Bench Move

[ken hatch]

In the never ending quest to pack 10 pounds of crap into a 5 pound bag and each time wishing for a different out come, I'm moving things around in the shop, mostly one of the benches. I have to make more floor space to ease the work flow. The real answer is to shed one or more of the work benches but so far no joy although the SIL claims he wants to take one to Houston the next time they visit.
Here is the mess made in preparation for the move:

prepForBenchMove.jpg

Here is where it will go:

newSpotForBench.jpg

The bench will just fit along the wall, almost as if it were made for the spot.Will it work, not a clue but could open up a little floor space, with just a little loss of usable bench space and I was planning on making new wall storage anyway.The only real question is where do I put the tool chest because I work out of it and it needs to be handy but also out of the way.

One other question is do I get a neighbor to help or just do what a Moravian bench is built to do and take the slab off, move the base then reattach the slab. The only problem, because this is a shop bench instead of a portable bench the slab is damn heavy. I can and have moved it by myself but that was when I had two good wheels. Right now I'm still working with a bad right foot and ankle.
Photos to follow,


ken

[mike stenson]

I'd get some help. While these are built to break down, for a move within the same shop.. that's more work than it's worth IMO

[Ron Selzer]

How about 2-4 furniture dollies and an aluminium floor jack. All from Harbor Freight for under a hundred.
Jack it up on one end and put 1-2 dollies under the bench. Repeat on the other end.
Good luck
Ron

[Curt Putnam]

In the never ending quest to pack 10 pounds of crap into a 5 pound bag and each time wishing for a different out come, I'm moving things around in the shop, mostly one of the benches. I have to make more floor space to ease the work flow. The real answer is to shed one or more of the work benches but so far no joy although the SIL claims he wants to take one to Houston the next time they visit.
Here is the mess made in preparation for the move:

prepForBenchMove.jpg

Here is where it will go:

newSpotForBench.jpg

The bench will just fit along the wall, almost as if it were made for the spot.Will it work, not a clue but could open up a little floor space, with just a little loss of usable bench space and I was planning on making new wall storage anyway.The only real question is where do I put the tool chest because I work out of it and it needs to be handy but also out of the way.

One other question is do I get a neighbor to help or just do what a Moravian bench is built to do and take the slab off, move the base then reattach the slab. The only problem, because this is a shop bench instead of a portable bench the slab is damn heavy. I can and have moved it by myself but that was when I had two good wheels. Right now I'm still working with a bad right foot and ankle.
Photos to follow,


ken

Ken - take it from a giy with a misssing wheel, you do not want to ruin it by running on a flat. Get help and let the foot heal. Feet are surprisingly fragile things.

[David Eisenhauer]

Ken I have a pair of triangular shaped 3/4" plywood scrap dollies that are probably less than a foot long per each of three sides and have a 2" 360* swiveling roller mounted underneath each of the three "arms" of the dolly. I either raise my large, heavy item to be used by hand and kick a dolly underneath or use a jack to raise it sufficiently to place a dolly where I need it. I used those to move my 8' long Ruobo by jacking up from under the lower stretcher and placing a dolly under the center of the stretcher at each end. If you need four, easy to make and keep for future use. I can't judge how much of this you should or should not do at this time considering your foot condition though. We both know things take forever to heal nowadays and just need to be left alone/iced/ibuprofened/etc till they heal. Just "going easy" doesn't usually accelerate healing for me.

[ken hatch]

Thanks Guys,

When I posted this morning I had forgotten about the tool chest. Most of the time when I remove the slab from one of my Moravian benches I will slide it over to one of the other benches and then from there move it to where needed. That way I never have to lift the full weight. This morning everything was covered with tools except I had over looked the tool chest on wheels. Of course flat head syndrome once I saw the tool chest, not only was it high enough but it was on wheels so it could be rolled where needed.

Moving the slab to the tool chest:

movingSlab.jpg

Of course because everything is so crowded there was a little back and forth to get the slab in position and to move to the base. The base is light enough to scoot and pick up as needed to set in position. If it had been tighter I could have separated the base units from the stretchers and moved each piece instead of the whole base unit as one.

The base in Position:

baseInPosition.jpg

Once base was in position it was a piece of cake to scoot the slab onto the base. With the slab on the base, the leg vise set in position and just a wiggle or two it all comes together. To finish off drive the four wedges home and that sucker is moved and ready for work.

benchInPosition.jpg

Bench moved without breaking into a sweat, damn I love Moravian benches. Try moving this solid of a bench of almost any other design by yourself and not a grunt in the process.

ken

[ken hatch]

Ken - take it from a giy with a misssing wheel, you do not want to ruin it by running on a flat. Get help and let the foot heal. Feet are surprisingly fragile things.

Curt,

It has been almost two months since I fell on it. It is getting better each day but I still can't get my work shoes on or put any weight on it. I can not image what it is like to lose it.

Take care,

ken

[ken hatch]

Ken I have a pair of triangular shaped 3/4" plywood scrap dollies that are probably less than a foot long per each of three sides and have a 2" 360* swiveling roller mounted underneath each of the three "arms" of the dolly. I either raise my large, heavy item to be used by hand and kick a dolly underneath or use a jack to raise it sufficiently to place a dolly where I need it. I used those to move my 8' long Ruobo by jacking up from under the lower stretcher and placing a dolly under the center of the stretcher at each end. If you need four, easy to make and keep for future use. I can't judge how much of this you should or should not do at this time considering your foot condition though. We both know things take forever to heal nowadays and just need to be left alone/iced/ibuprofened/etc till they heal. Just "going easy" doesn't usually accelerate healing for me.

David,

It is tough to get old, what would fix itself in a day or two now takes weeks or even months. BTW, I just pulled my head out and treated the Moravian bench like a Moravian bench and it was moved in 15 or so minutes with no strain.

ken

[ken hatch]

I'd get some help. While these are built to break down, for a move within the same shop.. that's more work than it's worth IMO

Mike,

A Moravian comes apart and back together so easy there is no reason to not take it apart other than being pig headed.

ken

[ken hatch]

How about 2-4 furniture dollies and an aluminium floor jack. All from Harbor Freight for under a hundred.
Jack it up on one end and put 1-2 dollies under the bench. Repeat on the other end.
Good luck
Ron

Ron,

The best reason to build a Moravian bench is so you never need to go to Harbor Freight .

ken

[James Pallas]

Ken, one of the wise moves I made several years ago was purchasing a Noden bench. I purchased it for the height adjustment feature but it does more. I found I can use it to move things around. On my recent bench build I used it to go from bench to sawhorses several times. It’s not power lifting but a bumper jack solves the going back up issue. Probably not worth it for a bench builder like you. It does solve things for me. Maybe you can figure some adjustability into one of your Moravians. With my new working bench I can just adjust the Noden to height and slide things over for assembly and such. Getting old and parts rusting up and falling apart is not fun, we all gotta’ do it.

[Jim Matthews]

Curt,

It has been almost two months since I fell on it. It is getting better each day but I still can't get my work shoes on or put any weight on it. I can not image what it is like to lose it.

Take care,

ken

I met an 80 year old tri-athlete when he retired from competition. He gave it up when recovery time exceeded his projected lifespan.

"After 40, injuries took two weeks to heal. At 50, two months. At 60, six months. At 70, a full year. At 80, I might not get out of bed again..."

[ken hatch]

Ken, one of the wise moves I made several years ago was purchasing a Noden bench. I purchased it for the height adjustment feature but it does more. I found I can use it to move things around. On my recent bench build I used it to go from bench to sawhorses several times. It’s not power lifting but a bumper jack solves the going back up issue. Probably not worth it for a bench builder like you. It does solve things for me. Maybe you can figure some adjustability into one of your Moravians. With my new working bench I can just adjust the Noden to height and slide things over for assembly and such. Getting old and parts rusting up and falling apart is not fun, we all gotta’ do it.

James,

I just looked at the Noden bench. I can see how it would be very useful especially if on wheels.

Ain't that the truth. For someone that was disgustingly healthy for 70 or so years the last few have been eye opening. Things just don't fix as fast.

ken

[ken hatch]

I met an 80 year old tri-athlete when he retired from competition. He gave it up when recovery time exceeded his projected lifespan.

"After 40, injuries took two weeks to heal. At 50, two months. At 60, six months. At 70, a full year. At 80, I might not get out of bed again..."

Jim,

I may use your quote. It is too true. Only problem, MsBubba might not buy it as an excuse to not do something she wants done.

ken

[mike stenson]

Mike,

A Moravian comes apart and back together so easy there is no reason to not take it apart other than being pig headed.

ken

Ken,

Well, my mother did used to tell me to stop being so pig-headed. How'd you know?

Funny, dropping it onto a top chest is how I used to deal with working on air cooled engines. It works really, really well.