Bringing a PM-1054TV-3PH into my Garage

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Just for fun said:
To me there was quite a bit of work from the time the mill is unloaded from the truck to the point I was ready to move it into place, especially paying someone $400 an hour. Does the rigging crew charge travel time?

I wonder if it wouldn't be a good idea to have them unload the mill and hit the road. Give you a chance to uncreate it and get you mind wrapped around moving it into place.

With all the help here on the forum maybe you won't need the rigging crew to come back.

I know I was stressed before I received my mill. After it was here, I came up with a way to move it relatively stress free. I had my wife to help though, and she is a great help.
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Great info.

Last time I used this rigging crew, it was $200/guy & no charge for all of their equipment (flatbed, forklift, etc.). I was charged from the time they left their yard (I had the lathe shipped directly to them) until the time they returned back to the yard.

I was not charged anything for the many phone consultations before the fact, the time they spent receiving my lathe from the freight company, or a week of lathe storage. PM also shipped a small back-ordered item months later, and the rigging company did not charge me for that service.

My experience with this company is that they were stellar.

I don’t have very much financial pressure. I am definitely short on my time, however. The *maximum* time that I get to spend on my hobbies during a calendar week is 12 hours. Any errands or family obligations come out of that 12 hours. As a result, I have to *work* about 67 hours per week, and I am left with only about 8-10 hours for my hobbies. That is a really sad ratio! My employer is *extremely inconsiderate* of their employees’ personal & family time.

Back to the topic at hand, the rigging crew needed the lathe to be off of the pallet in order to move it into the garage last time. They helped me pull off all of the wood & shrink wrap. It went really quickly with 3 guys doing that. Those guys move a lot faster than I ever do!
 
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Aukai said:
Once mine came off of the truck we cut the pallet down to minimum size, and used a pallet jack to set it where it was going to stay. There was enough of a lip front and back that I could leverage the mill up enough to crib it with a stack of 2 x 4s. Once the pallet was pulled out I took 1 2 x 4, from the front, then the back in succession until it was on the ground. Now I'll have to get it back up again to put it on the risers. In your pictures of the feet I do not see how that would lift the the mill, maybe level it, but I'm not seeing much lifting.
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The feet are not intended to lift the mill hardly at all. They will lift it little bit, but it only has a 1/2” of wiggle room to get the mill precisely leveled.

I am 5’ 9” tall. I will work on the milling machine for a few months to determine if I want to raise it more.
 
I had to fight a lot with the management team at my work in order to be able to be home on vacation the week that this knee mill is coming.

I had scheduled that week off (last week of May) months ago, but my supervisor had failed to put in the book. He needed me to overlook his mistake & choose an earlier (!) vacation week. It was a *huge fight*, but I ended up getting the week that I had scheduled.

Precision Matthews has installed all 3 of the power feeds, & the knee mill is just waiting to have the custom pallet built.

Precision Matthews will call mid-week for a final payment ($11,777), and we are ready for that. When I say “ready for that”, I mean “room on the credit card”. This credit card gives us 5% cash back, and then we can transfer much (most?) of the balance to a different card that has a 0% promotional rate.

The catch with the 0% promotional rate is that you have to pay it *all* off in 6-12 months, or else you have to pay all of the back interest! This effectively sentences me to 6-12 months of continued extreme overtime. If I get injured at work or go out on disability, I get put in a very bad situation.

I have been in this situation before, and you very quickly learn to work *very* safely, and minimize health risks. It was in the same situation where I got off of drugs, alcohol, nicotine & caffeine. I won’t have anything come between me and my machines!
 
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I had a long conversation with the rigging company; I gave them a lot of details about the dimensions & weight of the pallet, the height of my garage entrance, & that I need them to move an engine lathe out of the way in order to put the milling machine in place. Before they leave, I need them to put the engine lathe back where it was.

The machine is being shipped directly to the rigging company. It is a crane company, & I have used them before. Assuming that the trucking company can get the knee mill across the country in 8 calendar days (fingers crossed), I will be able to have the rigging company come to my house the first day of my vacation.

My Dad and I are going to spend my whole vacation getting the mill set up. My Dad is a retired electrician, but due to health reasons he is only able to give direction, & then supervise me executing the work.

I have a 6’ cord for the milling machine already, but I don’t think it is going to be long enough. The way that I am positioning the machines (lathe & mill), I am now in the position where the 6’ cord for the engine lathe is also not long enough.

To add to this, the machine tools have displaced where I put my welding table, so now I need to buy a (3-prong, 50’) 220V extension cord for all of my welding machines. Also, I need to modify the 4-prong male plug for the Miller Dynasty so that the Dynasty can use the same 220V extension cord that the other machines use (the other 2 welding machines are 3-prong).

Finally, the 4-prong, 40A, 220V female receptacle on my garage wall will no longer be needed, & we will convert it to a 3-prong 220V, or better yet a couple of 110V outlets.

That is a lot of taking apart old cables, & making longer, standardized (i.e. 3-prong) cables.
 
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A lot of work, but good thing your dad can help. I have attic space in my garage, and also did a drop cable for the mill through the ceiling. Not pretty but functional.
 
Paying for the rigger & buying the electrical cables will put us on the ropes financially through Setember, so you won’t see much from me in the “What Did You Buy Today?” thread.

I am really scared of how much the rigging bill is going to cost! I would estimate $1,700 to $3,000.
 
Aukai said:
A lot of work, but good thing your dad can help. I have attic space in my garage, and also did a drop cable for the mill through the ceiling. Not pretty but functional.
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The cord coming down the ceiling is not ugly. Why do you have the table and head covered up with what appear to be sheets?

I do *not* have attic space. My 87-year-old mother-in-law lives directly above the garage. Fortunately, she is hearing impaired. If the shop noises get out of control, all she has to do is pull out her hearing aids.
 
You've bitten this bullet before, no short cuts though, and you will be good again. The ocean breeze is directed to my house, and I'm less then a 1/2 mile from the ocean. EVERYTHING rusts, and I'm also trying to keep salt air out of the motor.
 
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