Moving heavy machinery

[willy3486]

Anyone move heavy stuff out there? I have a 18 inch powermatic planer I need to move. The thing weighs about 1150 pounds from the manufacturers info without the motor. The motor is not original and I am guessing 200-300 pound as it is a larger one than it had. So I am guessing less than 1500 pounds. The planer is currently in a barn and it is mounted on a wooden base that is rotted bad. What I have been thinking of doing is to digging a area under one side and using my rolling car jack, a small 2000 pound one to lift it up. After its up about 5 inches I plan to block it up so I can slide a 4x4 post under it. I then plan to do the same on the other side. After I have it blocked up and 2 of the posts under it I plan to raise it a little and take the blocks out so I can set it on the posts. I then plan to bolt the planer on the 4x4 posts and put other 4x4 spacer posts between the main 4x4 posts. Then I have a couple of pieces of plywood I plan to nail down to the top of the posts. in other words make a old fashioned farm skid.

As far as moving I have a international 404 4 cylinder tractor. I have chained a old longbed ford pickup back end to the draw bar and then lifted it so I could move it. It moved even though it didn't have tires on the truck and it didn't have a engine in it.

As far as moving to a new location its about 1000 ft away, I have to go into a "U" shape to the new barn. It does go up hill but over the 1000 ft its only slightly up. Anyway I have been wondering would I be able to lift it fine with a small 2 ton rolling jack and does it sound like it would work to drag it on the skid with the tractor. Also at the new location would I be able to fine tune its location with a 2 ton come a long? I have a small come a long thats not for big stuff. I have been thinking about this for a while and this is what I have come up with. I have to move it because its current location is being taken down for a state road to be widened. Other things I have thought about was a flatbed wrecker but I am afraid of the way its made it would flip over and roll down as it was going up. I contacted a company and they will do it for about 1500. I prefer to do it myself over anyone else. When I got it we used chain hoists and unloaded it from a truck. The truck is long gone and I do not have a good way to mount the chain hoist in the new barn due to how its made. So I am thinking the skid is my best bet. Here is a picture of the planer.

 

[Zebu Fellenz]

For the distance you'll be going dragging it on a skid should work fine. Just be sure to make the skid a good bit wider and longer than the planer for stability and walk the path before you move it to make sure you have a good feel for the land and won't end up in a bad situation.

Go slow and you should be fine.

 

[W-Cummins]

Anyone move heavy stuff out there? I have a 16 inch powermatic planer I need to move. The thing weighs about 1150 pounds from the manufacturers info without the motor. The motor is not original and I am guessing 200-300 pound as it is a larger one than it had. So I am guessing less than 1500 pounds.

The new motor maybe adds 50-60 lbs to it what did they do put a 7.5hp motor on it

I contacted a company and they will do it
for about 1500.

On a good day the whole machine is not worth much more than that. I have the same model 180 and I gave $1800 for it BEFORE the market for them went through the floor a few years ago.

As for moving it, no problem at all. Get 2, 5' 4X6's and 4, 1/2"x6" lags, cut the ends of the 4X6's off at an angle to make "ski's" (wide side down) Bar the planer up off the floor and put some blocks under it for cribbage. You only have to lift it like 5". Bolt the runners under it (about centered and across the short side) That will give you a nice wide stance for your sledge. Lag bolt a 2X8 across the front and wrap your strap around it and head out! I have moved my machine many times (the other day with a bar to gain some more room to plane longer boards. They are not really too top heavy and mine is direct drive so it has a higher center of gravity than yours does. For a long time I had mine on skids like above ) but shorter and across the machine) with casters under them and it was very stable. it would still be that way but I needed the casters and timbers for some thing so I put rubber machine mounts on the 2, 2X6's sandwiched on each side.

William...

 

[Bull]

Where is AP Mech? That guy does this all the time!

 

[willy3486]

I have walked thew area quite a bit. The old barn is my inlaws barn. The new barn is behind my house. As far as the area it is fairly smooth,hopefully no surprises. For the most part it has a gravel road that over the years has grass grown through it. So I am hoping it should go ok. The planer was my dads and he is passed now so thats why I am particular with it. The state is widening the road in front of our houses, it is getting my inlaws place,our old house and this barn. When we built our new house we built it off the road so its safe from the road. The state said they would pay for the move but I want to be prepared to move it myself if they don't. Heck I may even try it so I can get that piece moved. I have to clean out five buildings so it would be nice to have this done.

I have the same one as you w-cummins. I made a mistake on the original post, I have the 18 inch not the 16 inch.Yeah the price on them has went way down. Its been a PITA for me dealing with my mom. MY dad had gave me this one when he was alive. Then he got a brand new one and had about 6 grand in it. The new one even had the sharpener with it. Anyway after he passed away my mom didn't know what to do with it. He barely used it and it was like new. She wanted the price of new and one of my uncles who worked at the powermatic plant told her the one I have was worth more because it was older,yeah right. This same uncle my mom says is crazy. Well anyway she hinted as wanting it back and she wanted to keep the new one as well. I didn't fall for that. I tried to help her sell it but she wouldn't take less than six grand. I told her at the most she probably get 4 grand. She wound up letting it set for a couple of years and finally getting 4 grand.

As far as the suggestions they are along the line of what I had in mind. I really like the powermatic stuff. Its made really good or at least the older stuff is. I grew up in the town where it was made at and had family that worked there. It was really nice as when my dad needed something years ago he would ask family to get it. They would get it for us at cheap prices. we could get the gears that raise the deck for five bucks or so. I have been in the factory and tried to get a job there. But it was sold out a few times until it was sold out and the original stuff is no longer made the way I understand. Most of it is JET stuff relabeled as JET owns the name now. The plant there is closed and empty. At one time it was used as a flea market. The family that started it t,the Smiths sold it in the 60s I think. Then they started the Tennsmith company which I think they still own. Ever notice the older stuff of powermatics and the Tennsmith stuff is green? I think they have a preference for green. Anyway thanks for the comments. I wanted to run my thoughts here to see if I was on the right track.

 

[willy3486]

Here is a better picture of it. The dark black areas of it is oil. I was planning to cleanup,tune, and repaint it once I have it in the new barn. The motor is a lot larger than my dads newer planer was. The planer looks like **** but its made so well it really did a good job at plaining lumber. If it falls through that the state will pay enough to move it or the company can't I may try myself.

 

[A_Pmech]

I think the ski idea is a good one. Just be sure to cross-brace or use shear panels in such a way that it won't come apart when you pull it over the ground.

To lift the machine I would pry and crib as William suggests. The machine is light enough that a 48" standard prybar will probably provide sufficient leverage. Have a good stock of plywood or hardwood cribbing about 3/4" thick and 6" square. Also some "shims" about 3/8" thick just in case. Pry and stack until you can slide your skid under.

Once inside your new shop, a pallet jack works really well for moving small machines like that. Up to about 3,000lbs one guy can pull around with a urethane-tired pallet jack. I've had 5k lbs on my manual pallet jack and that's more than I can move without an assistant pushing due to rolling resistance. After 5,000lbs it's skate time.

Go slow, be careful and don't get your fingers under it!

Oh, if that is a soft dirt or gravel floor beware of sinking!

 

[mjozefow]

A wooden gantry and a chain hoist will lift that much weight too... might not sink as bad as cribbing.

 

[willy3486]

I was planning on doing the ski type setup A_Pmech. I did that with a metal shed I had to move as well and it was easy. I have some pieces I was planning on cross bracing between the posts and as a added piece I have some plywood to go across as well. As far as a chain hoist goes Mjozefow that would be a good way to do it. The only problem is the barn I am putting it in there is not a good way to mount a chain hoist. I might think about building a temp gantry setup. only thing I would be afraid of was the weight of the planer collapsing the gantry crane. I would need to find a good design as I have never built one. Thanks for the replies.

 

[Jack Olsen]

I'm not 100% clear on where it's going, but...

Get a platform under it, and roll it on lengths of Sched 40 pipe -- you can move it with a come-along. Just keep moving pipes from the back to the front. If you're moving over dirt, put 4x8 sheets down along your path.

 

[woody 73]

Willy I have the same planer and I too had the same problems as you; what I did was to pay for a special HTC Mobile base kit and I paid a moving company to lift it onto the moving base. Now when I need to I can move the whole machine to any part of my garage.

Sadly I begged my garage builder to put up an I-beam but he would not do it,not sure why because he would never give me an answer.

HF makes a gantry but my ceiling is a tad under 8ft and it would cause some problems. I have seen some fantastic aluminum gantries but at over $2000.00 dollars it is out of my price range.

Woody

 

[W-Cummins]

I have the same one as you w-cummins. I made a mistake on the original post, I have the 18 inch not the 16 inch.

Yes I had a brain twitch there.... I was looking over my post and didn't see that you had edited yours. I thought dam I didn't think he had the same machine but it says 18" so I edited my post... Then I noticed in the quoted text it said 16"

Yeah the price on them has went way down. Its been a PITA for me dealing with my mom. MY dad had gave me this one when he was alive. Then he got a brand new one and had about 6 grand in it. The new one even had the sharpener with it. Anyway after he passed away my mom didn't know what to do with it. He barely used it and it was like new. She wanted the price of new and one of my uncles who worked at the powermatic plant told her the one I have was worth more because it was older,yeah right. This same uncle my mom says is crazy. Well anyway she hinted as wanting it back and she wanted to keep the new one as well. I didn't fall for that. I tried to help her sell it but she wouldn't take less than six grand. I told her at the most she probably get 4 grand. She wound up letting it set for a couple of years and finally getting 4 grand.

She did well to get 4k it. The newer machines had the nicer segmented in feed rollers, something I wish I had. The sharpening stuff is nice but any more, people all seem to want a helical "insert" type head on them. Also if you have the quiet head it's worth less then even the style we have.

As far as the suggestions they are along the line of what I had in mind. I really like the powermatic stuff. Its made really good or at least the older stuff is. I grew up in the town where it was made at and had family that worked there. It was really nice as when my dad needed something years ago he would ask family to get it. They would get it for us at cheap prices. we could get the gears that raise the deck for five bucks or so. I have been in the factory and tried to get a job there. But it was sold out a few times until it was sold out and the original stuff is no longer made the way I understand. Most of it is JET stuff relabeled as JET owns the name now. The plant there is closed and empty. At one time it was used as a flea market. The family that started it t,the Smiths sold it in the 60s I think. Then they started the Tennsmith company which I think they still own. Ever notice the older stuff of powermatics and the Tennsmith stuff is green? I think they have a preference for green. Anyway thanks for the comments. I wanted to run my thoughts here to see if I was on the right track.

Yep I like the older Powermatic too I have a 180 plainer, 60A jointer (last run made in the USA), 87 bandsaw, 72 table saw, 32 belt/disk sander, and a 31disk sander.
As for color they have been grey, 2 shades of green, gold and now what I think looks like mustard....
The WMH tool group now owns POWERMATIC®, PERFORMAX®, Wilton® and Jet®. The WMH Tool Group is a subsidiary of Walter Meier Holding AG. and is based in Zurich Switzerland.

I think the ski idea is a good one. Just be sure to cross-brace or use shear panels in such a way that it won't come apart when you pull it over the ground.

As long as he lags it to the base of the machine it will provide all the diaphragm bracing it will need. It will never rack if he keeps the tractor under 100mph In fact these machine have such a stout base I bet he could pull the thing w/o the sledge at all, with very little damage other the scuffing off the paint!

Once inside your new shop, a pallet jack works really well for moving small machines like that. Up to about 3,000lbs one guy can pull around with a urethane-tired pallet jack.

I too recommend a pallet jack for smooth floors. The only down side to them is you have to have the machine up about 3.5"++ off the floor to get the forks under them. Oh and yes in my case you have to have more of them than you have machines sitting on them, and a path to get to the machine with the jack

A wooden gantry and a chain hoist will lift that much weight too... might not sink as bad as cribbing.

If the cribbing was going to sink so would have the machine. The contact surface on its base would be less unless you use narrow strips for you cribbing.

I'm not 100% clear on where it's going, but...

Get a platform under it, and roll it on lengths of Sched 40 pipe -- you can move it with a come-along. Just keep moving pipes from the back to the front. If you're moving over dirt, put 4x8 sheets down along your path.

You could do that but 1000' of that would get old REALLY fast...

William....

 

[mjozefow]

Rent a skid steer for the day and take care of some other projects at the same time... hit the easy button if you have the cash.

1500lbs for a large skidsteer is nothing.

 

[Underdog]

Rent a skid steer for the day and take care of some other projects at the same time... hit the easy button if you have the cash.

1500lbs for a large skidsteer is nothing.

I bought this 6 months ago. Moved a ton of things around already. Just a chain off the bucket.I can even work the controls from outside the cab standing (Me bad).

 

[mjozefow]

I bought this 6 months ago. Moved a ton of things around already. Just a chain off the bucket.I can even work the controls from outside the cab standing (Me bad).

Fun toy...

A tractor with a loader, or an articulated loader, or a shooting boom forklift, or...or...or anything with decent hydraulic lift capability should handle 1500lbs.

 

[noggin]

Last week I watch two guys move a 1500 lb gun safe. They loaded it in a truck and moved it about 40 miles. They had a huge dolly with about 10 wheels that somehow they managed to get the safe on. I think they charged $300 and did not take them very long.
You may want to check your local gun shop that sells safes. Could be you could get them to move it.
Keep us posted,
Noggin

 

[JohnFreeman]

I'm not 100% clear on where it's going, but...

Get a platform under it, and roll it on lengths of Sched 40 pipe -- you can move it with a come-along. Just keep moving pipes from the back to the front. If you're moving over dirt, put 4x8 sheets down along your path.

Beat me to it. This works well.

 

[knobby]

hilman roller
http://www.hilmanrollers.com/

try your local equipment rental

 

[SpiderGearsMan]

I bought this 6 months ago. Moved a ton of things around already. Just a chain off the bucket.I can even work the controls from outside the cab standing (Me bad).

is that like 79.99 at hf ?

wealth gets in the way lol

 

[willy3486]

I got it moved today, it wasn't too bad just took time. I had planned the day for it. I started by jacking it up. The original base it was on was rotted. I tried my jack I can roll and it wouldn't fit. I then used some scissor jacks from gm cars. they slid under it and was able to use two to get it lifted. I got it up higher and put some wood under it to keep it up. I did both end and when it was up I bolted on some 4x4 rails I had made. I then let it down and placed some plywood on the front and back of the skid. I also nailed a 4x4 across as well.

I was able to use a come a long attached to the chain on the skid and the other end to a chain on my trucks bumper. I did that a few times to get it closer to the front of the barn. I then got the tractor to the front of the barn. At one point it got off and looked like it could flip if I didn't do it right. I then attached a chain to the lift and to the skid so I could lift it a little. That did the trick. I went nice and easy and got it into the barn. Here is the back of it. This is in the new location.

This is the front. You can see the plywood as well. I bolted the chain on the skid. it held great.

After it was about where I wanted it I then reverse what I did with the jacks. I lifted it up so I could take the skid off. I then had some pieces of 4x4 that were just a little longer. I cut them to the size I wanted and bolted them on. I then let it down in place. Now all I have to do is clean it up,change cutters and wire it up. You can see the lawnmower in the background like its wanting its place back. The lawnmower was where the planer is now. But I have a shed the BIL gave me and I have it up now. The planer and lawnmower are both in new homes.