And Now . . . the second machine gets to the shop . . . interesting . . .
Now, you get to see all the situations that were encountered and how they were solved along the
way to allow this machine to get into the shop . . . The second machine - LeBlonde lathe.
Now when he told me that he had a lathe - I was thinking ok . . . pick it up, get it to the
shop, unload it . . . "easy peasy" . . . ( right ) . . . till I got there and saw the lathe . . . Oh Boy ! ! !
First of all - this thing is massive - it's about 15' long ( no, it has not been measured yet )
First of all we got it loaded on the trailer . . .
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Then the realization . . . that the only way to get in into the shop was to back the trailer in and pull it off . . .
Nice and simple . . . lets get to it . . . but metal sliding on wood . . . does not work very well . . . so it's time to
make a "sled" to assist in the sliding . . .
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and the front edge of the "sled" was rounded off to help it not dig into the wood but slide on top . . . ( Uh, hope . . . )
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Next problem . . . how does one get the "sled" under the headstock . . . . break out the floor jack . . .
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Lift it up . . . ( keep your fingers not going underneath ) . . . get the sled under, and set it back down . . .
And . . . just like that . . . we're ready to go . . . ( ok - not quite that easy - but it's done ) . . .
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Then it comes time to back the trailer into the shop . . . and the next problem surfaces . . . this door is 8' wide,
and the trailer lights are 7' 11" wide . . . so about 1/2" of clearance on each side and trying to get this HEAVY
trailer and lathe aligned up and "into" the opening . . . sheesh . . .
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Took a bit to get there . . . but it got done . . . the fenders . . . were NOT going to make it . . .
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Then with the help of the forklift, the lathe was slid back off the trailer . . . this went really ( pretty ) well - until
it came to the piece of plywood that was screwed on the top of the trailer . . . so I slid another piece of plywood
under the sled and over the plywood - and made a "little jump" to assist . . . and it WORKED !
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The "hope" was - then pick it up with the forklift and we're done . . . except that the forklift could not lift it off
the trailer ( not sure if it was the angle, or the machine, or the weight ) so yet "another" solution was needed . . .
So along comes the cherry picker ( from my red-neck wrecker ) . . . and it's in the air . . . and time to pull the
trailer "out" . . . remember that 1/2" clearance . . . it moved and I fought with getting it back over and out . . .
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And with the darkness of the night upon us . . . it got put on the ground ( broke one of the wheels off the Cherry
Picker - could not let it down slowly - Oooops ) . . . and all the way into the shop . . . talk about a tight fit . . .
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My full day of adventure was finally over . . . no injuries ( except the Cherry Picker ) and (2) of the (3) pieces of
equipment are now at the shop . . . will be able to turn a telephone pole with this thing ! ! !
Equipment (3), as of this writing, is not yet in the shop and has not been picked up . . . yet . . .
More Later . . .