# Moving the 3100 lbs Deckel KF2



## RobinHood (Jan 18, 2021)

Moving day!

We arrived at the seller’s place at 1300h. First we set-up Dabbler’s gantry crane and moved the mill into position inside the shop. We had just enough headroom below the opened garage door.






With the mill all the way up, the trailer just slipped underneath the raised machine.






Once on the deck, we blocked the base in with wood to stop any movement during the road trip.






We strapped the upper part of the main column to the four corners of the trailer frame. Also ran two straps across the base to securely hold it down. Disassembled the gantry crane, loaded it and the genie lift (it was used to set the heavy cross beam on top of the gantry legs) back on the trailer, and secured all those items with additional straps.

At 1600h we were ready for the road.






A short 30 min later we arrived back at my place. I just parked the whole thing in the garage for the night.






Off loading will be happening tomorrow. Basically the reverse of the loading process: assemble the gantry, set the cross beam to the correct height, lift the machine just clear of the trailer deck, drive the trailer out from underneath it, lower to the ground onto blocks so that I can use a pallet jack to move the KF2 into the shop. Return the crane to @Dabbler and the trailer to @kevin.decelles. Job done.

Oh, here is a little something else that followed me home...


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## David_R8 (Jan 19, 2021)

A Deckel AND a tool grinder??? Man oh man... you suck!


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## DPittman (Jan 19, 2021)

RobinHood said:


> Moving day!
> 
> We arrived at the seller’s place at 1300h. First we set-up Dabbler’s gantry crane and moved the mill into position inside the shop. We had just enough headroom below the opened garage door.
> 
> ...


Your place must be a fun place to be!


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## Chicken lights (Jan 19, 2021)

RobinHood said:


> Moving day!
> 
> We arrived at the seller’s place at 1300h. First we set-up Dabbler’s gantry crane and moved the mill into position inside the shop. We had just enough headroom below the opened garage door.
> 
> ...


That’s a lot of straps!! Nice work


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## kevin.decelles (Jan 19, 2021)

Back in, drive-out......  thats the only way to load/unload machinery IMHO!    Something serene/poetic about 3K lbs of steel suspended quietly from a gantry for a moment, waiting to touch the ground.......  THEN THE CLACK OF THE DIESEL TRUCK STARTING, WOO HOOING AND HIGH-FIVES AND YOU STANDING THERE WITH A SATISFIED FEELING IN YOUR STOMACH!

Well done @RobinHood , and yeah, you suck!  Very jealous,  not @David_R8 jealous, but close.


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## YYCHM (Jan 19, 2021)

David_R8 said:


> Man oh man... you suck!



Ha..... says the guy who snagged himself a free surface grinder


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## David_R8 (Jan 19, 2021)

YYCHobbyMachinist said:


> Ha..... says the guy who snagged himself a free surface grinder


The first step on the road to recovery is seeing the problem in oneself


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## RobinHood (Jan 19, 2021)

As far as the number of straps: I figure nothing has ever fallen off that was strapped down by too may tie downs.

Yeah, I was really happy when the seller pointed out that the single lip cutter grinder was part of the original KF2 purchase in 1969 and he would not mind if the two stayed together. I paid extra for it. It is a Deckel SO built under licence for Deckel - just fantastic quality. Plus it came with a bunch of wheels.


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## francist (Jan 19, 2021)

That’s a fantastic find. Not only is the grinder a true Deckel as opposed to a copy, but both machines sharing the same provenance is truly remarkable.


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## PeterT (Jan 19, 2021)

Bonus points mega-score on the Deckel T&CG!


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## RobinHood (Jan 19, 2021)

Thanks Peter.

Frank: yes, it is nice to know the whole history of a machine. I even have the original quote and options list.


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## RobinHood (Jan 19, 2021)

Just a couple of picture of today’s unloading. We had no headroom issues as our shop is just shy of 18 feet high. Lift it off the deck just enough to clear and drive away... Sorry no pictures of it landed.











Forgot to mention: there is a transport lock on the pantograph/moving spindle mechanism that was engaged to prevent things from “flopping about”. The blocks of wood you see are there to allow all three Z-axis to be bottomed out onto the base of the mill to take all the weight off the lead screws.

The machine has one power knee that moves both the master table and the milling table together in Z. Plus additional Z-axis (on the knee): one for the milling table and one for the master table so they can be positioned independently of each other.

All the axis locks were engaged during the transport as well.


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## 6.5 Fan (Jan 19, 2021)

Congrats on the new machines.


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## Hruul (Jan 20, 2021)

Sounds like a couple of great finds.  Congrats! Also, to have a shop that size, wow!!


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## RobinHood (Jan 20, 2021)

Thanks for all the compliments guys. Appreciate them.

I plan on doing a write-up on our garage/shop construction in the near future. The basics are there so that it is usable and weather tight - working on the interior now...


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## PeterT (Jan 27, 2021)

Might be Dabblers brother from another mother LOL

https://www.homemadetools.net/forum..._content=01-27-21-125544&fi=125544#post125544


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## RobinHood (Jan 28, 2021)

Yes, took them a while, but they got that Monarch loaded into the cube truck...


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## ryanthemillwright0919 (Jan 28, 2021)

That gantry looks very handy


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## RobinHood (Jan 28, 2021)

Agreed. @Dabbler put a lot of though and effort into building it. I appreciated being able to use it on such short notice no less...


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## Dabbler (Jan 28, 2021)

My only regret is making it a 5 ton instead of a 2 ton. It didn't seem so heavy when I made it 7 years ago.


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