- Joined
- Sep 4, 2017
- Messages
- 7
New machinist here, and while I've spent a lot of time searching for and purchasing my first lathe (colchester bantam) I got a reminder that lathes can be dangerous even when they are not moving.
My lathe is about 1000lbs and I went out to the sellers house with some home build dollies. The caster wheels I picked up were rated for 180 lbs and I had 4 on each end so I thought I'd be fine. Once we got it on it was apparent the wheels were a little strained because of where the weight distribution is.
It was a little squirrelly getting on the lift gate and into the moving truck , but the issue came on getting it back off. My driveway has just a slight decline to the base of my garage. As me and the mover wheeled the lathe out to the lift gate it became apparent that the slope and the top heaviness of thelathe meant this thing wanted to get moving and would be quite easy to tip over.
The short of it was the lathe lurched, almost went over the end of the lift gate and ripped one of the casters clean off. I was on the ground trying to push against this 1000lb lathe so it didn't swan dive onto my driveway (or me if I couldn't have got out of the way in time). Some careful maneuvering got it down safe but reminded me that I needed to treat the moving of this thing with more thought.
Just a story for those other new machinists who might be moving something heavier than they are used to for the first time.
My lathe is about 1000lbs and I went out to the sellers house with some home build dollies. The caster wheels I picked up were rated for 180 lbs and I had 4 on each end so I thought I'd be fine. Once we got it on it was apparent the wheels were a little strained because of where the weight distribution is.
It was a little squirrelly getting on the lift gate and into the moving truck , but the issue came on getting it back off. My driveway has just a slight decline to the base of my garage. As me and the mover wheeled the lathe out to the lift gate it became apparent that the slope and the top heaviness of thelathe meant this thing wanted to get moving and would be quite easy to tip over.
The short of it was the lathe lurched, almost went over the end of the lift gate and ripped one of the casters clean off. I was on the ground trying to push against this 1000lb lathe so it didn't swan dive onto my driveway (or me if I couldn't have got out of the way in time). Some careful maneuvering got it down safe but reminded me that I needed to treat the moving of this thing with more thought.
Just a story for those other new machinists who might be moving something heavier than they are used to for the first time.