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Moving the machine to it's home.
I had my machine delivered to a friend's place of work and he brought it to my house in his full size 4x4 pickup along with an engine hoist he borrowed from work. Getting it out of the truck was a challenge as the truck sat high enough that the hoist was maxed out. We managed to push, pry, and pull the box out the back of the truck with the hoist holding some of the weight and once clear of the tailgate the hoist lowered the crate crosswise onto the legs of the hoist and we rolled the crate into the garage. If I had to do it again, I would be smart enough this time to tear open the crate in the truck bed and lift the machine from the sling handles and the hoist would then have more than enough lift capacity.

While the machine was in the garage I uncrated it and proceeded to remove all of the parts I could to make the move to the basement easier (possible?). I took off the mill head, lathe motor, tailstock, and cross slide. I carried these parts down to the basement by hand (I got the mill head there by my self, but would recommend that it is probably a 2 person part). The house is a tri-level and the basement has no outside entrance, so the trip to the basement involves going up 2 steps to get into the house, then down a small flight of stairs to the lower level and then a full flight of stairs to the basement. I had another friend help me move the main unit stripped of its part. He had a special hand truck that has an electric jackscrew that sort of walks it down (or up) stairs. He uses it to haul furnaces into and out of basements. With this tool he had no problem getting the unit into the basement. I think with the unit stripped down a standard appliance hand truck could handle moving the unit down the stairs.

Now with all the parts in the basement the only thing that remained was getting the unit onto the bench. It ended up that 2 of us were able to lift it while stripped down by putting a pair of 2 x 2's under the machine crosswise and using these as lift handles. We placed it on the bench and I proceeded to reassemble the machine and checked and tightened all the other screws and bolts as I went. I will note that I didn't find a single bolt that I fell was tightened sufficiently from the factory.

So, now the machine is in place in it's new home and a stand I made from wood I had laying around. I used the bottom of the crate as a top for the bench and covered it with some vinyl flooring I had before we put the machine on it. The bench is on casters so I can easily move it around the cellar.