My employer is moving to a smaller facility and one of the bridgeport mills in the Engineering shop was not going to come with us. So I did the only logical thing and put in a bit for $1500. Well, I "won" so now I needed to get 2200 lbs of steel from Irvine to Oceanside. Here are some pictures of the move:
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| Safe at home after 60 miles |
So how does one unload a 1 ton machine at home? Fist, one must get it to the end of the trailer using lifting straps , a come-along and a breaker bar:
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| Drag like an Egyptian :) |
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| Finally at the end of the trailer |
Luckily, there was just enough clearance to back the trailer into the garage for the next step, lifting the mill with a 2 ton shop crane. Note the angle of the head in the next picture. This maximized the clearance for the door.
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| Ready for liftoff |
Once the mill was suspended, I gently pulled the trailer out from underneath and parked the mill on stacks of three bricks in order to get the shop crane out from underneath.
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| Removing the first birck |
The first row was easy to remove. Just jack up, take out the bricks and gently lower down. Unfortunately, at this point the jack is too high and the last two rows are more of an adventure.
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| The last two bricks.... |
After an exciting game of jenga and some wresteling the macine with a large breaker bar, it was shimed and leveled:
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| All nice and Level |
The last step in setting up was to mix up some grout to fill in the 1/4" gap left by the shims. My garage floor does slope quite a bit.
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| Grouted in place :) |
Next, Tearing down the VariDrive for re-building
