Well first notes are that you don't ever put a rope round the chuck and lift it by that and of course it is going to be top heavy.
The balance point will be just to the right of the chuck on most lathes so put a sling round the bed there and be ready to move the saddle and tailstock to make it balance. Remember to lock both, firmly, and check again before it is more than 2 inches off the ground.
Now you need to protect the leadscrew from the force of the sling. On larger lathes it is often suggested to thread the sling inside the leadscrew but my preference on a tiny lathe is to block it out with bits of wood 3×2.
Next you need to handle the C of G aspect and stop the sling sliding down the bed. Put a rope through the spindle and tie it around the sling, then pull up snug to the spindle. This does not mean you are lifting the lathe by the spindle, you are just holding the top form tipping over with light force.
Still not ready to lift. One more rope is needed from the hook to the far end of the bed and arrange for that end to be just a little down which you can adjust by hand as you lift.

(I don't own a Myford and have never lifted one. My nearest equivalent experience is with my Drummond which is probably a little lighter)

If you have space for a 2 ton engine hoist, can you not arrange something onto which you can lift your lathe. Then simply move it sideways to the stand?

While engine hoists are very handy, sometimes they are not the best in confined spaces. The legs out in front sometimes get in the way.

I have successfully moved much larger items using pipe rollers on the floor. With a lathe, you may need to put it on a suitable sized piece of wood to do this. Once it is near where you want it, you can lift it using a pigsty of wood, so that you only have to lift the ends one at a time and slip a new piece of wood in. Once it is at the same height as the cabinet or stand, you can move each end across. Of course you need a lot of builders ends of wood to build a suitable pigsty. What I mean by a pigsty is a wooden structure built up with two pieces of wood in each direction alternating, so that a plan from above looks like a noughts and crosses game. For a lathe you probably want one at each end.

I actually prefer to avoid suspending loads where possible, if they are always over a sold support they can't fall far.

John

If you have an engine lift, bolt a couple of plates to the bed, with 4 big nuts welded on for the rope.

Just done a S7B on a stand inside a really tiny dark shed with no room either end and a rotten wooden floor.

Had a friend to help but it was an absolute b*****d to do. Could not remove the motor pulley to get motor off so had to cut the belt and remove the entire rear casting, nuts solid and very hard to get at the last rounded off one under the motor. Even with tthat lot off it was still heavy going to get it into a rubber wheelbarrow!

100 feet on grass to the van!

Said wheelbarrow has now gone to the place where squashed wheelbarrows reside!

I think the gearbox and power xfeed saddle add a lot of weight in themselves.

I can do a bare ML7 on my own, not easy but doable!

Cheers, Martin

I've had some adventures lifting Myfords, including getting a Super 7 with gearbox stuck in the back of a very small Ford hatchback. As has been mentioned, the best trick is to remove the motor and tailstock. In my case, having a neighbour who was a super-fit martial arts champion helped too!

Although it is just about possible for one man to lift a super7 you only get one back, having back pain for the rest of your life isn't worth it, and dropping the lathe would more than a little upsetting. If you hoist it onto the cabinet and then move it into place beware it is very back end heavy with the motor fitted.

I found that the height of the standard cabinet was far too low and finished up with some 6" square timber underneath. If you did this and made the packers reach right to the back (ie accommodating the motor overhang) it would be a lot more stable when being moved

Edited By duncan webster on 31/03/2018 11:33:28

CJ2 was lucky to get away with that, it's a very unstable lift, nothing stopping it toppling towards or away from engine lift. If the lifting point is below the centre of gravity you need a 3 or 4 point lift. 2 straps splayed out so that you get a 4 point lift would have been much safer. Or move the single strap towards the headstock a bit and tie a bit of rope from the hook and round the tailstock end of the bed. Alternative lift each end separately and use the "piglet" as described above to get it onto the skateboards, then put bolts through the front mounting lugs to stop it toppling backwards. I reckon you could do that with a crowbar, no hoist required (apart from getting the lathe onto the stand)

I know it all sounds pedantic, but it doesn't take much more effort to do it safely, and the consequences of getting it wrong are high.

My memories of lifting a ML7: (last time was 14 years ago)

The complete machine can be lifted pretty easily by two men, one at each end, BUT bear in mind that the motor REALLY unbalances it. It's one big ambition is to roll over so that the motor is underneath! So beware!

It is unwieldy, rather than too heavy.

If you have a fixed steady, you could clamp this, firmly, to the bed, near to the chuck, (Adjust position to balance, aided by positioning the Saddle and Tailstock) and sling it onto the crane from there

(MAKE SURE THAT NOTHING IS GOING TO SLIP, or Open UP!) And keep it steady to prevent it rolling over , motor down.

The suggestions for moving it (if on a stand) are good. As are the ones of bolting plates to the mounting feet, and using as sliders. If you sling from such plates, you are below the C of G, so thing will try hard to topple over!

There is a lot to be said for bolting to a pallet, or heavy timber, positioning it close to the final location, and then jacking and packing until it is high enough to slide into place, before removing the timber, and the steel plates.

Then, eventually, you will have the "joy" of taking any twist out of the bed. The ML7 bed is sufficiently flexible, that even changing the torque on a holding down nut will affect the twist. Resign yourself to many iterations before removing all twist! The raising blocks effectively allow you to do what I did with it's heavier successor. This sits on studs with a nut below and above each mounting foot. Careful adjustment will reduce the twist fairly quickly.

Then you can start to enjoy yourself!

Howard

Edit for fat fingers and typos

Edited By Howard Lewis on 31/03/2018 18:27:48

I would be very please to receive an article for MEW explaining how to safely lift a lathe with an engine crane for similar.

Advice on spreaders, lifting points, protecting leadscrews and ways to avoid toppling all to be covered.

Neil

P.S. My lathe weighs the same as a S7, my solution was to get my steplad to do the heavy end. He does have a lot of experience of lift and shift

I made hackable feet to go underneath the cabinet feet, with the bolts screwed down it’s all solid, Unscrewing the bolts allows a platform with 2 nylon wheels down to the ground allowing the lathe on the cabinet to be moved – not easy but it does allow it all to be moved.

Alan