Moving a Myford Lathe

If all those boards are bolted securely I would just stand it up on a furniture dolly or hand cart, with the wood against the dolly, and let the dolly do the work. I moved a Tree 2UVR mill, 3400 Lbs, and a Jet GH1340 lathe, 1100 Lbs and a Brown & Sharp #2 surface grinder, 1480 Lbs, into my basement. These moves required me to move down a hallway and down the basement steps with two 90° turns tossed in for good measure. Unfortunately this was in the days before digital cameras so I have no pics or videos of the moves.
The lathe was moved with no disassembly needed at all. The mill and the grinder were disassembled for the moves. The heavy bases were bolted to a base with 4 swivel casters. The rest of the parts all came down the steps on my hand cart. For the heavy parts I built a ramp down the steps to roll it down using my P/U truck as an anchor.
When I was doing this I could not find a moving company that would touch "machinery" and I could not find a machine mover that would enter a home setting.

If you would like to talk about these moves I can be available. To bad you are not just a bit closer, I would come down to help out. Moving machines is fun. Half the fun is the figuring out how to do it SAFELY.
 
Excellent solution considerably more complicated than I used but better ! A very nice machine late vintage and a long bed with power cross feed, I have the same but mine is one of the last grey ones c1977 or 78.
The 2 pins you refer too that cannot be removed - are they in the RHS leadscrew bearing bracket ? If so they should be tapped so they can be withdrawn with a simple puller.
 
I am so thankful that I have never had to move a mill or lathe into or out of a basement. I believe I would offer it as a bonus to the new owner.
 
redgrouse said:
Excellent solution considerably more complicated than I used but better ! A very nice machine late vintage and a long bed with power cross feed, I have the same but mine is one of the last grey ones c1977 or 78.
The 2 pins you refer too that cannot be removed - are they in the RHS leadscrew bearing bracket ? If so they should be tapped so they can be withdrawn with a simple puller.
Click to expand...
Yes, it is the Leadscrew bearing bracket and they are taped. The way you describe the removal is the way I think they come out. Do you know what thread and size they are? For my move, I am going to leave them as is. But it would be nice to know what size for future maintenance,
 
Flyinfool said:
If all those boards are bolted securely I would just stand it up on a furniture dolly or hand cart, with the wood against the dolly, and let the dolly do the work. I moved a Tree 2UVR mill, 3400 Lbs, and a Jet GH1340 lathe, 1100 Lbs and a Brown & Sharp #2 surface grinder, 1480 Lbs, into my basement. These moves required me to move down a hallway and down the basement steps with two 90° turns tossed in for good measure. Unfortunately this was in the days before digital cameras so I have no pics or videos of the moves.
The lathe was moved with no disassembly needed at all. The mill and the grinder were disassembled for the moves. The heavy bases were bolted to a base with 4 swivel casters. The rest of the parts all came down the steps on my hand cart. For the heavy parts I built a ramp down the steps to roll it down using my P/U truck as an anchor.
When I was doing this I could not find a moving company that would touch "machinery" and I could not find a machine mover that would enter a home setting.

If you would like to talk about these moves I can be available. To bad you are not just a bit closer, I would come down to help out. Moving machines is fun. Half the fun is the figuring out how to do it SAFELY.
Click to expand...
Thanks for the info. All my Mill parts are bolted to plywood bases to make them a little more stable. The idea of using a hand cart for the move downstairs should be the way I will go with the movers.
 
Hi yes the dowels are tapped 4BA thread that's 0.1417" dia x 38.46 tpi a real odd ball ! Used by instrument & clock makers probably difficult to find in the US ? you need something about 1.5" long with a nut and a tube around 1 inch long with a bore to clear 1/4"
If you are stuck and cannot find 4BA threaded rod message me and I'll pop a bit in the post for you -- gratis !
Might be worth checking your machine its just possible they MAY have changed to metric ?????
If you search Myford UK look on the new owners web site at the bottom you can access serial numbers and it will tell you when yours was made.
John
 
redgrouse said:
Hi yes the dowels are tapped 4BA thread that's 0.1417" dia x 38.46 tpi a real odd ball ! Used by instrument & clock makers probably difficult to find in the US ? you need something about 1.5" long with a nut and a tube around 1 inch long with a bore to clear 1/4"
If you are stuck and cannot find 4BA threaded rod message me and I'll pop a bit in the post for you -- gratis !
Might be worth checking your machine its just possible they MAY have changed to metric ?????
If you search Myford UK look on the new owners web site at the bottom you can access serial numbers and it will tell you when yours was made.
John
Click to expand...
Thanks for the info. I have been doing Model RR and have a few British engines from Roundhouse. They all use BA threads, so I have access to BA stuff. I am going to save your post in my Myford file. I would mark up the manual but it is long gone in a box for the move. My Lathe does have a combination of BA and Metric threads. It took me a while to find out the thread for the back of the bed to attach the taper attachment. It is nice to know there are others with this machine and can provide support.
 
Glad you are all sorted, here is a link to the UK ME site with a further link to a S7 Manual in PDF format -- older then your machine but only a few changes e.g. addition of the dowels re this post. If you search the forum for Myford there is a heap of info, in particular there is a simplified method of screw cutting metric pitches which are very very close to perfect and much simpler than setting up the whole gear train

Link to a site with info on the manual
 
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