Hints or Suggestions for moving 1,100 pound jointer

[Mark Brubaker]

Anyone have any suggestions for moving a 1,100 lb jointer from the road (where it will be dropped off by the delivery guy) up an incline on my 150 yard driveway and finally down a decline of grass into my basement?

I finally received permission to purchase a 12 inch jointer which I would like to act on but I am a bit nervous about moving such a huge piece of equipment into my workshop in the basement. I am concerned that I will lose control of a dolly.

Thanks in advance...

Mark Brubaker

[Eddie Darby]

Get a copy of the owners manual and see how you can take it apart. If you can do that then you can plan for each piece, which being smaller, should be a piece of cake.... really big cake!

If you are concerned about the dolly getting away from you on the downslope, then a stake driven into the ground and a block and pulley set-up might help.

[Cliff Rohrabacher]

That's not terribly heavy.

You could look at the incline as both a friend and a foe.
To solve for foe use a pully of some sort and a heavy stake or three driven in the ground at the upper end and lower it down slowly.

A friend of mine moves stone blocks weighing tons by using large rollers. She (yah she's a she: a slender cute girl) uses cut up phone poles and just rolls 'em across lawns without hurting anything.

You real worry ( I think) is that the machine be absolutely unable to topple over. So be sure it's on the pallet very well as you will hit short stops and bumps.

You could also simply rig it up on a sled and pull it with a lawn tractor. I'd make it a wide sled to prevent toppling.

[Roy McQuay]

I always have heavy tools delivered by liftgate. It is a little extra, but my driveway is all up hill and they back right up to my shop. You can use an engine lift to lift it onto a dolley with large tires and pull it with a lawn tractor to your basement. Have plenty of help.

[mark page]

Whoo, my back hurts just thinking about it. It probably won't work for your basement shop, but I always have a friend with a flatbed tow truck move heavy items for me, can winch them on and off.

[Gene DiNardo]

I recently had a similar predicament.
First, it will come crated,possibly two. Get 4 2"x8"s 6-8 ft. long
and 3 pieces of 3/4"black iron pipe about 3.5 ft long to use as rollers.
Use the planks like railroad tracks, leapfroging two in front of the others
till you get to where you are going.
Use a 2X6 as a lever to raise one end enough to slip a pipe under then,
lever the crate foward enough to teeter the crate on th roller and slip a second pipe under, roll foward till you can place the third, by then the first will roll out the back. Repeat the process, placing the two 2x8s in front of one another and placing a pipe under the front as you proceed.
as long as the grade is not over about 25 or 30% should be no problem.
Even if it gets away from you a little bit, it can only go till the second roller
gets beyond the mid point of the crate.
Take your time and think it through. With a helper you should be OK.
My wife and I moved my 20" planer up 3 steps to my porch, another step into my living room, through the house and down a narrow set of stairs to the basement. We used a casket hoist braced from the doorjamb with a 4x4 to lower it down the stairs.
Aside from a few cracked floor tiles in the kitchen it went pretty smooth.
Guess what my next project is ??
Good luck.
Gene

[Dave Avery]

Do a search on Rob Russell's method of getting his LARGE Felder equipment into a basement shop.......

[Aaron Beaver]

I got mine down into my basement by attaching a motor chain hoist to my friends truck, then we attached rope around the jointer and just lowered down a ramp made out of plywood. Went a little slow because a chain hoist only moves as fast as you can pull the chain, but it was easy and we had no problems at all. Didn't have to take anything apart either.

[Andrew Williams]

See my recent thread about moving a large saw into the basement without muscle. You could easily tow the entire crate up the driveway incline using a truck, trailer hitch and recovery straps, provided that you make a stable sled for the crate to ride on. Going down the incline on the grass is more complicated and would require testing to see whether you would need two powered vehicles (one to pull down and one to pull up in case it goes into free-fall). perhaps a lawn-tractor pulling down and pickup truck above for safety. If you build a ramp and sled system for the stairs I still recommend taking the infeed and outfeed tables off and maybe taking the motor out and sledding each part separately. I imagine the main cabinet is probably very heavy on a 12" jointer.


Rollers do not sound like a good idea to me given that these are not flat and level surfaces. I would prefer the friction of a wooden sled.

["Gary Brewer"]

Mark: I second the liftgate idea. The trucking company with have a pallet truck that can be used to move it off the lift and into your shop ( assuming no stairs). This is assuming you have a paved driveway. If the incline is steep you might want some extra help. The last time I had a heavy piece of machinery delivered ( last winter and about 800 pounds) the driver backed the semi up my driveway and we rolled it right into my garage on the pallet truck. He put it right where I wanted. I tipped him $20. We were both happy.
Good luck and enjoy your new piece of machinery.
Gary

[Eugene A. Manzo III]

Order the thing have it delivered to your home. Next pray for rain, you see if you know rain is on the way you will have that thing inside in no time i'm sure of it.

[Dave MacArthur]

I understand your main problem is the long distance etc., but thought I'd throw this in, incase it helps you in the loading/unloading: Harbor Freight is having a sale Jun 1-3 on "shop cranes", and have a 1 ton (2000 pound) capable shop crane for $99. I just bought a 2 ton one for my Powermatic 66, with which I can hook up to the saw and lift/cart it around the garage a bit... the shop crane has wheels (not intended to be rolled around under load), which do work ok. I also used this to unload a DJ20 8" Delta jointer from my pickup bed directly to the garage.
The legs will fold up, so the thing stores in about a 2' by 2' space against the wall.

[Michael Schwartz]

If it is on a pallet and you are moving it up a paved driveway you could use a hydraulic pallet jack and with a couple of hands push it up no problem.

1000 Pounds is a bit heavy for a handtruck, but if you can dissassemble things you could very easily move them with a hand truck even if the part weighs 300 pounds.

A thousand pounds isnt very heavy and unless you are hoisting it up onto a balcony or something and doesnt require any fancy methods. A heavy duty dolly and a few freinds can go along way as long as you have a smooth surface to push it on.

Most I have ever moved with a standard handtruck is a cast iron bathtub weiging 700+ pounds and I regularly move skids if tile weighing 2+ tons.

[Steve Rowe]

Hire a professional rigger to do this for you. Make sure they are insured. It doesn't make much since to hurt yourself or your machine moving it in.
Steve

[Dave Lehnert]

I would not let the 1000 lbs discourage you. It sounds like a lot of weight but you should be able to manage OK with a friend (or two) I work in a retail setting and a skid of bird seed or a pallet of Kingsford charcoal is just as heavy and I move them around with just a pallet jack every day. All depends on the person but 1,000 is not all that heavy. But then again I unload trucks of Balled and burlap trees 10’ tall. Now that is heavy.