I mis-judged and measured inadequately when I ordered my 52 inch wide tool chest, and it has turned out that it won't fit in the space alotted - where the old one was - between my lathe and the wall of the bathroom. I couldn't have used a smaller chest, so this was going to happen no matter what.
So I've been trying to find ways to move it safely - hell, move it at all - into the space I'd originally slated the tool chest for, then the tool chest can fit where the lathe was, and my surface plate will fit between them. Not a great place for it, but I am running out of options.
I called quite a few rental places, and nobody has shop cranes to rent. They are available for sale from various stores, but none of the stores I called were willing or able to load the thing into the bed of the pickup I have borrowed. (I can unload it once I get it inside the garage, because I've got a hoist rigged to the ceiling). So despite that I can go to the store and touch the very thing I wanted to buy, I can't buy it unless I also show up with three of my own helpers.
I have a friend or two who probably own shop cranes, but here's the problem with that: I strongly dislike the idea of ringing up someone I haven't talked to in a decade only to ask them for a favor, even if I am willing to compensate them in some way.
It would literally be easier for me to move the mill, because the base of the mill sits on the concrete floor, whereas the lathe is bolted to two steel support piers which sit on cinder block supports because I am 6' 2", and the lathe was made in China in the 70s. So basically it needs to be picked up, the cinder block supports moved, and then the lathe lowered back onto them. This is fairly trivial for just one person to do... if they have a shop crane.
Nothing can ever go smoothly in my life. The evidence is mounting that I suck at planning.
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