Splitting a Boxford VSL bed from its cabinet – how?

[JezParticipant @jez]

A friend of mine has a Boxford VSL which he needs to move – his movers have insisted that all items should be a two person lift, so he wants to split the lathe itself from its cabinet.  (Either remaning bit is unlikely to be a two person lift IMO, but that’s a different issue…)

I have read that Boxford used a sealant / filler between the bed and cabinet and aligned the lathe prior to this compound setting and that because of this it’s not recommended to split the lathe so, but he doesn’t think he has a choice.

A search on the forum shows that at least one person has done this, but they didn’t say how they did it.

All we can think of is maybe wedges between the cabinet and bed, or perhaps a toe / scissor jack, taking precautons to avoid bending the cabinet…

If anyone has any other ideas, or has actually done it – he’d be very grateful for guidance!

Thanks!

Jez.

[Clive Brown 1Participant @clivebrown1]

Not a VSL, I once split an AUD from its cabinet stand for transport home with a car and camping trailer. There was no difficulty separating the parts but I don’t know if the joint had been broken on an earlier occasion. I can’t remember how the drive belt was dealt with. It might have been a link type. Once home, lifting the cabinet from the trailer was a very awkward job for 2 people due to its bulk. We eventually built a lightweight scaffold frame to take a rope and pulley. Once on a flat surface movement with rollers was easy.

[JezParticipant @jez]

Thanks Clive.  He’s already got the link belt split and all the electrics disconnected – it’s just the mechanical fixing left.

Yes – I think the two parts will still be very awkward / heavy to handle – I hope his movers are understanding types!!  😉

[Ex contributorParticipant @mgnbuk]

Boxford did set the lathe bed up on a bed of polyester filler on the base & levelled the bed before the filler set. I have a photo somewhere of the Fitting shop foreman doing one from the time I spent there during my apprenticeship.

I split a Cud from the base & the filler stayed stuck to the base itself. I don’t know if this was as a result of oil getting between the pedestal feet & the filler in use or if a release agent was used on assembly, but it separated very cleanly with no effort. The filler remained firmly attached to the base & I was careful not to damage it, both when cleaning parts and on re-assembly. I had stripped everything off the bed before removing it from the base, so was only lifting the bed & pedestals & that was quite managable at the time (I was probabaly mid-30s then).

I had no issues with levelling the machine when it was back together & the pedestals dropped cleanly and positively  into the recesses in the filler and bolted up firmly.

Very top heavy machines to move in one piece – when they start to topple they go fast and will damage you and / or the machine if they fall. You will not stop one if it starts to go  – as I found to my cost. Fortunately my bench stopped it going fully over and trapping me, and damage was limited to a slight bend (fortunately easily straightened) in the cross slide screw. But it was a close call, I am a lot more careful now & won’t try to move anything on my own again. Had I been injured, it would have been a while before my wife returned home to offer any form of assistance and this was before mobile phones were a thing.

[JezParticipant @jez]

Interesting – thanks!  How did you split the bed from the base?

That sounds like a very frightening experience…  I was there when my mate bought the lathe and the chap who loaded it onto the trailer did almost exactly the same thing with it, but fortunately without any damage to the lathe or (surprisingly) himself…

[Ex contributorParticipant @mgnbuk]

How did you split the bed from the base?

From hazy memory (it was around 30 years ago that I did this), it was just a case of removing the bolts that hold the pedestals to the top of the cabinet & lifting the bed with pedestals attached off it.

Can’t have been particularly traumatic, or I would have probably remembered – like the toppling incident. From memory I was moving the machine out of position because I had sold it, using rollers under the cabinet. My garage floor isn’t great & I think a roller stuck. IIRC the cabinet has two bar hole points under the chip tray to put lifting bars through – far better to put bars through the cabinet & lift it with slings and a hoist from a stability POV. But I didn’t have an engine hoist at the time & the rollers method had worked OK to put it in place.

[JezParticipant @jez]

Ah, ok – thanks!  I’m just about to pop over to lend moral support while he gently tries to jack the bed away from the cabinet…  Wish us luck!!  😉

[JezParticipant @jez]

Well, we got it done.  A scissor jack under the tailstock end and light pressure applied, then soften up the epoxy with a squirt of acetone and the bed just popped off.

The lathe is now split into carriage, tailstock, headstock, Norton gearbox, leadscrew, bed, motor and cabinet.

All are fairly easy lifts except the cabinet which is still extremely heavy…

[HollowpointParticipant @hollowpoint]

I’ve split a couple of Boxfords from their cabinets. They almost always break free with minimal effort. I have come to the conclusion that the filler is intended to prevent coolant leaking under the bed and being trapped in the casting rather than for levelling purposes.

[JezParticipant @jez]

The filler seemed to have been applied in a way that would suggest this to be the case…  Just a small-ish bead around the edges of the feet – if it were to level the bed I’d have thought a nice uniform pad of filler would have been under the whole foot…

I think he was proceeding “with an abundance of caution”.  Better that way than the alternative!

 

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