How to lift it onto the bench? (an answer)
Posted: Thu Feb 25, 2010 10:59 am
I posted these elsewhere but thought I'd leave them here too.
A lot of people who buy the 3-in-1's don't have much room to spare, and lack any equipment for lifting such a heavy item. The usual way to lift them is to obtain (rent) a car engine hoist, but what if there's nowhere to rent one conveniently near, or even worse--if the car hoist will not fit into the spot where you want the machine? Here is an alternate way, using a scissor carjack, some wood and some concrete blocks. You need enough concrete blocks for two stacks as high as the table, plus you need two "half-height" blocks also. I lifted a 350-lb mill and a 500-lb lathe onto 48" tall tables this way, with nobody else helping.
The first picture pretty much shows how it's done. You need enough concrete blocks to stack up to the height of the table you want the machine on, plus you need two "half-height" blocks also. The machine is placed on a couple sheets of 3/4" plywood, and jacked upwards a "half-block" at a time, on opposite sides. To be able to keep lifting after the first level of blocks, you stick boards through the lower blocks to sit the jack on, to lift the next level. This room is inside my house, and the floor is wood--so I laid down another piece of 3/4" plywood where I stacked the blocks, to stabilize them a bit more.
The lifting here doesn't require much effort at all--it's the beginning and end when all the muscles are needed. You could bolt the machine base to the plywood if you wanted, but I didn't find it necessary even with the relatively-tall mill. With the head lowered it was nowhere near sliding or tipping.
The second picture shows the final "bridge". After you get the machine jacked up on two sets of blocks as high as the bench, you can't just scoot the machine off the stacks, because they won't be stable enough. You need to lift it enough to allow one last layer of 2x4's under it, and those 2x4's need to reach from the block stacks over to the bench (watch that they don't creep!). You can then gently scoot the plywood+machine over the 2x4's over as far as you need to.
One thing not shown here: the blocks flat faces aren't quite flat, and they will tend to wobble and spin on their centers, especially after you stack them 4-5 blocks high. To avoid that, you need to stick some thin strips of wood under each end as you stack the blocks. I didn't do this when I lifted the mill (was the first time I did this) but did when I lifted the lathe, and it worked much better.
~
A lot of people who buy the 3-in-1's don't have much room to spare, and lack any equipment for lifting such a heavy item. The usual way to lift them is to obtain (rent) a car engine hoist, but what if there's nowhere to rent one conveniently near, or even worse--if the car hoist will not fit into the spot where you want the machine? Here is an alternate way, using a scissor carjack, some wood and some concrete blocks. You need enough concrete blocks for two stacks as high as the table, plus you need two "half-height" blocks also. I lifted a 350-lb mill and a 500-lb lathe onto 48" tall tables this way, with nobody else helping.
The first picture pretty much shows how it's done. You need enough concrete blocks to stack up to the height of the table you want the machine on, plus you need two "half-height" blocks also. The machine is placed on a couple sheets of 3/4" plywood, and jacked upwards a "half-block" at a time, on opposite sides. To be able to keep lifting after the first level of blocks, you stick boards through the lower blocks to sit the jack on, to lift the next level. This room is inside my house, and the floor is wood--so I laid down another piece of 3/4" plywood where I stacked the blocks, to stabilize them a bit more.
The lifting here doesn't require much effort at all--it's the beginning and end when all the muscles are needed. You could bolt the machine base to the plywood if you wanted, but I didn't find it necessary even with the relatively-tall mill. With the head lowered it was nowhere near sliding or tipping.
The second picture shows the final "bridge". After you get the machine jacked up on two sets of blocks as high as the bench, you can't just scoot the machine off the stacks, because they won't be stable enough. You need to lift it enough to allow one last layer of 2x4's under it, and those 2x4's need to reach from the block stacks over to the bench (watch that they don't creep!). You can then gently scoot the plywood+machine over the 2x4's over as far as you need to.
One thing not shown here: the blocks flat faces aren't quite flat, and they will tend to wobble and spin on their centers, especially after you stack them 4-5 blocks high. To avoid that, you need to stick some thin strips of wood under each end as you stack the blocks. I didn't do this when I lifted the mill (was the first time I did this) but did when I lifted the lathe, and it worked much better.
~