[singlepic id=297 float=left w=240]Back in May I ordered a Grizzly G0602 metalworking lathe, expecting it to arrive within a week or so.  Unfortunately they were out of stock, but about 2 months after I placed the order, it arrived at the UPS Freight terminal near Manchester airport in NH.  The arrival was a bit of a surprise, as I was informed by Grizzly it would be arriving in the middle of July.  As such, I was a bit more unprepared than usual for these sorts of endeavors.  Normally I enlist the help of my friend Dave when it comes to moving heavy pieces of machinery around, since he’s got his own collection of heavy machines and has moved them many times.  Due to illness, he wasn’t available this time, but he did let me borrow his truck.  Thankfully, my friend Jeremy was available to lend a hand, so off I went with a borrowed truck, half a dozen ratchet straps, and some newly purchased furniture dollies, for a rendezvous with a 453lb crate.

Once I managed to sort out where the freight depot actually was located (GPS is not always helpful), it was a quick matter for the forklift operator to place the crate into the truck.  Unfortunately he couldn’t place it the long way into the bed since his forklift didn’t have long enough forks, but it did just barely fit the other way in the bed, behind the rear axle.  I was able to slip two of the furniture dollies underneath the crate before he lowered it, , which meant we could hopefully move it without doing any lifting.  Using a couple 10,000lb capacity ratchet straps, I secured the crate against any anti-gravity fields that may have sprung up on the drive home.

[singlepic id=298 w=240 float=right]Once back home, I drove the truck down the hill in my back yard and backed up to the basement door.  We got the crate spun around to the direction we wanted, and used ratchet straps to attach the dollies to the crate.  Another ratchet strap went around the crate, attached to a hand winch  which could let out rope one “click” at a time.  The other end of the hand winch was attached to another ratchet strap secured to the truck.  With the tailgate removed and the ramps set up aiming right into the basement door, we were ready to go.  It was a fairly simple matter to point the crate down the ramps and let out the winch to ease the crate down the ramps.  Once down the ramps, a little bit of pushing and shoving was all it took to get it the rest of the way into the basement.  All in all, much easier than we thought it would be.  Like clockwork, once we got the crate into the basement, the pizza delivery guy showed up and we celebrated our victory over large crates of heavy machinery.

[singlepic id=306 float=left w=240]Later in the evening I dismantled the crate to inspect the contents.  The crate was in great shape (“they don’t normally look this good,” said the forklift operator), so I had high hopes for the machine.  Thankfully everything looked pretty good – the 4-jaw chuck was a bit loose at one end and was contacting the far end of the lead screw – hopefully that won’t cause any trouble.  Everything is of course covered in Cosmoline like gunk, which will be a project to clean off once I get the lathe hoisted up onto the bench where it will live.  That’s the next part of the adventure, so stay tuned!

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