Thread: Making heavy machinery stands mobile?

Im just about to bring my AL320G and RF45 out of storage and set them up in the garage. While im doing that I will need a new mill stand, and after some suggestions in another thread I think I will build one out of a frame and a standard 650mm wide 5 drawer tool box.

One of the things that would be nice to have is the ability to be able to move the mill and lathe to clean behind them, or sort things out. So I am considering building in some 2" low profile castors into the units. I plan on recessing these up into the frame, and using hockey puck levellers on the corners for supporting the machine/frame and to be able to take the load off the castors when the machine is in use.

Leveling feet will probably use M16 hardware and a nut/washer setup to adjust the machine height, before being locked in place with another M16 nut and washer from the top.

If all of this works well enough for the mill then I will probably do the same again with the lathe, but use a 1m wide tool box for that, along with two sets of castors.

Anyone see any critical flaws in my dastardly plan?

2" casters aren't tolerant of any sort of crap between them and the floor in my experience, so if you're going to use those small diameter ones you'll need to blow out the area around the wheels with compressed air etc prior to moving or you'll end up stuck on a bit of swarf etc. I'd use steel casters (or perhaps a heavy hard "plastic") at that size too, as I think the load will be too high on rubber or poly wheels.
The other advantage of using steel wheels is stuff doesn't embed itself. Getting a bit of solid crap stuck in a poly wheel is a PITA when the only way to get to the wheel to clean it is by pulling it forward - but the crap is acting like a wheel chock!

Personally I'm a fan of using a pallet jack and having space under the machine (or its cabinet/stand) that allows the pallet jack under it to be able to lift and move. Hard plastic wheels, most handle 2.5-3T
Shorten a full size one or buy a short version if you're tight for space.
Yes its an investment in another piece of equipment, but if you have more than a couple of heavy things that need to be moved around then it quickly becomes more economic to buy the jack and fab up cheap stands than to have lots of sets of heavy duty casters sitting under things that might only get moved occasionally.

Instead of wasting the space underneath, you can make up a tray on wheels to store short offcuts of stock etc.
Normal pallet jacks are far longer than needed

In my case I'm just over 6' tall so find that putting a normally floor mounted machine on a heavy stand approx 100-120mm high for the pallet jack also has the advantage of making it a better working height.

Steve

Yeah, cleaning out swarf is fair enough, but I have no room at all for a pallet jack, so having the castors under there is a preferred option.

Looking at using these for the castors: https://www.richmondau.com/product/s...rofile-swivel/ and they arent prohibitively priced, around $60 a set. So $180 for all three sets which is less than the pallet jack and the need to keep it around for the rest of the time.

These castors look to be pretty much the same thing too: https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/2-Low-Pr...-/131624295697

Both Richmond and the eBay mob also do 75mm castors, which could fit too, just would cause slightly more height annoyance.

I have my mill lifted on those puck adjusters. I have around 100mm clearance I reckon and it works perfectly to get underneath for cleaning.

My RF30 and stand weight a tonne, so I couldn’t imagine moving them and I reckon the desire to try might end up with a wobbly stand.

Good luck though. No problem I’m trying but I’d go heavy on the hardware.

Just a heads up the fat/wide castors won't always swivel very easily especially under any sort of load.
At the mens shed we bought a used pallet jack for about $100. Best $100 we ever spent.

Originally Posted by BobL

Just a heads up the fat/wide castors won't always swivel very easily especially under any sort of load.
At the mens shed we bought a used pallet jack for about $100. Best $100 we ever spent.

This shed sounds fascinating Bob. Sounds like the kind of place I’m slowly steering towards.

Just a thought, if you mainly want to be able to move the machine in/out then perhaps just use straight wheels rather than swiveling ones.
I will avoid the issue Bob mentions of the small wheels not wanting to swivel. I had exactly that when moving a 450kg engine around on its caster wheeled frame on the weekend.
Wheels should be cheaper than the swivels, and lower, so you should be able to go up in diameter for the same height.

Steve

Originally Posted by neevo

This shed sounds fascinating Bob. Sounds like the kind of place I’m slowly steering towards.

Not sure what you mean?

I was a regular attended at my local mens shed up until a couple of years ago and am still a paid up member of that shed but these days I only attend the shed every now and then, usually to pick up or drop off odd jobs for them. The reasons I rarely attend are many and varied, one being probably because I had to work with a wide variety of often difficult people all my life and now that I am retired I usually prefer to work on my own. A few years back SWMBO gave a me a T-Shirt for Xmas with a large "WARNING Grump old man" label on - maybe that sums me up

I've tried the wheels on my mill but it was too unstable. Now its bolted to the floor and I clean out the swarf with an airline. There's a gap of about 50mm underneath so it's easy.

Originally Posted by BobL

Not sure what you mean?

I was a regular attended at my local mens shed up until a couple of years ago and am still a paid up member of that shed but these days I only attend the shed every now and then, usually to pick up or drop off odd jobs for them. The reasons I rarely attend are many and varied, one being probably because I had to work with a wide variety of often difficult people all my life and now that I am retired I usually prefer to work on my own. A few years back SWMBO gave a me a T-Shirt for Xmas with a large "WARNING Grump old man" label on - maybe that sums me up

Totally understand and remember you talking about the men's shed some years ago.
I have always been one to enjoy working on my own, have a few mates drop in regularly to throw ideas/design's off.
Everyone tried to push me into a men's shed when I was single for 2 years, I didn't go as I had enough projects at home to keep me happy and busy.

I moved here nearly 2 years ago and was taken for a walk through by my late 60s neighbour (who is not in good health) to show me what it was like.
Other than a large panel saw like I used to have, I have more equipment than them, larger thicknessor etc.
Also there was no metal working/machining equipment at all, just woodworking.

For the guys that can't do it at home, or need other people's company it's perfect.
I didn't see any personal projects, just projects they where working on like outdoor tables to sell for profit etc.

Other option could be using a toe jack and some load skates when you need to move the machines around.

Originally Posted by Dave J

Totally understand and remember you talking about the men's shed some years ago.
I have always been one to enjoy working on my own, have a few mates drop in regularly to throw ideas/design's off.
Everyone tried to push me into a men's shed when I was single for 2 years, I didn't go as I had enough projects at home to keep me happy and busy.

SWMBO was really keen I join a mens shed after I retired because she was concerned I would become too isolated. I was a fairly regular mens shed member (maybe twice a week) for about 2 years and on top of that supervised a day a week for a couple of years. When the new shed was being set up I was there about 4 days a week and then tapered off to where I am now, ie I go in about once a month. Meanwhile I started consulting about dust extraction for another mens sheds so visit different sheds at a rate of about once month.

As far as being isolated goes I can go for coffee or do other stuff with former work colleagues, other ex mens shed members, sold school friends or other retired friends every day of the week if I wanted to. Besides the diversity of contact on and through these forums is more than enough for me.

I moved here nearly 2 years ago and was taken for a walk through by my late 60s neighbour (who is not in good health) to show me what it was like.
Other than a large panel saw like I used to have, I have more equipment than them, larger thicknessor etc.
Also there was no metal working/machining equipment at all, just woodworking.

The shed where I am member has almost as much MW as WW gear; 2 lathes, 2 mills assorted welding, grinding and cutting gear. The MW "Welding"members are pretty sharp and I have learnt quite a bit from them but the turning/milling guru no longer comes in.

My main gripe is don't like the state in which the mens shed gear is usually left (bits missing, blunt, dirty, needing maintenance or just not set up how i like it etc) The other this I don't like is constantly having to put away partially complete projects all the time. I also like starting early, even as early as 6am, and if what I'm doing is not noisy I sometimes work up until 9 or 10 pm. I also do a lot of electrical/electronics stuff, for which there is no suitable gear at the mens shed. Sometimes I leave electrical projects with multiple exposed parts, or chemical projects with exposed chemicals, all out on my pwn benches and although I turn electrical things off when I leave for the day even if I'm there its too dangerous and some is almost certainly illegal to be doing in an environment like a mens shed.

For the guys that can't do it at home, or need other people's company it's perfect.

I agree, quite a few of our members live in apartments or flats.

I didn't see any personal projects, just projects they where working on like outdoor tables to sell for profit etc.

Our shed is pretty good on that score with an even spread across; doing work for the shed, projects for the community at cost, projects for profit, and personal projects. If anything the personal projects are probably closer to 50% of the work done. I have only ever done projects for the shed itself like installing VFDs, dust extraction setup, and mechanical work. I could not bring myself to even start any personal projects at the shed.

But the killer reason is my coffee machine is WAAAAAYYYYY better than the mens shed coffee machine.

Now Back to the OP.

The pallet jack really came into its own when the new shed was being set up in 2015. As we had been collecting gear for about 4 years before hand there were dozens of machines involved and only a couple had wheels, with some of the wheels were too wide to swivel properly. Despite endless planning on paper most of the machines were constantly being moved around and scratching the floor. At one stage many mACHINES had pieces of carpet under the feet/legs but some were very heavy so I suggested we get a pallet jack and this was used extensively to move not just machines but benches and timber and otheR stuff around. Apparently last year when they thought they had things sorted they decided to get rid of the pallet jack and not long after that decided to rearrange the deck chairs AGAIN and now they regret it.

All my old man used to do was stick a pinch bar under one corner of a machine and roll three feet long peices of 20 mm round bar under the machines then just roll them around on those, easy as anything. Then just stand the rolling bars back in the stock rack for next time.

I have only a small shed but have 2 pallet jacks, the skinny one and standard wide one. They are really so useful around the shop when needed.
Can always be stored outside under cover, lowered down to cover the ram chrome.
It will give the red backs somewhere to live, lol

Originally Posted by riverbuilder

All my old man used to do was stick a pinch bar under one corner of a machine and roll three feet long peices of 20 mm round bar under the machines then just roll them around on those, easy as anything. Then just stand the rolling bars back in the stock rack for next time.

That is actually a reasonable solution. Would prefer to use a toe jack, but would work.

A friend suggested using the GoJaks i already have for the car too, which would work if i was game to get it high enough.

Pallet jacks are out, there is no room in the garage for them or to get them in and out.