# getting heavy machinery into basement? (new variation)



## luthierwnc (Jul 15, 2013)

Hi All,

I'm afraid my little 12" planer is about to croak and am thinking about a 15" heavier-duty model. This is still some time off but worth thinking about now.

Typical weight for one of these units is around 600 lbs and they shouldn't really be broken-down like maybe you could get away with on a jointer. Problem is: I have a basement shop with two staircases to get in: one in the house and one on the side of the house. As you can see from the picture, I could hire a fork or Bobcat to lower the machine down into the stairwell. That wall is only about 5' high and is accessible by removing the cyclone fence.

Then-- I've got a step wall in and the basement floor is about 8-10" below the base of that. For perspective, that's a regular 6'8" door that disappears below. I figure I'd have to get a hoist or come-along anchored to something inside the basement and pull the machine into the basement taking slack from the fork. Not something I've ever done before or am especially enthusiastic about.









Other than paying the guys with the fork/Bobcat to get it into the basement, does anyone have a better idea for moving machinery sideways through the air?

Thanks, Skip


----------



## generic (Jan 9, 2014)

My shop is in my basement as well and over the years my Brother-in-Law and I have managed to get a 8" Jointer, 13 and 15" Planers, Drum Sander and my G7209 Table saw (925 lbs) in from an exterior stairway. with a little planning, I don't think getting your planer in will be that bad.

I would cut and place a sheet of OSB on each set of stairs to make a ramps to slide the planer down.

At the bottom of the second set, place a couple of 2×10's (or similar) so they teeter over the step wall with blocking on the outside so they sit level. Make sure boards are long enough so that once you slide the planer down the ramps and onto the 2x's you can tilt the 2x's and slide the planer down into the basement.

A trick I used to get my table saw to the rear of my house was to place a couple sheets of osb on the ground and set the saw on a pallet jack. Then I just wheeled it along, moving sheets of osb along as I moved from one sheet to the next. It wheeled to real easy to the basement steps.

It may sound a little complicated, but it works well.


----------



## hotbyte (Apr 3, 2010)

How about heavy duty engine hoist…rent or buy.


----------



## JBrow (Nov 18, 2015)

luthierwnc,

The easiest, but not necessarily cheapest way to get the planer into the basement is to hire a moving company. When I moved from a walk-out basement shop to my present home, I hired a residential moving company. For $300 about 13 years ago, they moved all my heavy equipment out of the basement into the garage. This was the easiest move of equipment I ever made and nothing was damaged.

Alternatively, armed with some measurements, a photo and specs of the planer, and a few photos of the exterior basement entry area, the folks at your local rental store may help identify some equipment to make the job easier and safer. A couple of pieces of equipment come to mind. The first piece of equipment is a Gantry Crane which could span the stair well and the planer positioned next to the stair well. If the crane can be set up in the space you have, lowering the planer would be fairly easy.

If the planer is lowered onto a temporary platform that is flush with the basement door threshold and a long gently sloping ramp is set up inside the basement, a pair of piano dollies, probably also available at the rental store, could be strapped to the planer. A piano dolly is a short 2 wheeled dolly with the capability of raising its lifting shoes. The planer is set on the lifting shoe of each dolly and the dollies are strapped together and to the planer, creating a 4 wheel dolly. The lifting shoes are raised and the planer can then be carefully rolled down the ramp.

generic's "slide down a ramp" idea will also work, but his recommendation for careful planning must not, in my opinion, be overlooked. A 600 pound planer that gets away from you on the basement stair ramp could make for a bad day. I would think this method would require at least 4 strong guys manning a pair of long tow straps to control the rate of decent and a fifth person to oversee the descent. The trick is to orient the planer so that when it arrives at the bottom of the basement steps, it can be stood upright on its legs.

I have used hotbyte's method to move a 600 pound band saw and a 400 pound jointer from the pallet to the roller stand. I rented the Engine Crane Hoist and it worked great! The legs of the Engine Crane Hoist extend forward and stop a little past the end of the boom lifting arm. If I recall correctly, the boom arm is fixed forward and does not swing from side to side. Since I did all this lifting on the driveway, providing support for the legs of the Engine Crane Hoist was not an issue. While I slid the pallet out from under the machine and the roller stand underneath the machine, I could have just as easily rolled the swinging machine around on the driveway.

In this case support that would carry the weight of the Engine Crane Hoist and the planer would have to be constructed at the top of the stair well. This support structure would have to be constructed so that as the Engine Hoist Crane is moved forward onto the support structure, the legs will not slip off the support structure. But if these problems are solved, the Engine Crane Hoist could also work, if it will fit over the stair well. However, an intermediate lift followed by a final lift could be required; if the boom arm will not drop low enough.


----------



## luthierwnc (Jul 15, 2013)

I'm leaning towards burly, paid contractors with their own gear. I'd need help anyway so it's probably better for me to supervise from a safe distance. I need to replace the wooden stairs. The concrete steps are a straight shot down from the back yard but there is no vehicle access. The front yard is accessible by a truck or Bobcat/fork.

Thanks again, sh


----------



## MNgary (Oct 13, 2011)

Good plan, generic. Better than my plan to buy a case of beer, a bottle of Jack Daniels, and phone some biker friends. The latter is what I did when, while doing a top end on my Hawg, I dropped an aluminum nut into the engine and we had to tip the bike (635 pounds) upside down and shake out the nut.


----------



## Aidan1211 (Feb 20, 2016)

Cheap solution…...
Step 1) Find a package store
Step 2) Locate a 24 Pack of good beer
Step 3) Bring said beer home and put on ice
Step 4) Call all your friends and tell them you have free beer
Step 5) Block the beer with the machine and tell them if they want some they gotta move it out of the way (hence the basement) 
Step 6) Open beer and bask in your brilliance

This little guide should save you money and make for a good story later.


----------



## luthierwnc (Jul 15, 2013)

That's what MNgary needed: move first, booze next. All my friends are of supervisory age, though.

Looks like we need a moderator/bouncer for mokodj.


----------



## Aidan1211 (Feb 20, 2016)

I went through and reported all that a-holes posts as spam. Wrong forum to be pullin that crap. Doesn't he know we work with razor sharp implements?! 


> That s what MNgary needed: move first, booze next. All my friends are of supervisory age, though.
> 
> Looks like we need a moderator/bouncer for mokodj.
> 
> - luthierwnc


----------



## luthierwnc (Jul 15, 2013)

... in badly lit basements too.

I always wonder what kind of pigeon looks at something like that and thinks, "What an opportunity!" They must be out there. Of course, drunk bikers moving large objects have their charms too.


----------



## Ocelot (Mar 6, 2011)

600lb is not as heavy as you think. (one way of looking at it).

600lb is heavier than you think (another way of looking at it).

I used to own a grand piano which weighed (as I recall) about 850lb.

I sold it to my church. From time to time they move it onto and off of the platform (stage).

They just get 8-10 guys and do it. I won't watch and certainly won't participate, but I haven't heard actually anything bad has happened.

A planer is smaller and harder to get so many guys around. Also the stairwell looks awfully tight.

I would figure out how to do it myself, but that's just me. You didn't post enough photos for me to make a recommendation.

My 80-year-old friend built a crate and packed up his 4200lb, 40-inch planer (custom built by a former writer in Fine Woodworking - originally powered by an inline 6 car engine) and moved it out of his basement himself. He's a smart guy. He told me how he did it, but I don't remember.

-Paul


----------



## TopamaxSurvivor (May 2, 2008)

You can do a lot with prys, cribbing and rollers if you have the time and patience.


----------



## luthierwnc (Jul 15, 2013)

Thanks guys, Any way I figure it, I'll need to buy gear and/or materials that I probably won't need again. And none of my ideas come with a guarantee of success, lack of damage or ten surviving toes. Mostly it's that I don't have a lot of friends who would be much help. But you guys are new friends and I appreciate your input. Cheers, sh


----------



## MrUnix (May 18, 2012)

Haven't seen a machine yet that couldn't be broken down into manageable chunks. Take off the base/stand, pull the motor, table extensions or anything else that can be removed. Then a hand cart, a handful of 2x's and maybe some plywood should be all you need.

Cheers,
Brad


----------



## splatman (Jul 27, 2014)

> You can do a lot with prys, cribbing and rollers if you have the time and patience.
> 
> - TopamaxSurvivor


 That is probably just the way I would do it. Think house moving, only on a much smaller scale.


----------



## runswithscissors (Nov 8, 2012)

The first, and easiest thing to remove is the stand from the planer (or vice versa). If you do leave it on the stand, be very aware that that thing will be dangerously top heavy.

My cousin and I moved my mom's piano up some 180 degree stairs (up to a landing, and up again). At one point we had to remove a stair tread (concrete treads in outdoor stairwell). I still don't know how we did it. When they left that apartment, I just said "Let the piano guys do it," and made myself scarce.


----------



## Aidan1211 (Feb 20, 2016)

pulling the motor alone should help in making it a ton lighter. I'd pull anything that could be removed to lighten the load. I mean you gotta tune it once it's moved anyway.


----------



## luthierwnc (Jul 15, 2013)

Thanks guys,

The step wall at the bottom of the picture means a ramp of some kind-even if dissected beforehand. It's a jump up of about 7 inches to the top and them about 14" down to the basement floor. Having moved a water heater out of there with a hand truck, that particular maneuver includes either a big effort or a quick drop.

If the eventual winning machine can be parted-out to manageable loads, I'd probably hand cart them individually to the top of the concrete steps and down to a platform that levels the last step with the step wall. From there, a ramp-probably a full length sheet of something sturdy with a couple 2X4's underneath-angles into the basement.

But it still comes back to price, effort and reliability-and warranty. I've gotten a fair share of defective parts on oriental machinery over the years. If I tear it down, rebuild it and there is a major component out-of-square, where would I stand on getting it replaced, returned or credited? If the answer is, "No problem, just send it back.", there will be words I hope my wife doesn't hear.

It's all academic right now. The old planer has to blow-up. I have to see what an upgrade will set me back. I can price what some strapping lads go for and also sketch some ideas. This think will arrive on a common carrier and they may have some ideas for movers too.

Thanks again for all the comments. Obviously, this has happened before. There are some YouTube vids of men moving gun-safes into basements and I want no physical part of that. sh


----------



## luthierwnc (Jul 15, 2013)

Thanks guys,

The step wall at the bottom of the picture means a ramp of some kind-even if dissected beforehand. It's a jump up of about 7 inches to the top and them about 14" down to the basement floor. Having moved a water heater out of there with a hand truck, that particular maneuver includes either a big effort or a quick drop.

If the eventual winning machine can be parted-out to manageable loads, I'd probably hand cart them individually to the top of the concrete steps and down to a platform that levels the last step with the step wall. From there, a ramp-probably a full length sheet of something sturdy with a couple 2X4's underneath-angles into the basement.

But it still comes back to price, effort and reliability-and warranty. I've gotten a fair share of defective parts on oriental machinery over the years. If I tear it down, rebuild it and there is a major component out-of-square, where would I stand on getting it replaced, returned or credited? If the answer is, "No problem, just send it back.", there will be words I hope my wife doesn't hear.

It's all academic right now. The old planer has to blow-up. I have to see what an upgrade will set me back. I can price what some strapping lads go for and also sketch some ideas. This thing will arrive by common carrier and they may have some ideas for movers too.

Thanks again for all the comments. Obviously, this has happened before. There are some YouTube vids of men moving gun-safes into basements and I want no physical part of that. sh


----------



## Ocelot (Mar 6, 2011)

New planers are usually shipped with the infeed and outfeed tables detached, which makes them less bulky and lighter. Even if bought used, I would remove the infeed and outfeed tables to move it.

A 5HP motor may weigh 80lb, and is easy to remove.

It's good that you are thinking ahead so that when/if you upgrade, you'll have a plan.


----------



## luthierwnc (Jul 15, 2013)

However I do it, I'll probably uncrate the unit and start it on the back porch. If it explodes there, I won't take it downstairs.


----------

