# does this mean i have a shop?



## grunty (Nov 30, 2009)

Well after asking around, friends and whoever else was around at the time, I struck lucky and found another old friend of mine was selling his milling machine ;D
After a couple of phonecalls and a whole weekend waiting  i went and viewed it tonight and agreed to buy it ;D
It is a Beaver VBPR, a bit grubby as it has only done about 10 little jobs in the last 20 odd years, hence the sale, and it could do with a paint. 
All I need now is to figure out how to get it off the floor and onto the trailer ???
Then, or rather before that, I need to clear a spot in the shop to install it. I reckon the veg oil filter system need to be re homed 

Heres to many hours learning how to drive it scratch.gif  ???

It does come with a decent vice and some tooling so i can get off to a good start 8)


----------



## Tin Falcon (Nov 30, 2009)

grunty nice find on the mill . took a peek at lathes .uk and looks like a fine machine. as far as moving it the first thing I would do is crank down the table and get the head swung low if you can. ie get the center of gravity as low as possible. if you have a car trailer things should be easy. it is amazing how easily things will slide on concrete or steel. And put a few pieces of 1 1/2 pipe under it as rollers you should be able push it buy hand. So a few pieces of scrap pipe acouple of pry bars and a come a long and you should have no problem getting her loaded. Just plan ahead and work safe. I am no rigger but I work for a scale company and I regularly have to move 500 lbs to 1000 lbs of weight on a regular basis. 
Another option is to hire a flat bed wrecker to do the move for you. 
Tin


----------



## Bernd (Nov 30, 2009)

grunty,

Here's how I got a 2000 pound Bridgeport home and put it in the basement. Might give you some ideas on how to move a machine. Moving a Bridgeport

Bernd


----------



## steamer (Nov 30, 2009)

Good for you....the shop builds over time....be patient and watch it grow...you will be amazed!

Dave


----------



## hammers-n-nails (Nov 30, 2009)

how much does it weigh? bernd is right picking it is normally the only really safe way to do it. tin said something about using pipe to roll it, something even beer is what i call caterpillar rollers, its a bunch of rollers in a chain with a swivel pad on top so you can lock the back rollers straight and use a special handle to pull and steer with on front, two of us pushed the horizontal mill in the shop i estimate its weight at 10,000lbs but easily manuvering it is the nice part about them, you can rent them about anywhere i think. just a though.


----------



## grunty (Dec 3, 2009)

Well i started the prep for the move today.
I purchased a 4 ton turfer winch, 2 lifting straps and a s/h pallet truck 
I also purchased some timber, 4x4 posts and a sheet of 18mm ply.
who needs a roof rack :





I got it all back to the shop and set about making a pallet to bolt the mill to.
made some steel runners for the bottom, note the deep csk holes so the screw heads are protected




Using my handy mobile work bench I cut the ply to size




I cut the posts to length and screwed them on the bottom of a double layer of ply




and then screwed the steel runners on




I will put D shackles in the holes to attach the slings to and then winch from the pallet so it wont pull the mill over.
I have also put together a selection of timber to make a sturdy ramp for the trailer, along with ratchet straps and some tools of useful possibilities.

The plan is to carefully lift the mill onto the pallet and the use the pallet truck to get to the trailer, winch the mill onto the trailer, drive home and reverse the process


----------



## Mo deller (Dec 3, 2009)

Yay another Beaver. Here's a photo of mine,a little model A.






I bought this from an engineer friend when he retired. He used to work for Balding engineering in Norwich where they were made.

Shall we start a Beaver owners club? ;D

Mo.


----------



## 1Kenny (Dec 3, 2009)

I have only seen pictures of beavers and they look like a well built machine.

Yes, grunty, with a moveable work bench like that it seems to me you have two shops. One being mobil. 

Kenny


----------



## Troutsqueezer (Dec 3, 2009)

You might want to see if you can snag that phone booth in the background there. Might be worth something someday. We don't have those anymore over here. At least in CA. Everybody's got a cell phone now. 

-T


----------



## grunty (Dec 5, 2009)

Got it ;D ;D ;D
Bed down, head down and on the move




Up onto the palette




Time for a break








About an hour and a half later and it's time for a drive




in its new home, just some more clearing out and some positioning to do now 




Comes with...
a vice




Clarkson autolock




fly cutter




some cutters




morse adapters




clamps




and a cute badge 





£250 plus the pallet and equipment and 3 favours to mates


----------



## vlmarshall (Dec 5, 2009)

Congrats on the successful move! Is the spindle a 50 taper? I can't tell from the tooling photos.


----------



## grunty (Dec 5, 2009)

Hi
it's a 40 taper, took a while to find the engraving though


----------



## harty (Dec 7, 2009)

Hi Grunty 

I have a pdf copy of the manual for one of these if you need it
I also have the same machine they are well built and machine very nicely
did a full resoration job on mine cos it was painted with hammertone paint
and i hate hammertone paint 

cheers
Harty


----------



## grunty (Dec 7, 2009)

harty  said:
			
		

> Hi Grunty
> 
> I have a pdf copy of the manual for one of these if you need it
> I also have the same machine they are well built and machine very nicely
> ...



It did come with a manual but it is in very poor condition and only consists of printed pages so a PDF would be very helpfull thank you.
Mine is also painted in some awful hammer paint over the original grey so thats the lathe and the mill to do then :-\
Just need to find a suitable colour


----------



## harty (Dec 8, 2009)

Hi Grunty 

I emailed you a copy of the manual let me know if you don't get it 

cheers
Harty

ps just thought i would include some inspiration for you a before and after of my beaver


----------



## grunty (Dec 8, 2009)

Thats a huge improvement, I can see you have added some motors for feeds ;D ;D
I guess the hammer finish is standard as yours looks very like mine does at the moment.
Thank you for the PDF, very infomative


----------



## harty (Dec 9, 2009)

Hi grunty 

my machine had definatly had an after market paintjob original colour was a greeny gray colour no hammer finnish you could see the original paint under the badges when i took em off
the motors are stepper motors as I have converted it to cnc changed the screws to ballscrews and added a variable speed drive 
if you want to know what it looks like inside i have a whole set of photos of the rebuild and conversion

cheers
harty


----------

