Moving big machines around shop

[John Christian]

i used to live near my two very large and strong sons. now i use a shop crane( engine hoist) my beer tab is lower.

[Halgeir Wold]

This a fact - not a joke!!! I've moved a large mill and a big metal lathe ( not alone, though) with this old method:
Get a large piece of bacon, cut the rind of leaving a fair amount of fat to the rind. Cut into four pieces and place one piece under each corner - and move along!
Works a charm on solid floors like concrete......

[Paul Lawrence]

I don't remember all the details, but my father was smarter than me. He lifted a heavy milling machine up and installed an "adapted" 4x4 sheet (3/4 doubled up) under the machine.

The adaptation he made was to install 5 threaded flanges into the plywood where he screwed in quick-disconnect male air couplings. Yeah.

Aired it up with a 6-way manifold and slid it where ever he wanted it to be; usually in the bay where his truck parked and back. It helped that it was on a concrete floor.

[Phillip Gregory]

What do you folks use when moving things around? I’ve got a big heavy drill press and I need to relocate it about 20 feet or so. I guess I could do the rocking “walk” but figured I could get a hand truck or something that would be easier and have other uses.

Just curious how others tackle this...

I moved a 600 pound drill press into my shop last year. Here's how I did it.

1. Removed the motor, guard, belts, chuck, and starter from the head, that lightened the load by about 100 lbs.
2. Lowered the table all of the way down
3. Lowered the head as far down as it would go.
4. Used a hand truck to wheel it out of the back of my pickup, down ramps, through the shop, and into its current location.

Removing anything that will come off and lowering the table and head are the keys here, hand trucks work much better with compact pieces of equipment rather than something tall and tippy.

[Tom Bender]

Phillip
You used a hand truck to roll a 500 pound load down off your pickup truck on ramps???

[Phillip Gregory]

Yes, I did. It went fine.

[Warren Lake]

I dont see that safety wise or a need for it but maybe your ramps were different than mine. I slide an SCM saw 1,300 lbs down maple ramps and had a block and tackle on it, if I didnt it would have flown on its own. Maybe because it was hard maple there was alot more tendency to slide on that material.

[Phillip Gregory]

I use a pair of steel ATV ramps that have perforations at the top that provide a good amount of grip. 1300 pounds is a LOT more weight than 500 pounds and I would have used a chainfall to lift a 1300 pound load out of my truck. The heaviest thing I took down ramps was my radial arm saw, it was strapped to a pallet and I slowly walked it down the ramps. It was not sliding anywhere. The saw less the table and motor but plus the pallet was probably 650 pounds.

[Warren Lake]

you said hand truck, I thought Pallet Jack. I used a fridge dolly to move a drill press around, strapped on its easy to do.

[Phillip Gregory]

you said hand truck, I thought Pallet Jack. I used a fridge dolly to move a drill press around, strapped on its easy to do.

I have not heard the term "fridge dolly" but apparently it is a synonym to a hand truck and that is typically the piece of equipment people use to move a refrigerator around.

[Tom Bender]

A fridge dolly is a tall hand truck with a ratchet strap to secure the load.