Mike, my local rental place charges $155 for four hours and $248 daily for a forklift capable of 5000 lbs. This assumes you have a trailer to transport. Rental for that adds a little to the cost, of course. But sometimes it's the right call!
Mike, my local rental place charges $155 for four hours and $248 daily for a forklift capable of 5000 lbs. This assumes you have a trailer to transport. Rental for that adds a little to the cost, of course. But sometimes it's the right call!
Last edited by Jim Becker; 08-21-2017 at 8:49 PM. Reason: Fixed weight
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The most expensive tool is the one you buy "cheaply" and often...
remove all the straps holding the machine to the pallet...
hook 2 giant eye-bolts to the pallet
connect a big, thick rope or chain to the eye bolts
Make sure the chain/rope is atleast 100' long
borrow a buddy's 1977 chevy dually and connect the rope/chain to the dually leaving as much slack as possible
set up the video cameras for multiple angles
get in the truck wearing a t-shirt with no sleeves
scream "GIT ER DONE"!! As loud as possible
stomp on the accelerator and haul ass until the pallet flies out from underneath. Kind of like pulling the tablecloth out from under a fancy set of tableware
load the video to you tube
go viral
collect lots and lots of views and get PAID!
Replace "git er done" with "hold my beer."
True tales from the front:
-When I was with Felder in the early 2000's, there was such a skeleton crew in the Sacto office that the sales guys were often charged with loading and unloading machines with the forklift. They had some forklift guy come out and "certify" us at one point, which was like your driver's ed course with cones and such. Yes, we were "certified" but just like passing dreiver's ed doesn't make you a professional driver, you can imagine where this is going. I was trying to load up a giant-ass CF7-41 SP combo machine into back of a box truck for a trade show and accidentally drove the whole forklift WITH MACHINE ON IT into the back of the truck, which was like 3X what the truck was rated for. Anyhow, the forklift ened up cracking off a piece of the machine's cast iron table about the size of a quarter. Like knocking off the edge of a granite counterop. $25K+ machine, basically totaled because of that. I stuck to the pallet jack after that.
-At Minimax in Austin, they hired some new forklift guy. We were sitting in the front office one day and "BOOM!", what sounded like a bomb going off in the warehouse. New guy apparently dropped a 20" SCMi planer from the top shelf. Later that day (not making this up), "BOOM!", again. Dropped a second 20" SCMi planer from the top rack. Guy got fired on the spot.
By far the most damage-prone machines, however, were bandsaws. Tall, slender, and a high center of gravity. In the last five or so years, SCM started shipping all their bandsaws lying down, which essentially has eliminated freight-related damage but in the early days, they were shipped standing upright. I've lost track of the number of times I've had to pick an MM16 back up at a trade show and do something like pound the fence guide bar brackets back into shape or pull the fan cover and tap the dents back out (testimony to rugged Centauro saws are: They would always run great afterwards). Fun stuff.
Erik
We recently received a Hammer K3 for a new shop we're in the process of setting up. The driver wouldn't back down a long driveway to the shop so I had him roll it off his lift gate onto the bed of my truck. We built a simple gantry in the shop from lumber we had...took about an hour or so. We unbolted it from the pallet, lifted it a couple inches with a chain hoist and drove the truck away.
Last edited by scott vroom; 08-27-2017 at 5:31 PM.
Scott Vroom
I started with absolutely nothing. Now, thanks to years of hard work, careful planning, and perseverance, I find I still have most of it left.
In a similar vein, I'm building a new shop, and the floor will likely be 12-18" elevated from the garage floor.
What is the best way to move heavy machinery onto the elevated floor? Pallet jack? Overhead crane (which I may have anyway, but in different part of the shop), another way?
- After I ask a stranger if I can pet their dog and they say yes, I like to respond, "I'll keep that in mind" and walk off
- It's above my pay grade. Mongo only pawn in game of life.
Alan, are you trying to move equipment currently sitting on the garage floor to an adjacent floor that steps up 12-18"? I can't picture a pallet jack accomplishing that unless you're planning on building a long ramp.
Scott Vroom
I started with absolutely nothing. Now, thanks to years of hard work, careful planning, and perseverance, I find I still have most of it left.
- After I ask a stranger if I can pet their dog and they say yes, I like to respond, "I'll keep that in mind" and walk off
- It's above my pay grade. Mongo only pawn in game of life.
You might be able to do it with a "high lift" pallet jack...
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The most expensive tool is the one you buy "cheaply" and often...