The machine arrived at the Manchester Airport UPS Freight terminal in the wee hours of the morning, and I arranged to have it held so we could pick it up.  Dave graciously offered his expert “moving-heavy-stuff” services as well as his truck.  We drove up and picked up the machine without a hitch – they loaded it right onto the truck with a forklift.  Got it back to my place and we were able to back Dave’s truck right down to the basement door, take the top of the crate off, and ease it down the ramps on a hand truck.

Once inside, we did a bit of difficult lifting to heft the 350+ pounds of machine up onto its temporary resting spot on my main workbench, until I can build a proper table for it.  Then began the gooey process of cleaning off the rust preventative shipping grease using lots of rags, a gallon jug of WD-40, and some old credit cards for scraping.  Celebratory beer also consumed while listening to the whir of the machine running for the spindle break-in process.

We cleaned the machine up a bit and I checked the runout on the junky cheap chuck they included with the machine.  Unfortunately I couldn’t make any chips tonight because i’m still waiting for most of my tools and fixtures to be delivered.   Maybe by this weekend!  In the mean time, I have plenty of work to do designing and building benches and such to get the metalworking area set up for Tangent Audio Labs World Headquarters.  Also plenty of research work to continue for the CNC conversion.

Many thanks to Dave for the help!