How to remove pallet under heavy machinery.

[Benjamin Miller]

Wow, I'm seeing a lot of advice here that would kill someone if anything goes wrong.

I have a small milling machine... it weighs 2500 lbs. When I bought it, the riggers set it in my garage on 4x4s. I used various combinations of hydraulic jacks and wooden blocking to lower it to the ground an inch at a time, and it was TERRIFYING. I will never do anything like that again; one slip, and you're a nice soft pile of ground meat. I have since built a gantry crane that will easily lift 2 tons, and I use it more than I ever thought I would.

I've read about people building gantry cranes out of wood, and when used in the right way, it's plenty strong. We build houses out of wood, after all, and a waterbed can weigh 1500 lbs.

As to putting the mortiser on casters, now would definitely be the time to do it. Don't skimp on the casters, and don't trust the weight ratings. Expect to spend $100 for four quality casters that can hold that kind of weight, less if you get all-steel ones. I would build a base out of some sturdy angle iron and design it to get the machine as close to the ground as possible. Do you happen to know a good welder?

[lowell holmes]

I think many of us who responded failed to notice you are in Aukland. I'm embarrassed.

[Tim Davis 1947]

Rent a pallet jack and jack up enough to remove nuts and bolts ...slide pallet out then lower to floor.

[Jak Kelly]

Bottle jacks and maybe some 2x4's, or 4x4's if necessary?

[Albert Lee]

Wow, I'm seeing a lot of advice here that would kill someone if anything goes wrong.

I have a small milling machine... it weighs 2500 lbs. When I bought it, the riggers set it in my garage on 4x4s. I used various combinations of hydraulic jacks and wooden blocking to lower it to the ground an inch at a time, and it was TERRIFYING. I will never do anything like that again; one slip, and you're a nice soft pile of ground meat. I have since built a gantry crane that will easily lift 2 tons, and I use it more than I ever thought I would.

I've read about people building gantry cranes out of wood, and when used in the right way, it's plenty strong. We build houses out of wood, after all, and a waterbed can weigh 1500 lbs.

As to putting the mortiser on casters, now would definitely be the time to do it. Don't skimp on the casters, and don't trust the weight ratings. Expect to spend $100 for four quality casters that can hold that kind of weight, less if you get all-steel ones. I would build a base out of some sturdy angle iron and design it to get the machine as close to the ground as possible. Do you happen to know a good welder?

Hi Benjamin, you are right, I am not confident with some of the idea suggested, I worked in precast concrete yard before and I know what can go wrong... Also I am not a big guy only weighs about 150 lbs myself, If something did go wrong, that 1000 lbs will crush me in split of a second.

When I was down at the equipment hiring place yesterday to pick up the crane, I commented about the cost of it and I only using it once, the guy asked why don't I buy an engine hoist/crane. Something like this:

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The cost of buying this is about $400 USD. I am thinking if I should buy it. It will be a very handy tool, not as handy as a an overhead gantry crane, but good enough. There are cheaper option but from experience I won't buy the cheapest again.

[Jim Neeley]

Albert,

Confirm lifting height. These devices have extendable arms that allow you to go higher but the lifting drops as well. For example, I recently saw a 2,000# unit that was only rated for 500# at full extension. So, look carefully at the height of that beast to ensure you can get a lift.

Jim

[Albert Lee]

Jim I think I may know the design you talk about, this one is rated 1500 lbs at full mast height (8'4")

I think I may need it in future and in reality I probably dont.

Just like my slot mortiser bits for the combination machine, only used once and stored away in a box.

[Benjamin Miller]

In addition to my gantry crane, I have an engine crane. It's awkward and unwieldy and takes up a huge amount of room, so I almost never use it if I can avoid it.

A friend borrowed it a year ago, and my condition was that he must store it until I need it again.

[Albert Lee]

In addition to my gantry crane, I have an engine crane. It's awkward and unwieldy and takes up a huge amount of room, so I almost never use it if I can avoid it.

A friend borrowed it a year ago, and my condition was that he must store it until I need it again.

yeah the engine lifter is huge, I will have to dismantle it when not in use, otherwise I have no room left in my already small-ish workshop. The welded frame will make it hard to store

a gantry crane will solve a lot of problems, but its probably not going to happen at my current premise...

[Albert Lee]

I have visited a few places that offers these engine crane, a lot of them are imported from you-know-where, they are really low quality and the weld is nothing but substandard, I have done a bit of welding back in high school and even I can do better weld than that. I tried on the release gear and its not quite right. I wouldnt sell it if I made them.

One of the place I have bought some shelving from them before and I really dont want to go back and purchase from them because there is no quality.

Given I am lifting something thats worth $11k, I dont think I want to go cheap on the lifting gear.

Therefore I have bought myself an engine hoist thats made in Spain (in a way I am helping their troubled economy?), its not cheap (equivalent of 5 cheap cranes) but I am a firm believer in cry once, laugh forever.

problem solved!

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[Charles Coolidge]

I use my Kubota B2920 front end loader!

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[Jerome Stanek]

I use my Kubota B2920 front end loader!

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I don't think that little tractor would do it for him as the tool is tall and 1000 LBs

[Kent A Bathurst]

Bottle jacks and maybe some 2x4's, or 4x4's if necessary?

Along these lines, but on a much more robust scale..............

In the next 8 weeks or so, I have 2 projects I am installing. Both of them are molders in the 18,000 - 20,000# range - plus other related equip and tasks.

The tricky part is getting them off of the shipping pallets. [Well, the tricky part is getting them out of the shipping container - but that is a different story.]

In effect, we will fabricate some steel "arms" if you will, and slip them underneath the molders through lift channels built into the frames.

Then - hard to describe - we will fabricate 4 supports for jacks. Think of a capital letter T. Make it out of 1/2" steel. The base and the cross-arms of the T are, say 4" wide/thick. Total height maybe 8" - 10".

Near the bottom of the T is a hole that matches the arms.

Slip the 2 arms in place. Slide 4 T fixtures over the ends of the arms.

Now - put 8 bottle jacks under the crossarms of the 4 T fixtures.

Jack it up. Slide the pallet out. Put dollies under the machine. Lower the machine. Roll it into exact position/alignment. Jack it up. Pull the dollies. Lower it down.

Actually - Tricky #3 is getting the pallet out. Tricky #2 is getting it out of the container.

And - Tricky #1: One of these machines is taking the place of an age-old Yates-American A62 planer - workhorse of planer mills for many decades. Never had very good dust collection. One common solution was to install the planer over a pit that could be used for clean out and maint. Our pit is 30" wide x 60" deep x 25' long.

Gotta get that planer out of there without dumping it in the pit. It was the first thing installed back in the day, and the high-speed, big-iron infeed and outfeed systems, plus a production office/grinding & sharpening room, were then built around it. So - cannot get a crane in there, and cannot get a 30,000# forklift in there.

Details of how are very involved.

This is going to be fun. As proj mgr, when the balloon goes up, my job will be to stay the heck out of the way. I'm bringing popcorn for the show.

Then - back fill and cap the pit with 4-hour cure concrete. Installing the now molder will be a snap, comparatively speaking.

[Ruhi Arslan]

Put it on rollers, roll 10% of the machine off the pallet and put blocking under it..

It would not work on this pallet in this orientation with the 4x4 blocks perpendicular to the gaps on the surface of the pallet, would it?

[Charles Coolidge]

I don't think that little tractor would do it for him as the tool is tall and 1000 LBs

Sure will that lathe is 1,000 lbs and I lifted a 19" bandsaw off its pallet with my tractor