Reasonably priced and decent toejacks - do they exist?

[ArtisanFarms]

I'm in the process of relocating my shop and am looking for some toejacks to assist in the move. The heaviest machine is a Lodge & Shipley Powerturn Lathe at ~9,000 lbs.

Any recommendations for reasonably priced, but OK quality toe jacks?

 

[slowtwitch73]

No help on price, but I cobbled one together from scrap and a 10$ second hand jack that works a treat. Don't know how I managed before.

It won't need to have anywhere near the capacity of your machine weight as you lift one end a time. I use mine in conjunction with wood wedges.. when it's high enough, the skates go under it.

 

[5ubtle]

Would a "prylever bar" work? They cost a lot less.

 

[mikegt4]

Toe jacks are pretty easy to make, I assume that having a shop means that you can build your own. Search "building a toe jack" or "DIY toe jack" on the web and you will get lots of examples of shop built units. There have more than a few here on GJ.

 

[afazz]

I used a bunch of them on a recent project at work. We picked up 3 of the yellow no-name $300 imported ones, one failed almost immediately but two seemed to work fine. We bought 2 of the Jet 10-ton units and they've held up quite well, I would consider them a decent value. We borrowed a Jung from our rigging company and it was the best by a wide margin, but also significantly more expensive and not all configurations are stocked in the US (several week lead time for some options).

 

[The Tool Tyrant]

Not cheap, but well built, I have two of the 10/20 ton models. They come with a 5 year warranty.

Tools - Hydraulics - Toe Jacks - TEMCo Industrial

temcoindustrial.com

 

[jeepinerdeep]

^ I bought a temco power pack and cylinder, works good. Seemed like the company is a good balance of price and quality.

 

[matt_i]

You can do a fair amount of work with a pinch + point bar ~6ft long and a setup of plywood scraps, go with 3/8" thick and 3/4" thick and then typical 2x framing timber.

Its just a slow dance of moving around in circular fashion and setting 3/8" shims up as you go. You'll need some fulcrums too as it gets higher as well.

Then, depending on the machine you can roll in a pallet jack or set 3 skates. I've moved some stuff out of plants where the requirement was "bring your own rigging, none supplied by owner" and what I brought was above, worked very well.

If you have a lot of machines I'd consider renting a forklift. Even if you can only get a 5k unit and can only lift half of the lathe at a time it will make the job easier. Ideally you could get a larger one to handle it as one unit but sometimes the transport on those are tough to get organized.

 

[slowtwitch73]

I've found the toe jack to be a life saver in close quarter situations where you cant get enough room to use a bar.

Here's my 'dog meat' jack.

 

[ArtisanFarms]

Not cheap, but well built, I have two of the 10/20 ton models. They come with a 5 year warranty.

Tools - Hydraulics - Toe Jacks - TEMCo Industrial

temcoindustrial.com

Thanks for the Temco recommendation. I bought two and they have made fast work of moving the lathe and other machine tools.

 

[Walkers]

I've found the toe jack to be a life saver in close quarter situations where you cant get enough room to use a bar.

Here's my 'dog meat' jack.

Now that I like! Do you have another pic or two? I have a jack that I threw a capped pipe kind of thing on it. It works okay, but it wasn’t meant for a great deal of weight.