Originally Posted by
Jak Kelly
Bottle jacks and maybe some 2x4's, or 4x4's if necessary?
Along these lines, but on a much more robust scale..............
In the next 8 weeks or so, I have 2 projects I am installing. Both of them are molders in the 18,000 - 20,000# range - plus other related equip and tasks.
The tricky part is getting them off of the shipping pallets. [Well, the tricky part is getting them out of the shipping container - but that is a different story.]
In effect, we will fabricate some steel "arms" if you will, and slip them underneath the molders through lift channels built into the frames.
Then - hard to describe - we will fabricate 4 supports for jacks. Think of a capital letter T. Make it out of 1/2" steel. The base and the cross-arms of the T are, say 4" wide/thick. Total height maybe 8" - 10".
Near the bottom of the T is a hole that matches the arms.
Slip the 2 arms in place. Slide 4 T fixtures over the ends of the arms.
Now - put 8 bottle jacks under the crossarms of the 4 T fixtures.
Jack it up. Slide the pallet out. Put dollies under the machine. Lower the machine. Roll it into exact position/alignment. Jack it up. Pull the dollies. Lower it down.
Actually - Tricky #3 is getting the pallet out. Tricky #2 is getting it out of the container.
And - Tricky #1: One of these machines is taking the place of an age-old Yates-American A62 planer - workhorse of planer mills for many decades. Never had very good dust collection. One common solution was to install the planer over a pit that could be used for clean out and maint. Our pit is 30" wide x 60" deep x 25' long.
Gotta get that planer out of there without dumping it in the pit. It was the first thing installed back in the day, and the high-speed, big-iron infeed and outfeed systems, plus a production office/grinding & sharpening room, were then built around it. So - cannot get a crane in there, and cannot get a 30,000# forklift in there.
Details of how are very involved.
This is going to be fun. As proj mgr, when the balloon goes up, my job will be to stay the heck out of the way. I'm bringing popcorn for the show.
Then - back fill and cap the pit with 4-hour cure concrete. Installing the now molder will be a snap, comparatively speaking.
When I started woodworking, I didn't know squat. I have progressed in 30 years - now I do know squat.