I moved mine last year – three of us, some thick wall tubing to roll it on and its not so bad. I removed most of the saddle and not much else. Im pretty sure you cant remove the gearbox as its all part of the same casting, but i might be wrong.

The quick change gearbox on an L5 weighs next to nothing, so i'm assuming you are talking about removing the headstock?……i wouldn't. The manual also advises against removing the lathe from the cabinet as the two were accurately shimmed at the factory.

An L5 is dead easy to move on rollers as the base is in one piece, and as bigger lathes go they're not that heavy.

I got one in the back of a Renault Master by nailing an angle iron to the end of two long planks and attaching a chain block to the angle, lathe was slowly pulled up the planks on 20mm rollers until it reached the tipping point and dropped nicely in the back of the van. Reversed the procedure at the other end.

Personally i wouldn't remove the motor either, as it's low down and helps counter the top heavy lathe's natural tendency to want to fall over.

Edited By Alan Waddington 2 on 20/12/2017 12:01:00

Where do you need to move the lathe from, and to, and are there any particular hazards/issues involved?

The Egyptians allegedly built the pyramids with manual labour, wedges, levers and pulleys etc., there's lots of ingenious methods available to us thousands of years later.

I moved a 480kg Boxford from Liverpool to my garage 240 miles away a few months ago, along with many other machines over the last couple of years I have shifted in and out.

The Boxford went on four heavy duty castors, on and off a Luton van tail lift, and I could push it in the garage on my own.

I have moved all sorts of heavy stuff with castors, levers, rollers, and my hydraulic engine crane.

I am not a fan of stripping any machine more than I have to, particularly something like a headstock, or anything that will involve having to set it up again afterwards (apart from levelling, which is inevitable).

dw,

I had a similar problem this year moving a Harrison L6 and I had the same reservations. It was also in a small shed in a garden (lawn) that was about 50' from the house, up hill from the house. There was a passage way between the houses little wider than the machine itself and a step from the lawn to the hard surface of the passage way with a drain right on the corner. At the front of the house the path went straight out onto the road (no front garden). I looked at lifting the lathe off the cabinet but was advised that if I did the seals between the two are difficult to refit and would likely need replacement. They are there to stop coolant / cutting oil getting down to the motor. I also looked at removing the motor but as pointed out by someone else earlier in this thread it adds useful weight to the base for transport as lathes are a little top heavy! Solution was to get some help from two good friends one with considerable experience of moving machines and an engine crane, the other having a plant trailer.

We extricated the machine complete less the chuck and any loose equipment. First step was to use a decent bar to lift it on blocks to remove the feet inserted in the bottom of the stand – from the bottom! Next it had to be turned 90 degrees to be rolled out of the door. Small rollers like 1/2" or 3/4 water barrel are a lot better than large ones like scaffold tube I found. I purchased a sheet of 3/4" ply split down the middle to give 2 pieces 2' X 8'. One was placed outside the door of the shed (about 4' from the boundary) so parallel with the shed and the machine had to be turned 90 degrees again as soon as it came out of the door! I then secured a pull lift with some long strops to a handy anchorage and this was used in conjunction with the rollers to lower it across the lawn down the slope, transferring the ply as we went. We then used small lumps of timber and one piece of ply to bridge over the drain and the step at the end of the lawn, keeping the weight on the pull lift to stop it rolling down out of control until on the flat of the passageway then just pushed it on the rollers down the passageway (very little effort required) until it was out in the road. We then slung it around the bed (important to wind the carriage towards the tailstock and have the tailstock at the end of the bed for balance) and lifted it with the engine crane, backed the plant trailer under, landing it on the rollers again and rolling it forward to balance the trailer. Then lifted with a bar and blocks of wood to remove the rollers, ratchet strapped it down and away. Took about 3 hours start to finish. No issues with the 10 mile journey and then put it back on the rollers, built a ramp with the ply and secured the pull lift to the trailer drawbar and lowered it down the ramp straight into the storage facility.

The important things are, work slowly and steadily, have a good plan and the necessary equipment before you start (rollers, timber packing of various thickness, couple of decent crow bars, pull lift perhaps, strops or decent rope) and be ready to change or adapt your plan as things progress. The fellow that was with me has moved his Bridgeport from house to house at least twice on his own so even on your own it can be done! I would advise you get a couple of willing and sensible people to give you some help though. However if you can't get sensible steady people you are probably best off doing it on your own, willing bulls in china shops make it more difficult and more dangerous!

Good luck.

Paul.

Hi Paul I don't know where you are but if you are not to far from me I am willing to give you a hand if that would help. I have moved many machines in the past small manual machines up to 60 tonne CNC machining centres.

David

May be one like this? The "it's here" refers to the oil sight glass someone was asking about in an earlier thread.