How Did You Handle Getting Your Lathe Home?

When I purchased my Bridgeport mill about 10 years ago I had it shipped to a rigging company. They kept it for me for a few days, and then showed up with 2 or 3 trucks, air brakes hissing; looked like a teamster's convention in my otherwise quiet neighborhood. But I will say they used a fork lift and put it right where I wanted it in my garage. They also waited while I cut a couple of large planks and put the 4 adjustable pads at the corners of the base. At that time they had a $500 minimum charge, which is what I had to pay, but in the end I think it was worth it. They told me that they install monstrous air conditioning units and similar equipment in commercial building. They did know what the proper way was to position and lift the mill. Expensive, but I think worth it at the time.
 
That's a great little trailer. 4' is plenty wide for most things and allows it to fit between most gantry hoist uprights for unloading. When the day comes to move my shop I'll be looking for something like that.
 
Ordered a G0709 lathe to my brother-in-laws shop which has a loading dock and fork lift. He loaded it on my trailer. HF gantry crane unloaded and set it in position.

20151005_185559 a.jpg 20151005_203327 a.jpg 20151005_203622 a.jpg CIMG3363a.jpg 20151011_110641 a.jpg
 
I've ordered 3 machines from Grizzly; a band saw for wood, a metal lathe, and a small mill. The lightest was the mill at around 135#. I paid for lift gate delivery on all three items.

In each case, the driver, 3 different drivers, insisted on helping me right into my garage with the delivery. The driveway is 60 feet long, and fairly level, maybe a slight incline up to the garage door.

I was prepared to do that myself, and had a dolly available. It wasn't needed any of the 3 times. I had a shop crane for moving the lathe and mill up where I wanted them. A strong friend helped with the wood band saw.
 
I had my Grizzly G0602 delivered with lift gate and they drop it off in the street. I made a 4.wheel cart out of a hand truck and got it to the back yard via uphill driveway. Where I wanted to put it also required that I hire small forklift to come out and place it on the bench after I broke it in on the cart to ensure I didn't have to return it for some reason.
 
Well it's not quite 3 years since the last post, I forgot all about this thread. Just for closure, I never did buy that Grizzly lathe, too many horror stories. I ended up with a Clausing 5914 for about $3k less money and unloaded it from my trailer with an engine hoist by lifting it then pulling the trailer out from under it.
 
Back
Top