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Author: Subject: Homemade "airbag" How?
andyd

posted on 27/4/11 at 02:15 PM Reply With Quote
Homemade "airbag" How?

Here's a bit of a challenge for the collective LBs minds...

I've almost decided to keep my lathe having kind of sorted my overdraft

If I do keep it I need to move it about the length of a standard garage plus turn it around 180 degs.

It weighs about 600kgs (so I read ) and I was thinking about using an air compressor and some kind of "hoverboard" device to move it.

What I'm thinking about is like an upside-down air hockey table

Mythbusters seem to have lots of success with air driven devices...

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Andy

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tegwin

posted on 27/4/11 at 02:24 PM Reply With Quote
Might be easier to jack it up and put a suitable frame under it with casters and then move it that way?





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Kwik

posted on 27/4/11 at 02:27 PM Reply With Quote
quote:
Originally posted by tegwin
Might be easier to jack it up and put a suitable frame under it with casters and then move it that way?


second that, and a hovercraft wont be as stable and could topple over, and you will need to jack it up anyway to put it on the hoverboard... just get some strong casters

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andyd

posted on 27/4/11 at 02:43 PM Reply With Quote
If I went with casters, would I be right in saying that one at each corner would only have to support a 1/4 of the whole weight? So about 150kgs each?

If so then that'd be cheaper

Things like this just look a bit weedy despite being rated at 200kg max load...



They are only £3.42 each though.





Andy

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MikeCapon

posted on 27/4/11 at 02:45 PM Reply With Quote
Move it the way it's done usually. Lift with pry bar(s) and roll on lengths of bar or thickwalled tube pulling them out at the back and moving them to the front.
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andyd

posted on 27/4/11 at 02:49 PM Reply With Quote
quote:
Originally posted by MikeCapon
Move it the way it's done usually. Lift with pry bar(s) and roll on lengths of bar or thickwalled tube pulling them out at the back and moving them to the front.

Mike, that assumes I have any of those... which I don't

But yes, that's an option given I get the required parts.





Andy

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balidey

posted on 27/4/11 at 02:53 PM Reply With Quote
You don't have a pry bar and some scaffold tube, but you do have access to a hover board?

ETA, often have to move my dad's lathe and mill, one decent crow bar (get for £20 ish from Toolstation) and some thick tube, we use truck door locking rods.

[Edited on 27/4/11 by balidey]





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blakep82

posted on 27/4/11 at 02:54 PM Reply With Quote
lift, stick steel pipes under, roll, done





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andyd

posted on 27/4/11 at 02:58 PM Reply With Quote
Ok, ok.

I'll stop daydreaming about hover boards and go get some bar/pipe





Andy

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mistergrumpy

posted on 27/4/11 at 03:02 PM Reply With Quote
We used to have these very things that you describe in the RAF for loading bombs. They were called Z loaders and helped you move bombs around the aircraft shelter. In theory they were alright but in practise they were rubbish. Any incline in the ground and they'd slide away and any imperfection and the air wanted to blow out of the skirt. We sold them to the Israeli air force if I remember correctly.
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andyd

posted on 27/4/11 at 03:24 PM Reply With Quote
quote:
Originally posted by mistergrumpy
We used to have these very things that you describe in the RAF for loading bombs. They were called Z loaders and helped you move bombs around the aircraft shelter. In theory they were alright but in practise they were rubbish. Any incline in the ground and they'd slide away and any imperfection and the air wanted to blow out of the skirt. We sold them to the Israeli air force if I remember correctly.

LOL

I think I had the thought from that program that was on Discovery recently about Ark Royal. I seem to recall seeing something similar but I may have dreamt that too





Andy

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David Jenkins

posted on 27/4/11 at 03:30 PM Reply With Quote
One word of warning - if your lathe is like mine (Mk1 Colchester Student) it will be VERY top-heavy. I had mine teetering and wobbling on its rollers a couple of times!

I bought a proper crowbar a while before moving my lathe - it's a very useful tool (a 5ft length of steel bar with a point at one end and a chisel shape at the other, very heavy). They're also quite cheap if you go to a proper builders' tool supplier. You'll need 3 or 4 lengths of scaffolding pole and something to act as a fulcrum for when you're trying to lift one side of the lathe.

I was also able to turn my lathe 90 degrees using the crowbar and fulcrum to lift an end and swivel the lathe base an inch or so. Do that a few times in succession and the lathe soon gets moved.






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andyd

posted on 27/4/11 at 03:33 PM Reply With Quote
quote:
Originally posted by David Jenkins
One word of warning - if your lathe is like mine (Mk1 Colchester Student) it will be VERY top-heavy. I had mine teetering and wobbling on its rollers a couple of times!

I bought a proper crowbar a while before moving my lathe - it's a very useful tool (a 5ft length of steel bar with a point at one end and a chisel shape at the other, very heavy). They're also quite cheap if you go to a proper builders' tool supplier. You'll need 3 or 4 lengths of scaffolding pole and something to act as a fulcrum for when you're trying to lift one side of the lathe.

I was also able to turn my lathe 90 degrees using the crowbar and fulcrum to lift an end and swivel the lathe base an inch or so. Do that a few times in succession and the lathe soon gets moved.

Hi David

I have a Chipmaster 5x20 and yes, I'd not be surprised if it is fairly top heavy although it does have a fairly triangle profile looking end on.





Andy

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liam.mccaffrey

posted on 27/4/11 at 03:42 PM Reply With Quote
chipmaster hey, lovely. Does it still have the original vary speed or have you upgraded?

I always have used a few short scaffold tubes and pry bars with much success.





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andyd

posted on 27/4/11 at 03:45 PM Reply With Quote
quote:
Originally posted by liam.mccaffrey
chipmaster hey, lovely. Does it still have the original vary speed or have you upgraded?

I always have used a few short scaffold tubes and pry bars with much success.

Still with the variable. She's in need of a bit of a refurb as some previous owner painted her with their eyes closed! Didn't bother to drill out the rivets holding the badge on before painting but didn't even mask the area at all it seems. I'll be getting the paint stripper out soon enough





Andy

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jacko

posted on 27/4/11 at 03:50 PM Reply With Quote
Warning if you drop it it WILL be F*c*ed a mate of mine dropped one and it broke in too
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mr_pr

posted on 27/4/11 at 03:57 PM Reply With Quote
"Hoveboards" do work well but you would need to get the Lathe onto them in the first place.

They can be very very effective as you only need a tiny amount of lift before the lathe becomes mobile. Also, as they require so little clearance they do actually provide a stable platform for movement.

As said above, in a flat garage/workshop they work well. Outside with any sort of incline they are not as good. They are so effective that in the USA when mass building towns one method is to build houses indoors on hover pads inside a huge hangar. Then they can push the house (push by hand, I am not kidding) from section to section within the hangar and finally onto the truck before it is driven into place.

The other advantage is, once you have got the lathe onto a hover pad it then becomes easy to reposition as and when you require. If this won't be needed in the future then stick to the ideas above i reckon.







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David Jenkins

posted on 27/4/11 at 04:09 PM Reply With Quote
The next time I want to move my lathe any distance I will probably do it the way it suggests in the manual - there's a big threaded hole in the middle of the lathe bed, where an eye-bolt is screwed in. If the tailstock is moved as far as it will go to the right, and the carriage moved against it, then the whole 625 kg will balance from the eye-bolt!

It's too heavy for my 1/2 tonne engine hoist, but I'm sure I could make some kind of frame out of steel tube and some industrial casters - 2 wheels on the front, 2 at the back, and my chain hoist in the middle.

Mind you, when it was originally delivered by a professional machine mover he used webbing straps through the headstock and under the bed and lifted the whole lot with a small Hiab crane on his lorry. Lowered the whole lathe down onto some large steel "roller skates" and three of us pushed it into the garage. Hot work on a very hot day!






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907

posted on 27/4/11 at 04:14 PM Reply With Quote
I used 25mm dia solid bar and a cheap nail bar from the pound shop to move my Harrison.

OK. It was from the £3.99 shop. ( I lied )


Easy peasy.
The hardest bit was getting the carpet back under it.

Cheers
Paul G

edit to add pic.
I placed carpet tiles between the floor and the lathe base to take up any irregularities in the concrete.
It also cuts down vibration and quietens the lathe.

Carpet under lathe base
Carpet under lathe base


[Edited on 28/4/11 by 907]

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wilkingj

posted on 27/4/11 at 04:21 PM Reply With Quote
Just make small movements and take your time.
You dont want to topple it onto you or someone else.
You dont want to break it either.
Even if it takes a whole day to move, it will be better to do it slowly and surely rather than screw up the lathe, or break someones leg or worse.

You know it makes sense.






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