Befuddled about bearings, a couple of questions

A few wraps around a belaying pin would give you plenty of control to slide down a staircase. Not sure where the stairs are though, if facing the exterior you could use a vehicle as a deadman.
Design of house doesn't allow a simple cable out to a vehicle. Driveway is 50 feet off in the wrong direction, after several jogs.

Belaying pin or something like that is a good idea. Reminds me of a rappelling figure 8 descender that I used many decades ago. That combined with some mechanical advantage seems like a good idea. If I recall correctly, one didn't want a light person belaying a heavy one. If the heavy guy fell, he could pull the light one off the ground, leading to a free fall of the heavy guy. This is similar to me and the lathe.

Somehow got to figure out the anchor. Guess I'll be sitting on the floor, drilling holes in the wall tomorrow. Might be a good idea to look in the basement to see exactly where the wires come up. Never good to drill though your wiring! Before anyone says it, stud finders work very poorly in horsehair plaster and lath construction. Tried 4 different technologies over the years. They all didn't work well.
 
It might be worth a call to a local moving company. A stair climbing dolly and someone who knows how to use it might make short work of the job.

We all want to figure out the best way to do stuff but sometimes the best way is calling someone with the right tools and experience.

John
 
I bought one of these years ago and it’s my go to for lifting machines out of my pickup.


But, for 350lbs a couple of strongish guys and a decent rope should be fine. Or, if you’re solo an electric winch will work well.

John
Electric winch is probably the easy winner here for doing it myself. Still need a good anchor point for that. I'll work on the anchor tomorrow. If I can't find a strong enough anchor point, I will look into the strongish guys. I have a come along, it works great for controlled pulling, but not for controlled paying out.
 
Anchor is 4x4 across a door at floor level.

Do not make this, safety is better if you rent it.

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It might be worth a call to a local moving company. A stair climbing dolly and someone who knows how to use it might make short work of the job.

We all want to figure out the best way to do stuff but sometimes the best way is calling someone with the right tools and experience.

John
I agree. Found a place to call this morning. Didn't get a round tuit today. I will look into an anchor point tomorrow. If I don't come up with a decent placement for the anchor, I will call them.

It's funny, I had my local contractor help me move some of my mill downstairs after I had taken it apart. They managed to damage part of the ceiling on the way down the stairs. The mill was fine. The horsehair plaster keys broke, so pretty big chunks of plaster wanted to fall. I used plaster washers to hold it up. Still looks ugly and needs to be repaired. Need to find someone to do that. Just don't know how to repair horsehair plaster.
 
That door frame is probably 2 nails thru the end of the sill plate and into the end of the stud.. I would not trust just that door frame as an anchor. A setup is no stronger than its weakest point.

Is the door you are referring to an outside door or an interior door?

I also have steep basement stairs, My lathe was 1100 lbs. I ran the cable all the way thru the house and out a window and anchored to my 7,000 lb 4x4 truck hitch. Used an engine hoist with a pulley to keep the cable off the window sill. Used the truck to lower things down the steps on a custom made dolly. The 600 lb Base for the surface grinder went down on a Hand Truck with the cable thru the house attached to the hand truck axle and to the 4x4 truck to control decent.

For 350 lbs I would just strap it to the hand truck and go. Let the dolly do the work, you just have to maintain balance.
This is the hand truck I have and use a lot.
If you are worried about loosing control on the way down, just lay the truck down on its back and use it as a rolling ramp with something to control the decent speed.

Pics always help to make a plan.
 
That door frame is probably 2 nails thru the end of the sill plate and into the end of the stud.. I would not trust just that door frame as an anchor. A setup is no stronger than its weakest point.

Is the door you are referring to an outside door or an interior door?

I also have steep basement stairs, My lathe was 1100 lbs. I ran the cable all the way thru the house and out a window and anchored to my 7,000 lb 4x4 truck hitch. Used an engine hoist with a pulley to keep the cable off the window sill. Used the truck to lower things down the steps on a custom made dolly. The 600 lb Base for the surface grinder went down on a Hand Truck with the cable thru the house attached to the hand truck axle and to the 4x4 truck to control decent.

For 350 lbs I would just strap it to the hand truck and go. Let the dolly do the work, you just have to maintain balance.
This is the hand truck I have and use a lot.
If you are worried about loosing control on the way down, just lay the truck down on its back and use it as a rolling ramp with something to control the decent speed.

Pics always help to make a plan.
Pics will be on the way. I also drew a sketch because without it, it is hard to explain. There are several doorways, and an entrance way into the main part of the house. The exterior doorway is 32"W. The interior doorway to the basement is pretty narrow at only 27-5/8". Actually the narrowest point is 27-1/8". The doorways are not aligned. As a matter of fact the lathe, is longer than the passageway is wide. The lathe measures at 46", whereas the "hallway" is only 41.25"W.

This part of the house was built circa 1875, because I found an old map of the city with the current outline of the house. The narrow hallway leads to the main part of the house, which was built in 1851. There are some boxed in columns in the entrance way, but they don't feel like they are backed by a beam of the same thickness. When you thump it it doesn't really feel like solid oak (or chestnut), but neither does it feel hollow. My guess is there is a load bearing beam there, since it is at the intersection of old and new house, but I'm uncertain without pulling the millwork away.

Have a similar hand truck. I'm worried about a runaway, or the lathe slipping off the truck. Pretty sure I can have it not slip off the truck. I managed 125 lbs on it, but not sure I can control 350 lbs.

Could use either the truck or a trolley. Where I'm struggling is to find something to control the descent rate. For that, I need an anchor. Or I need to gain another 50-75 lbs.

Fortunately, the exterior wall is ordinary plasterboard rather than horsehair plaster and lath. So if I poke holes, it is easy to fix. I can also remove the baseboard and poke around into the wall and maybe figure out if there are beams in the entrance to the main house.

Next post with pics.
 

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Just throwing out random thoughts:
Maybe you could secure to something outside so that a rope came in from the left side of the kitchen "ext doorway" and to the right side of the basement doorway. Small deflection angles wont put too much pressure on the door frames. (Proportional to the cosine of the deflection angle). Is any of that floor carpeted? If so a 2x4 could probably be screwed down to the floor through the carpet without leaving any marks.
 
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Some pics. First is exterior doorway.
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Framing into main house. You can see the glass doorknob for the basement door on the left.
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Original tin ceiling. Into the basement. Yes, they are kind of sketchy steps. The treads are a bit thin and dried out. Going to have to replace them, maybe before bringing the lathe down. They do not inspire confidence. The rest of the stairs seem ok.
PXL_20211018_184338111.jpg
Narrow landing, making maneuvering awkward.
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You are looking at granite and lime cement. At the time the cellar was dug, they hadn't yet invented Portland cement.
View back up the stairs.
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The wall on the left is part of the original foundation (1851).

If anyone has ideas for snubbing descent speeds, I'm listening.
 
Use two long boards down the steps as ramps. Bolt two short pieces of 2x4 to the bottom of the lathe, roughly 24" long, at 90 degrees to the bed using the two bolt holes in the bed. (Use the engine hoist to lift it off the pallet?). Use the above plan to connect a rope to the lathe, with an electric winch outside secured to a tree, car bumper, etc. Ask your wife to work the winch buttons, while you guide the lathe down FROM ABOVE.

You could even bolt small casters to the end of the 2x4's to help roll the lathe on the floor. Just keep the casters on the outside of the long boards, so the long boards are directly in contact with wood, so you're not rolling down the steps.
 
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