of lifting slings, but it worked.
472057

Really though a bar and some blocking will get it up.

Why not just add skids and move it with the pallet jack?

I have those same slings, rated to like 6000 lbs or something. I think a shop crane like that will get the job done easily. I purchased one from an auto parts store years ago and have used it a bunch of times. It folds up into a 2x2 footprint when not in use. My tractor font end loader has also been useful at lifting but it wouldn't be able to lift that Powermatic beast.

[Patrick Irish]

4x6 or 4x4 work well.
472067

Simplest solution. I have a pallet jack already to move a large 3000lb safe. Would be simple to pallet jack it up, cut away pallet with sawzall and slide in skids. My dad was saying to add heavy duty casters to the skids but I really don't think I'm gonna be pushing it around solo much. Also, I like the idea of having more contact to the floor than 4 points with casters.

[Keith Outten]

Heavy machines are so much easier to move with a pallet jack then on castors.
Forget the castors, you already own a pallet jack just put a couple 4 by 4's under the stand and you all set.
You might consider using a couple ramps to slide the machine from the pallet up onto the new stand.

[Mike Stelts]

I agree with Keith. I got a pallet jack last year and it was liberating. I like machinery a couple inches off the floor anyway, due to my height. Now, everything sits solid on blocks and is much easier to move than using casters.