Sorry fellows, I've been really busy the last few days and have not had time to post any updates until now.
Well it started Wednesday afternoon with the shipping company calling at 3:45 p.m. saying they will be there in an hour to deliver my mill,so I leave work a little early and head home to meet the truck as I live about a 40 minute drive from my work.
I get home open the shop and turn the fans and go in the house to wait. Well 5 p.m. rolls around and no truck. I think no problem he's just running a little late. 6:00 pm comes and still no truck.
I look up the number for the trucking company and call their dispatcher. The dispatcher tries to reach the driver on his cell phone and get's his voicemail. I ask the dispatcher to call me when he hears from the driver.
Now it's 7:30 pm no truck and no call from the dispatcher. I call the dispatcher back and he puts me on hold for 5 minutes and comes back and tells me that he got a hold of the driver and that he had driven by my house, but he could not deliver my mill since I live back off the road and he was driving a tractor trailer. I told the dispatcher that when I setup the delivery that I had let them know that it was a residential delivery with lift gate service and that I had a 400' gravel driveway they would have to back up to get to my shop. The dispatcher tells me that it's clearly marked on the loading instructions and that the guy's on the dock had made a mistake. I ask him to reschedule the delivery for Thursday with a liftgate truck and he tells me that he will send the scheduler an email.
Now's it's Thursday about 9:30 a.m. and I call the trucking company from work to confirm the delivery been rescheduled. The person I spoke to said that it had not, but they would see what they could do and apologized for the mistake. I get a call back from them about 11 a.m. saying they are on their way. I tell my Boss that I have to leave to take delivery of my mill and will be back in a couple hours. I get home and the truck shows up about 10 minutes after I get home. I help the Driver get it unloaded and he's nice enough to help me get the crate for the base which weighs about 300 lbs off the top of the crate for the mill and then move the crate for the mill into position in my shop, so I won't have far to go with it once I get it rigged to the engine hoist. Then I head back to work. It was a long afternoon. I couldn't wait to get back home and get started on setting up my mill. On to the good part.
I get home and finish un-crating the mill.
I then uncrate the base, install the leveling pads and get it set in place and leveled.
I then get it rigged up to the 2 ton engine hoist I borrowed from work and my Wife comes out to the shed just in time to act as a counter weight on the engine hoist, so I can get the mill off the pallet and then choke up on it, so the hoist will properly support it.
When then move it into position to set it on the base and bolt it down.
Here it is bolted down to the base. It's about 11:30 p.m. now and we are done for the day.
I spent the morning Friday cleaning the mill, installing the motors for the feed table and head travel. Along with setting up the vise and DRO. Then my wife and I are off the the store and to dinner, where my Daughter who is coming in from Nashville is suppose to meet us and surprise my Wife for her Birthday.
I spent this morning re-positioning the lighting over the mill, since it sits out further from the wall than my 2 x 72 did.
Don - My Shop is a converted Carport / Steel Building. I insulated it , put up the plywood walls, ran 100 amp service to it and put in a air condition, a must have in the GA heat. Even with 18,000 btu's it only keeps it cool till about 1 in the afternoon, sometime down the road I'm going to add a second 18.000 btu unit.
Ken - The handling and setup of the mill went easier than I thought it would with the 2 ton engine hoist and some help from my wonderful wife.
Stan - Here is a pic of the speed control. Low is 90 rpm and high is 1970 rpm
Tomorrow I'm going to get up early and work on setting back up my 2x72 and the lighting for it. It is also our 23rd Wedding Anniversary tomorrow, so I won't be able to spend all day in the shop, if I hope to see my 24th anniversary :biggrin: Hopefully, Monday I might get a chance to test out my new mill.