FILENAMES: Move-1-C.jpg Move-2-C.jpg Move-3-C.jpg Move-4-C.jpg Move-5-C.jpg Move-6-C.jpg Move-7-C.jpg DESCRIPTION: These are pictures showing a CNC mill being moved. Posted by Fitch R. Williams . Fitch Roger provided the following description: ================================================================= These are some of the pictures taken during the move of my new (to me - it was actually built in 1984) CNC mill (AKA The Animal) from AZ to my house in CA. I succeeded in proving several times over that what ever you want to do, you must do something else first! That included installing a new true Class IV hitch on the new truck, modifying the trailer to provide an extra tie down point at the anticipated mill location, replacing a bearing on the trailer that had gone bad, and cleaning and repacking all the other trailer wheel bearings. The pictures show: Move-1-C Shows the new trailer hitch being installed on the truck to permit towing the equipment trailer with out using equalizing bars. See attachment bolted to floor jack to permit positioning the hitch in for bolting. Move-2-C Shows the new hitch installed along with the new custom plug mount. Neighbor Robert - who appears in other pictures - painted it for me while I did other things. Move-3-C Shows The Animal being loaded onto my flat bed trailer. I'm the worried guy standing by the trailer. Peter is driving the fork lift with the touch of a master. Move-4-C Shows the mill all loaded and tied down ready to travel. The mill is sitting on 2" x 4" tube of 0.188" wall to spread the load across the several year old bed planks. The tubes are just inside of the mill mounting holes. The mill is bolted down using 12" lengths of 5/8" all thread with plates on under the trailer to spread the load. The 3" nylon straps held it from side to side. A log chain was run over the top and just snugged up to keep it from lifting on bumps to slam back down on the trailer. The bed planks are only held down at the ends. The ball screws were constrained from moving with motor cycle tie down straps. For future reference I note that we should have blocked the head to the table but didn't think of it. Move-5-C Shows the mill in the air being removed from the trailer in front of my garage. The people in the picture are from left to right, my neighbor Robert, Brian Lawson of RCM who was in town from Ontario Canada and came over to help, and yours truly on the fork lift. The mill was lifted under the ram with 2 x 4 blocks to protect it and 4 x 4 blocks between the ram and the back of the forks to prevent it from sliding toward the fork lift. The 3" web strap was tightened around the mill column to keep it from sliding off the forks should the intrepid operator push the wrong lever. The mill was secure as it could be and the fork lift operations went very smoothly. Move-6-C shows from left to right, The Animal, my self smiling fit to split a lip now that it is sitting on the garage floor and the controls work, and Jan Howell of RCM who drove down from Palmdale to help with the mill movement. Having Jan and Brian here was a tremendous help. I was nervous as a long tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs and their input was highly valued. For example, when the plan changed to using rollers, I was struggleing to figure out where to get them when Brian said "I'm looking at 6 of them cleverly concealed as pipe clamps - shall we use them?" We did and the rest of the move went flawlessly. What a team! Move-7-C shows clearly that the controller was operational after arrival, and after nervous Fitch waited for the controller to boot before pushing the reset switch. Boy was I happy to see the table move the first time on each axis! It was an uneventful move. The preperation for the move took 4 days. The actual loading and unloading were accomplished in about half a day each. When I mentioned that fact to Jan he said "There may be a message in those numbers." "If you prepare, things go smoothly." Anyway, thats mah story and I'm sticking to it. Fitch