Author Topic: Moving a Bridgeport into the Basement  (Read 36259 times)

Offline Bernd

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Moving a Bridgeport into the Basement
« on: October 16, 2008, 12:01:07 PM »
The day has finally arrived were I pick up my, new to me, Bridgeport. I'll document how I got it home, took it apart, moved it to the basement and reassembled it.


So to start this pic series off, below are some pics of bringing the mill home.


Had to move it outside to get it on the trailer.


Here is the mill at home finally.



A front view of the mill sitting on the trailer.



I've completely flipped the motor and picked up the ram. I discovered that it has a 4" raiser block. Nice.



Set the ram and motor down on some pallets for now. The trailer and mill will now fit into the garage. It's going to have to stay there till Monday. Going to the camp and close that for the winter. I'll be able to contemplate how I'm going to get it into the basement and reassemble it.

So that's it for now until Monday. I should have a post on moving the first part into the basement Monday night or Tuesday morning. Stay tune for the move.

Regards,
Bernd
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Offline Bernd

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Re: Moving a Bridgeport into the Basement
« Reply #1 on: October 16, 2008, 12:02:50 PM »
The story continues with the moving of the ram into the basement and moving the mill into the garage for further disassembly.


First I prepared a pallet to make the move easier. I screwed two 2 X 4's to the bottom so that the rollers would roll better. I discovered this when I moved the drill press. The rollers kept getting stuck between the boards.


Removing the ram from the trailer using my handy lifting devise. I'm going to use those pallets and wood blocks to support the head on the pallet I added the 2 X 4's on.


I've put a couple of screws in each of the pallets to hold them together. Here I'm screwing down the blocks of wood as I level out the ram.


Once I had every thing level I used a couple of lag bolts to hold the ram. It mainly kept it from sliding off the blocks of wood.


All trussed up like a turkey and ready for the move into the basement. I added a bit more blocking to keep the ram from shifting around on the pallets and then strapped it down good and tight. If it tipped it would take pallets and all.


On it's way down. One minor problem though. The next pic will show it.


The pallet was wider than the ramp and it slide to one side.



I screwed an 8ft long 2 X 4 to the one side as a guide to keep it somewhat centered.


I then added a second 2 X 4 to the other side so it wouldn't ride down on the pallet boards and get hung up somewhere.


Success, It's down the stairs. You'll notice that the 2 X 4's are a bit black on top. Well, I added a bit of grease to make sliding down the ramp easier.


This part of the move is finished for now.


Time to get the mill off the trailer. The pic is pretty self explanatory as to how I did it. I was able to do this because the drive slopes up into the garage. The trailer wheels are blocked, there are blocks under the back side so the trailer won't tip up in front when all the weight is on the back. The tractor bucket is an insurance that that won't happen. Those are 4 X 4 oak planks I'm using. I wouldn't have used anything smaller or a soft wood for that matter.


A shot from the back side. I secured the mill so when I put the first roller under it, it won't take off on me.


The jack won't fit under the frame so I used a piece of wood and jacked that up enough to be able to put a roller under it.



Here's a better view of all the blocking and support as the mill is nearing the edge of the trailer. Notice I've got it chained and strapped off to a piece of pipe. Just incase it's a downward trip on the wooden road I made.


About half way there. I added the piece of oak 4 X 4 in case one of the so called wooden rails broke that it won't tip over completely.


And a bit of help from my friend the tractor to get it into the garage.


Next part is taking the table and knee off and to move them to the basement. Don't know weather I'll take both off together or separate them. I'll knew when I get to it. You'll find out tomorrow or the next day. So stay tuned.

I don't think I'll show the whole move down the stairs as it'll be no different than the other parts I've moved down. I'll hit on some of the high lights and then get back to detailed description when I finally assemble it.

Regards,
Bernd

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Offline Bernd

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Re: Moving a Bridgeport into the Basement
« Reply #2 on: October 16, 2008, 12:03:47 PM »
As I mentioned earlier I would have a few more pics to post. What follows is an attempt to remove the table with the knee off the mill. I had problems due to weight and the fact I cut a strap on a sharp edge trying to pick that part of the machine up. Now I'm glad that it happened that way. I was forced to remove the table and cross slide. What I found wasn't pretty. You'll see what I mean as I continue this story.


First I had to get the mill back out into the driveway so I could position the bucket over the table and knee to try and pick both up. So I wrapped a chain around the column and pulled her out.


Once outside I made sure the mill was level. It would facilitate the pickup of the table. Remember my drive slopes down from the door.


Everything was loose. I removed the taper gib and was at the end of the screw feed. I used a couple of straps at each end of the table, as seen on the left end of the table, and a come-a-long. For some reason I just couldn't pull the whole works up. The straps were stretched way to tight. I didn't want to break a strap and have the whole thing come crashing down. So I went to plan "B". Remove table and then remove knee. I discovered this wasn't going to be easy. I thought all I had to do was remove the cross slide screw and pull the table off toward the front of the machine. WRONG! The nut under the table won't go through that hole in the front left by taking out the screw. DARN!


So back into the garage the mill went. Couldn't work outside since it looked like rain. So removed the screw and slid the table on to a tea cart after getting the correct height. I also broke the handle for the up/down feed of the table. That's another story for later. So off came the table. Unscrewed the nut under the table and removed the small cross slide.


Here's a pic of the cross slide/table nut and the four bolts that hold it in place. Notice the chips? They're stuck on there pretty good. They must have used a very sticky coolant on this machine.


And this is what I found under the cross slide. The is the gear set that turns the table screw. You almost miss it for all the chips that are piled up in there.


Did I make chips already. Naw. That's all the chips I removed from the inside of the knee. Unbelievable. This machine is the poster child for not using an air hose to clean off the table.

I'm now glad that I was forced to remove all of the slides and table. This will allow me to clean up the machine some before putting it all back together. It looks like it'll be a few days before I post more pics of the move. Have to do some cleaning first.

Regards,
Bernd

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Offline Brass_Machine

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Re: Moving a Bridgeport into the Basement
« Reply #3 on: October 16, 2008, 12:06:32 PM »
That mill is identical to the one I learned on at the local vo-tech. Do you have the weight of that beast? I would love to get a Bridgeport into my basement... Unfortunately, my basement is way too small. I wouldn't even have the head room for something like that.

Eric
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Offline Brass_Machine

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Re: Moving a Bridgeport into the Basement
« Reply #4 on: October 16, 2008, 12:07:37 PM »
Edit...

You have some cleaning ahead of you!

Eric
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Offline Bernd

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Re: Moving a Bridgeport into the Basement
« Reply #5 on: October 16, 2008, 12:10:31 PM »
The guy's that picked it up said that it tipped the scales at about 2,000lbs. That's also the number I keep hearing on other fora.

Ya, just a bit of cleaning. :P

Bernd
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Re: Moving a Bridgeport into the Basement
« Reply #6 on: October 16, 2008, 07:21:04 PM »
Bernd.... Looks like you have a lot of bits to put back together :jaw: I hope you have the right kind of mind....
Either that of a good set of photo's!!! ;)


I will one day own a machine of that size, but I assure you it will not be going into a basement!!! That looks like too much work!

Keep us posted  ;D




Ralph.
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Offline Bernd

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Re: Moving a Bridgeport into the Basement
« Reply #7 on: October 17, 2008, 06:58:13 PM »
Ralph,

I worked for about 18 years on the assembly floor at the place I called work for 30 years. I could take it all apart and put it back together without a problem. This is the kind of things I like to do.

WORK!? ???  :-\  Naw, it's a labor of love. Plus I've always wanted to see if I could do something like this. If I would have to do this every day, then it would be work. :P
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Offline Bernd

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Re: Moving a Bridgeport into the Basement
« Reply #8 on: October 17, 2008, 06:58:47 PM »
I'm getting close to having the whole machine in the basement. I removed the knee today and a long with the table moved both to the basement. I'm not going to bore you with pics of it going down the stairs. I did the same as for the ram. So here's today's progress report.


I used the chain fall this time. Made much easier work of removing the knee.


Didn't quite get the center point, but it's finally off.


Once the knee was off and I cleaned out some of the chips, it and the table were moved to the basement. I put both loads on the 8ft long 2 X 4's to facilitate moving them easier in the basement.


I switched the 4 X 4 posts under the base 90 degrees. I have a slight problem of getting the end up the 4" high step. No problem. Next pic will show what I did.


I just jacked it up on one end, put the 4 X 4 rails under it and lowered it on to a roller. The base is staged for tomorrows move.

So far it's been a fun project. Tomorrow the heaviest part will be moved. I hope the stairs will be able to carry the weight. I guess you'll have to check in on Sunday to find out.

Regards,
Bernd

« Last Edit: October 17, 2008, 07:00:43 PM by Bernd »
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Offline Bernd

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Re: Moving a Bridgeport into the Basement
« Reply #9 on: October 18, 2008, 05:05:32 PM »
This will be the last installment of getting my Bridgeport home and moving it "in pieces" into the basement.



Here comes B1P1 down the stairs. Looks like a robot, almost.


All lined up and ready to tip the base forward.


'Thar she goes'. Sure hope I've got everything hooked up.


About half way down and she started to turn on me. If the skid went over the side I'd never get back on track. I did get her straightened out. I also had to take the 4" riser off or it won't have fit under that overhead beam.


She turned on me again near the bottom. It looks like the panel box is scraping the side wall but it's not.


Got here all straightened out and up on the first roller.


This is how you get something heavy over the door sill. Make sure it's higher that the sill and simply put the rollers on the other side.


And here we are finally through the door.


Now that I have all of the machine in the basement. I don't want to use the pipe rollers to move the heavy parts around, table, cross slide, knee, etc. I made a "skate" using some spare casters my brother gave me. It's just a couple of 2 X 8's with two cross members screwed on.


Add 4 casters and your done. Make sure the casters can carry the weight though.


And here's the finished product to carry the table.


I made one for the knee also. Here's what you'd wind up with if you constantly wanted to move this heavy item. Not much fun.


Here's the five separate parts of the mill. To the bottom left is the knee with the "skate" under it to make moving it around much easier.



One last look at all the parts. Only thing missing is the cross slide.

Well that's it for now. I hope you guys' liked seeing how I got a Bridgeport home, disassembled it and moved it down into the basement. For those of you who don't have a tractor, an engine hoist or "A" frame with chain fall would have been able to do it also. I would have used a winch to lower the parts down the ramp. Some times it doesn't take brute force to move things. Remember this is not a tutorial on how to move a Bridgeport into the basement. It just shows how I did it. If you can glean any ideas for your own move great. But remember this forum and I are not responsible if you try something like this and get hurt, hurt someone else or damage property. If your afraid to try something like this then get professional help.

Next will be the re-assembly of the mill and a fix I need to make.  It'll be a while until this happens.

Regards,
Bernd

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Re: Moving a Bridgeport into the Basement
« Reply #10 on: October 19, 2008, 06:57:43 AM »
Well Bernd I'll just say you appear to be having a lot of fun with you labour of love!!!  :thumbup:

That certainly is a beast of a machine!!!

I look forward to your pic's of the cleaning and re-build.... That will be interesting without the dumper to lift the heavy bits eh?!


What's the fix??? ...... You trying to keep me riveted?  :D

Is the delay due to the completion of a ball turning devise or just other stuff in general?   ;)


Thanks for the step by step...... it makes me quite glad we do not generally have basements here, even thought I'd love all that space!!!   ;D



Ralph.



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Offline Bernd

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Re: Moving a Bridgeport into the Basement
« Reply #11 on: October 19, 2008, 10:00:33 AM »
I've found out that a Bridgeport weighs between 1800 to 2200 pounds. I believe the heaviest part is the column. So as far as being a beast, I think it's one of the smaller beasts. Had I bought a larger mill I probably would have left it in the garage. I originally had thought of building a wood/metal workshop in back of our house but gave up on that idea. Believe me. I would not want to do this on a daily bases. Then it won't be any fun, it would be "work".

There's lots of cleaning to be done and only one rebuilt. The crank handle for up/down movement of the knee apparently sustained damage some time before I got the mill. The handle had been welded and I broke it just by cranking. The shaft that it fit's on is bent. I think that the handle got caught during one of the machines move. I need to fix that. Other than that it'll just be a clean up, unless I find more damage as I clean the parts. I'll post picks when I get "round-to-it".

Oh ya, the ball turner almost forgot. I better finish that. I might need to make a ball or two. :thumbup:

You'd love a basement such as mine. If I remember right you have a very small shop in it's own un-heated building. Kind of like Bogs. Right? See the nice thing about a basement is that it's warm in winter and cool in the heat of summer. ;D

I have some other projects that need finishing before I get to putting the mill back together again, but will start a new thread when I do.

Bernd
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Re: Moving a Bridgeport into the Basement
« Reply #12 on: October 19, 2008, 12:01:57 PM »
Good to know you are keeping busy  ;D

Bog's workshop is twice the size of mine and has a storage unit on the back of it!!! I just pack everything in and hope I can use it  :thumbup:

If your basement were like a frezzer I'd still use it at that size.... I can and do machine in a few jumpers and a coat!!!   :-\



Projects.... That sounds like another thread or two???




Good luck with your challenge,


Rlalph.
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Offline Brass_Machine

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Re: Moving a Bridgeport into the Basement
« Reply #13 on: October 23, 2008, 10:16:02 AM »
Wow. I gotta say that is impressive to me. That first picture of the mill at the top of the stairs... imposing.

How many hours do you have in the move?

Eric
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Offline Bernd

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Re: Moving a Bridgeport into the Basement
« Reply #14 on: October 23, 2008, 12:27:04 PM »
Wow. I gotta say that is impressive to me. That first picture of the mill at the top of the stairs... imposing.

How many hours do you have in the move?

Eric

Ya, that is a bit imposing, but when you know it's chained down and not going anywere, you hope, it's not that imposing.  ;D

Hard to say. It took a while to figure out how I was going to do something and getting set up. I'm going to guess-timate here and say 16 hours from the time I got her loaded on the truck to the time the last part was in the basement. Might have been a tad longer, but that's what I figure.

After I had every thing in the basement I came up with more and faster ways of doing it. "IF" I ever get a newer model I won't take quite so long.  :bugeye:  ;D

Bernd
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Offline Bernd

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Re: Moving a Bridgeport into the Basement
« Reply #15 on: November 16, 2008, 01:58:07 PM »
It's been a while since I've posted anything on the Bridgeport. Putting the pieces back together again is a slow process, but it's getting done when I can find some time for that project. I'm not going to bore you with the details. Hopefully the following pics are of interest as I assemble the Bridgeport.


The last pic showed all the parts were in one area after I'd moved everything down to the basement. Here I'm getting the base into position using the pipe rollers.


Notice how they are at an angle. This facilitates in turning the base to the proper orientation.


Now for a bit of clean up. There were lots of stuck on chips.


This is the damaged area I was talking about earlier in the thread that will need fixing. Apparently sometime in this machines life when it got moved something or someone got the adjustment handle of the knee hung up on something. They managed to break the handle, which is aluminum, the gear shaft clutch, and bend the end of the shaft.


Here's a better pic of the bent shaft.


I did finally get it all apart. That will be another thread all by itself when I get to the fix.


Now comes the fun part of getting the ram back up on the base. The big question is, will the chain fall lift it high enough to get it on top of the base. And the answer is……….


Well I did have to get it up as far as I could first. Right?


Oh, did I mention I had to make a lifting hook since I had no eye hook. I made one from 2" X 4" X .25" Angle iron. Drill a hole for the bolt and an elongated hole for the hook. Then raised her a few inches to test my setup. Ok looks good. Go for the top.


Dam, won't fit. Looks like I'll have to remove the 4 X 4's it's sitting on.


Ah, much better. Now the fun part of trying to get the long bolts that hold the ram on to the base without dropping the spider inside.


Ok, swing the head back up and see what she looks like. Good, got enough head room from the joists to the top of the motor. I just need to swing the head a few degrees to get it under the "I" beam.

I've also have the knee mounted to the base. I didn't take any pics of that since it was a straight forward process of using the chain fall and installing it.

Before any other parts get put on, meaning cross slide and table and the rest to finish the machine I need to fix the shaft that moves the knee up and down. This could be a while yet. Other projects are taking priority at the moment.

Regards,
Bernd
« Last Edit: November 16, 2008, 02:00:35 PM by Bernd »
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bogstandard

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Re: Moving a Bridgeport into the Basement
« Reply #16 on: November 16, 2008, 03:33:32 PM »
Now you see why I wanted my mill to go into the shop in one piece. There would have been no way that could have been accomplished in the small place I have.

But very ingenius by the way.

John

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Re: Moving a Bridgeport into the Basement
« Reply #17 on: November 16, 2008, 03:45:32 PM »
Are you doing all this on your own Bernd?

Love the space you have btw

Darren
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Offline CrewCab

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Re: Moving a Bridgeport into the Basement
« Reply #18 on: November 16, 2008, 03:47:42 PM »
Been wondering how you were getting on with the Bridgeport Bernd, like Bogsie I just don't have the room  :( which is a shame as they keep popping up at reasonable prices >> Click here << ........... for reference, once the eblag link has expired it's (what appears to be) a fairly decent Bridgeport for £800 ($1200) ........... whatever .......... not to be here due to space limitations ......... so .......... on with the show Bernd

How you g'onna tackle the bent shaft  8)

CC

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Re: Moving a Bridgeport into the Basement
« Reply #19 on: November 16, 2008, 03:59:49 PM »
At those prices every Boy Scout should have one to accompany his penknife...  :dremel:

But the room...the room...where would we put it ma ?
 
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Offline Bernd

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Re: Moving a Bridgeport into the Basement
« Reply #20 on: November 16, 2008, 05:43:34 PM »
Yes John I understand fully. I've noticed that the Brits have very small shops and arre usally in a seprate building behind or next to the house. But I must say that some of the best modeling comes out of those small shops. I don't think it's that ingenius, but thanks for the compliment. I've learned by observation and then trying. So far it's worked pretty good.

Yes Darren I've done it all myself. It's nothing more than physics and geometry, neither of which I ever studied by the way. Ya, that' 2300 square feet of basement on 6 acers of land. I don't think you'd want to pay the taxes assesed. :bugeye:  By the way, that Bridgy cost me $3500 American. It does have a digital readout and power feed table.

CrewCab, that shaft isn't bent all the way. It was bent just at the front. Had to cut off a little more than 2 inches to get to the screws that held on the dial. That's the next project is to just fix the end of the shaft. I've got an idea already of how I want to fix it and will put up a seperate thread explaining how I did it.

Bernd


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Offline Bernd

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Re: Moving a Bridgeport into the Basement
« Reply #21 on: November 22, 2008, 09:32:50 PM »
Ok, this will be the last installment of my Bridgeport adventure. The machine is ready to be used. A few minor items need to be finished but that's about it. I still need to move it into it's permanent position.


Here the cross slide has be installed, the gib put in place and now I'm installing the lead screw. Not much to it.


Next is the table. Everything looks tipped to the left, that's the camera angle. Held the camera a bit crooked. Although the table is up in the air at one end.


Ok, the table is on and the gib is in place. It's ready for the lead screw and power feed.


And there we have it. The table is complete and the power feed works.


The DRO is installed, hooked up and working. Now I'm ready for a bit of serious tool building. The models are going to have to wait a while.

Other than a few odds and ends that need cleaning up I'm ready to use the machine. It was a lot of fun seeing if I could move a machine of this size from the place I purchased it to the basement. I did it without any injury to myself. No animals were hurt either. :D

Bernd
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bogstandard

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Re: Moving a Bridgeport into the Basement
« Reply #22 on: November 23, 2008, 12:44:50 AM »
You can stop sweating now Bernd, the hard bit has been done, and if I must say so, very professionally as well.

Did you ever get the bent knee shaft sorted?

It must be wonderful to have the room you have, there is real space envy showing coming on here. By the time I get everything into my shop, if I put something in my pocket, I will have difficulty moving about (that might also be because of my size).

John

Offline Brass_Machine

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Re: Moving a Bridgeport into the Basement
« Reply #23 on: November 23, 2008, 01:23:38 AM »
Nice job Bernd.  :bow:

Outside of the drillpress and mill have you ever done a move like that before? Lots of planning and ingenuity went into that. Very well done.

Eric

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Offline Darren

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Re: Moving a Bridgeport into the Basement
« Reply #24 on: November 23, 2008, 05:13:45 AM »
Normally I'd have thought that was too big a job for one man.

Bernd, you have shown us otherwise along with some very handy ways to tackle each step.

Well done  :clap:
You will find it a distinct help… if you know and look as if you know what you are doing. (IRS training manual)