Machinery Mover

[Fountain Chuck]

I've been a lurker for a long while now, love the site. I want to build some sort of base that can except wheels then can be removed once in position.It seems awile back someone posted some pictures of just such a device.The machine I want to move around is a Vertical band saw that probable weighs 1500 lbs,so it needs to be heavy duty. Any chance of seening them again, I tried the search, with no luck.

[diesel]

That is a lot of weight for a saw. I can't help you with what you want but I can give you a sug. for moving around on a concrete floor. Lots of 1/2 inch rods used as rollers. It is simple and effective. I've moved some heavy stuff (100 tons) with this method.

[Trent Combs]

OK, diesel, I gotta know - how did you get 100 tons up onto 1/2" rods...and don't say "i just rolled it off the 1" ones"....

[Fountain Chuck]

I'm guessing on the weight, but there's 3/8,and 1/4" plate all over it, and the base is a 3/8" plate roughly 40X30" with 5/8-11 holes tapped in each corner.What ever I come up with, It would be nice to keep it only about an inch off the ground.

[diesel]

OK, diesel, I gotta know - how did you get 100 tons up onto 1/2" rods...and don't say "i just rolled it off the 1" ones"....

You use two 50 ton bottle jacks and lift one end at a time. Then you lift it high enough to get 3" 500 wall pipe underneath it. Lift the heavy end first. Takes no time at all. The hard part is finding something to drag it. Most BIG gin trucks are up to the task so really its a very anticlimatic thing. No crane. Just worn out oilfield equipment.

[James D. Clark]

About 50 years ago the municipal light company where I lived bought a new Diesel generator for the power plant. It was the size of a rail car in length. They unloaded the unit onto big rollers and rolled it 6 city blocks to the power plant, turned it 90 degrees and rolled it over the generator pit and lowered it onto the bed rails with jacks. Look around at big things that have been around for over one hundred years or more and wonder how they were moved and positioned.

[Sandy]

You're looking at a cross between a gantry crane and an agriccultural equipment hauler.

Search here or the net for gantry cranes. Build a low profile unit with fixed wheels on one end and a axle on a spindle for the other. Somewhere I saw freeby plans.