Those videos are interesting on a basic level, however they are aimed at guys working on building sites and in warehouses in the main. Machine tool rigging is a game on it’s own. It’s a real specialism.
I’ve done my share of rigging over the years and I only ever dropped two small machines. A little drill grinder and a planer/thicknesser. The planer/thicknesser lived to fight again but the drill grinder went to the elephants graveyard.
To be honest I’d be loathe to advise anyone how to lift anything until I saw the machine in question, the working environment, the gear involved, and most important of all, the person involved in the rigging.
Having said that Rich touched all of the bases I would have done. Rig around the bed if you can, protect the ways, be 100% sure to securely protect the leadscrew and the shafts, have a steadying tag line to the headstock, do not rig around the Chuck.
It might take you 20 minutes to protect the leadscrew but it’ll take you a lot longer to straighten it once it’s been bent.
I remember being called out to a large shafting lathe that had been newly installed. When the tool got near the Chuck the operator was getting weird finishes. Cut a long story short, the riggers had bent the feed shaft up by the Chuck and when the saddle got down there the bent shaft was causing the saddle to deflect to and fro slightly.
The bed had holes cast in the bed for bars to be passed through for rigging purposes but they must have let the chains get too near to the shaft. It took a full days work to put it right.
Can I just say that not all pro riggers are what they should be when it comes to machine tools. The best equipped rigger I ever saw wanted me to let him lift a big “ Poreba “ roll turning lathe by the Chuck spindle and the bed ! This lathe must have weighed about 25,000 lbs and it also had rigging holes in the bed. He had a brand new beautiful truck, all fancy sign written, with a big HIAB on the back and a brand new fancy pick up to carry all his other equipment. Just no brains unfortunately.
Regards Tyrone.
Tyrone Shoelaces commented about riggers not always knowing best.
Around 1990 I worked in Altrincham, south of Manchester. We sold a surplus Lumsden grinder (vertical spindle / rotary table) that probably weighed about 8 tonnes, Sold to a dealer who arranged collection by a third party haulage, rigging company.
We rolled the machine out into a yard with good access for the waggon.
Very impressive, smartly painted articulated waggon turned up, rear mounted HIAB crane. Driver was in a tearing hurry and in very bad mood, admitted he didn't know much about lifting machine tools, more experienced with printing machinery.
The Lumsden had two very large eye bolts in its upper column but projecting horizontally not vertically. Driver connected the lifting hooks to these bolts against my advice, said to hell with it, this is the way I am doing it. He lifted the machine a few inches off the steel pipes it was rolled on, eyebolts sheared and the machine crashed down onto the rollers. Lifting chains flailing in the air with the tension off them.
Driver was furious, raging temper, and stowed the crane, lifted the jacks and drove off.
Fortunately there wasn't any obvious damage to the machine and it was picked up a few days later by a more experienced rigger.