Milling Machine rolling base (1 Viewer)

[firestopper]

A friend of mine purchased a new mill and had it shipped to my shop as he had no way of off loading it. The other factor was that he lives in a gated community with limited access for freight trucks. His drive way is quite steep and his garage header is only 7', so my fork lift would not be of any help.

I decided on a base frame of 3/8" x 4"x4" angle with four cantilever castor plates. The castor plates are 3/8" x 4" CR broken to 22.5º and are welded to a small section of 1/4" x 3" x 3" structural tube at 45º. The same tube was used for leveling brackets cut at a 45º. Leveling feet bushings where turned and index into 11/16" hole and welded.

The machine was uncrated and a cardboard template was made to include the location of the mounting bolts. A large transfer punch was turned on the lathe to mark the hole locations on the frame prior to welding allowing us to drill/tap single pieces instead of man handling a large frame.

The iron worker made short work of the notch required for the corner joints.

I went ahead and made four extra castor plates for my plate roller while I had the break setting on the iron worker. These are broken to 22.5º

Once welded to a small section of 3"x3" tube cut at a 45º the castor plates will be parallel to the floor allowing the castors to swivel 360º.

A shot of the leveling bracket and threaded bushing.

reached my limit of photos for this post. continued...

 

[firestopper]

continued...

Skip welding was used to control warpage using a Miller 350P at 475IPM.

Once welding was complete, the mill was set in place to verify the mounting holes. The mill weighs close to 2800 lb. and can be pushed with moderate effort on smooth surface. Once in-place the leveling feet take the load off the castors using a 8" crescent wrench.

Tomorrow will be pulling machine off for primer/paint, then deliver the machine to it new home.
I hope this can help someone out with similar dilemma.

 

[kiwidog]

Hi firestopper,
Exceptionally neat work. Your friend should be really happy with a new mill and mobile base.
I too have a new mill coming. The tracking information says it is going to be delivered on the 16th September. I won't have your friends problem as my neighbours who live a mile way have lot of large equipment to off load it from the freight truck and move it into the shop. it will be permanently anchored to the floor.
Great of you to share idea's, one can always use them to adapt to some other situations.

Thanks jb

 

[firestopper]

Hi JB,

The project was fun and my friend has been a huge help in designing a VFD control system for my 1440 lathe.

I'm sure your excited about your new machine's arrival. Its always good to have the resources for moving these heavy,expensive machines.
I hope to see your machine soon, keep us posted.

Take care,
Paco

 

[OGBeno]

Beautiful work as always.

 

[firestopper]

Thanks Onur,

Got a break in the weather and got the first coat of paint early in the day. Dark grey hammer tone should look nice agents the mills lighter grey.

Gotta cure for 48 hrs then flip and repeat. Hoping to deliver the mill next week.

 

[mmajsw]

I like this. Giving me some ideas on building a similar base for my milling machine.
The only question is where did you get castors with the needed capacity?

 

[firestopper]

mmajsw,

The castors where ordered from Service Caster Corp. in West Reading PA. They are rated for 900 lb. each, but the reason I used 5" wheels is it takes less effort to push the machine . The leveling feet can found on J.W. Winco (J.W. Winco, Inc. Website and Online Catalog).

I hope this helps.

 

[mmajsw]

Many thanks for the info firestopper. I'll be ordering some for my projects.

 

[firestopper]

Many thanks for the info firestopper. I'll be ordering some for my projects.

Your very welcome, this is why we post projects.

 

[e9999]

very nice work indeed.
But darn, I need to recalibrate my eyes. I would not have thought that the bent caster holding plates would have withstood that kind of weight without folding back at least some... They don't look that thick. But the proof is in the pudding. Steel is stronger than I believe, apparently...

 

[firestopper]

very nice work indeed.
But darn, I need to recalibrate my eyes. I would not have thought that the bent caster holding plates would have withstood that kind of weight without folding back at least some... They don't look that thick. But the proof is in the pudding. Steel is stronger than I believe, apparently...

Those are 4" wide by 3/8" thick cold rolled and WILL bend (even break) if the load was to meet an unexpected drop in elevation (moment).
The idea is to deign and build something that gets the job done safely and effectively. Any thing will fail if not used correctly as you already know, but fabricating for the past three decades one has a pretty good idea of what works. Many side-liners would call this a bad design but in the end like you said "the proof is in the pudding". The plates where bent cold to 22.5º with several tons of force ( much more than the weight of the mill).
Bending 3/8" x 4" CR past 22.5º would require heating IMO. It can cool down on its own prior to bending but with the right die and only going to 22.5º the flat bar retains its hardness/stiffness over HR. If I was to use HR flat bar for the same application, I would have used a minimum of 1/2" thick.

 

[e9999]

in any case, a clever feature of the design is that the base is skimming the floor so even if a caster mount were to fail, it would drop only a fraction of an inch and probably not even topple over. Nice!

 

[Patineto]

Every one of your works will not look out of place in the best fabrication/race shop/JPL.


Stellar work, what a pleasure to watch..

 

[firestopper]

Thank you amigo,

I still enjoy working with may hands despite the aches and pains. I really hope the postings can help others as well.

 

[Patineto]

Thank you amigo,

I still enjoy working with may hands despite the aches and pains. I really hope the postings can help others as well.

Well personally give me "Blue Balls" Because even if I have the tools (And I do not) I have no clue what to do with them..

 

[Patineto]

Thank you amigo,

I still enjoy working with may hands despite the aches and pains. I really hope the postings can help others as well.

So how do you keep the "caster" platforms from deforming under such a massive cantilever load..??

Just material thickness..??

 

[firestopper]

So how do you keep the "caster" platforms from deforming under such a massive cantilever load..??

Just material thickness..??

Yes, The 3/8" flat bar took about 30 Tons to bend (cold) the Mill comes in at around 2800 lb. So each cantilever caster carries around 700 lb. and the base will only be used to locate the machine then leveled (feet) talking the entire load.

As for "blue balls" I still remember those from many moons ago. Keep on working your skills and the rest will come.

 

[Patineto]

Yes, The 3/8" flat bar took about 30 Tons to bend (cold) the Mill comes in at around 2800 lb. So each cantilever caster carries around 700 lb. and the base will only be used to locate the machine then leveled (feet) talking the entire load.

As for "blue balls" I still remember those from many moons ago. Keep on working your skills and the rest will come.

Wowsers..

I work two times in heavy metal fabrication shops (At the Alameda base after they close it down and lease the spaces for shop and movie sets, with most of the tooling still inside, dozen of lista cabinets all ransack with just the foam silhouettes) incredible the power of those machines, we used to cut 7/16" steel (8 feet wide) plate just because they were bored, what a dummy I can be doing so many cool things with all that metal...

Clap out "Iron Workers" without safety guards, well i prefer to look at them from a few yards away, incredible I still have nails, fingers, hands, elbows and shoulders....

 

[Patineto]

Not even close to the scale of your works, but hey clever is clever..
Mobile table saw base