[11/25/08]
A friend of mine from work, Mark Panzer, recently purchased a milling machine. For those that don't know what one is, check out these links: Wikipedia, American Machine Tools.
It a very versatile tool for machining metal (as well as other materials for that matter.)
Well a Mill is a very large piece of equipment. This one is about 2500lbs. So you can't just throw it in the trunk, or on the bed of a pickup for that matter! Mark being the engineer he is, planned out how to transport it. After days of searching for the perfect trailer, we went to a backup plan of renting a 10,000lbs fork lift. Fortunately for all involved, he was able to find the perfect trailer at the last minute.
Mike Schmitt and I took the day off to help Mark move his new toy. Plus Mike got to put is new truck to some good use ;) Mark decided to put the Mill in my garage since I had 220 and space available. Getting it there though, not simple.
Mark was able to find a rental place that would rent him a hydraulic trailer. The trailer is fantastic.
The center of the trailer lowers to the ground. It is basically flat on the ground with about a 1 inch incline. This was perfect because though we had a fork lift to load the Mill onto the trailer when we went to pick it up, we planned to use a pallet jack to unload it.
First we picked up the pallet jack. Ironically renting the pallet jack cost more than the trailer... Odd but not unreasonable.
Once we picked up the trailer (another rental place), we drove to out pick-up spot. lowered the trailer, put the pallet jack on (thinking ahead on this one, if the pallet jack wasn't under the Mill from the get go, how would we unload it at our destination?).
Everything went smoothly. The guy selling the Mill loaded the Mill on the trailer with a fork lift quite easily. 
Unfortunately the width of the base of the mill was far to narrow in that orientation to be stable (full weight on the pallet jack). Off came the Mill. We reloaded it after turning the Mill on the forklift. Perfect fit! Tie strap it down and away we go.
We almost made it back to my house without any issues. Mark was anxious the whole trip back, and rightfully so, we're towing a 2500lbs Mill that's fairly top heavy. After stopping and checking the straps were still tight, Mark kept a close eye on our payload. About 3/4 of the trip home 
Mark thought one of the straps was tearing. I thought he was being paranoid. We stopped to check it out. Sure enough, one of the straps had been cut through about 1/2 way. It was rubbing up against on of the glides on the Mill and that edge was razor sharp. Good eye Mark!
Once we got back to my place, drove across the lawn to get to the back garage and backed up the trailer. We were able to lower the trailer and jack up the front end of the trailer to level out the trailer. After some very tippy moments, and a sledge hammer, we were able to re-balance the Mill on the pallet jack. Then Mark and Mike were able to slowly pull the Mill off the end of the trailer and into the garage. They used 4x4's as fail safes in case they had to lower the jack suddenly. It worked out quite well.
After some huffing and puffing, the Mill found its new home. Congrats Mark on the new toy!
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| 2008_11_25_MillingMachine |
