Beaverpal Mill strip for moving/disposal? Advice please

[pete hammondParticipant @petehammond94283]

Any advice and guidance please. I am retired so time rich, no need to rush.

It’s a Beaverpal vertical Mill (like a Bridgeport but slightly shorter)

Like many of us there comes a time when the really big and heavy items should carefully be recycled one way or another. The mill will have to be fully stripped to, motor, head, ram, bed, etc after removing the modern DRO. I think, well hope, the elephant foot base alone will pry bar onto bars as rollers- by then hopefully the challenges of other parts removal will be memories and no lasting scars on me.

Starting out- Do I remove the motor ( I fitted single phase motor well over  twenty years ago – hope I made it easy to remove) and drive casings and then rotate the head, raise the bed .create support so head comes onto table then lower to transfer to sturdy trolley?  I have seen a youtube video of Bridgeport head coming of vertically BUT the they have fork lift to pick it up by- that’s cheating!

Hope the Ram comes off forward as mill is tight in a corner, use table plus a frame -as above to support?

The raise and lower platform beneath the bed looks heavy and likely to be tricky to lay down safely-any ideas.

No room for engine crane and no roof beams to winch off.

Yes when the dross that’s parked all over the mill is removed and mill is coming apart I will update, try to do photos.

Now any  ideas/suggestions how to proceed are very welcome.

Anyone near Aylesbury Bucks is welcome to come and drink coffee/HELP. I think a good sense of humour is going to be needed.

YES I WILL WEAR SAGFETY SHOES AND TAKE GREAT CARE – old bones if they heal they do it slowly I’m told

Pete

[Nigel Graham 2Participant @nigelgraham2]

When I re-erected my machine tools in my present (and probably last!) home I constructed sheer-legs, ramps and the like using some scaffolding tubes and clamps, and heavy timber.

Rope block-and-tackle, a small trailer-winch, a puller (for horizontal moves only), crowbars, rollers and jacks were the moving parts. This was all a few years before I built my overhead crane.

I also took the precaution of buying a few, proper lifting-slings and shackles. They are not very expensive, are stocked by builders’ and mechanics’ tool-shops; but you do need know their “Dos and Don’ts” , such as never tie knots in slings. It is just not worth risking using any old rope or chain for heavy machine parts unless you literally “know the ropes” and are competent with knots and splices.

Oh – and indeed I wore my safety-boots.

 

If at all possible, ask for help from someone you can trust in a hazardous operation, especially trustworthy enough to do exactly as you instruct if he or she is not very mechanically-minded. I rebuilt my workshop alone, but that is not ideal. (Yes, I had asked if anyone in my model-engineering club would be so kind…)

 

The one other thing to use, you cannot buy: brains!

Plan all the moves, think carefully where things need move, how they will move, and how they might want to defy you.  Think how removing one unit (such as a motor) will affect the balance of the adjoining parts. Test each lift, too: raise the load just enough to ensure balance and security before completing the lift. Plan whatever temporary installations you need make, so they are as efficient and safe as possible.

Never put yourself below or in the path of the load or a potential topple, where either can trap you. If something costly starts to fall our instinct is to try to save it… no – get out of its way! So always ensure your escape route.

Never grasp rollers to move them under the load: roll them by the palm or better, a stick. Similarly when pushing something into place, to ensure it does not eat your fingers.

 

(A toppling load does not need be ever so heavy to be fatal, if it pins you across the chest. When my employer moved to a new site, a young lad working for the removals company died when he tried to move something in the van, and it fell over onto him…)

 

 

…..

 

 

[Nigel Graham 2Participant @nigelgraham2]

An afterthought… you say no roof beams to hoist from.

Others may have, so I would add, never forget that if you use a simple pulley on the beam, with a rope passing over the sheave between you and the load, the force on the block and the beam is up to TWICE that imposed by the load alone. This happens of course because you have to exert the same force to hold the load, as it is imposing.

Also, since you cannot usually pull on the rope with both sides parallel, there will be a horizontal component trying to move the beam sideways.

[BazyleParticipant @bazyle]

Hopefully the ‘disposal’ is a turn of phrase for passing on to a new owner.
Borrow an engine hoist? Probably not to lift the whole but can lift one end to get the rollers underneath. Or a trolley jack but remember not to fully trust hydraulics.
Using itself ie the knee as part of the lift/lower is a useful technique.
A ladder can support a grown man with safety margin. A beam can be rigged between two stepladders or ladder leaning against wall can be used to remove sections to lower to ground.

[Clive FosterParticipant @clivefoster55965]

Assuming the machine is still fundamentally sound and saleable take the easy way is to advertise it at an attractively low price on E-Bay or Facebook Marketplace stipulating that the buyer has to shift it.

If attacked intelligently by two of three people a Beaver comes apart pretty easily. The important trick is to use the knee and table as a built in lift for shifting the high stuff like head, ram and swivel. As you know the official way to take the head off is to swivel it horizontal and support with blocks on the table. Similar things can be done with the ram and turret but it’s a three person job. One to drive the knee, two to stabilise and slide. Table and saddle slide off once the screws and other gubbins are pulled. But again three person job, two to lift and slide, one to guide. Knee is too much of a lump to remove but column and knee assembly is shiftable on pipe rollers or steel bars laid rail fashion.

If you haven’t got the gear on site to safely strip down on your own its way too much hassle to get organised and do it yourself for the extra £500 you might get if its on the drive and ready to load. I pretty much have the gear but no way on earth would I tackle the job solo.

If its beyond saving just call the scrappy.

Clive

PS

As I’ve gotten older I’ve noticed that I’m much less willing to make great efforts to save, or make, a few £. Since I’ve passed 70 I look back in some amazement at how hard I used to work at that sort of thing. However the savings generated thereof are probably why I’m adequately affluent and no longer need to do such things. Still need to remind myself that 70 is not the new 20 on occasions tho’. Habits of a lifetime being tighter than a ducks rear orifice are hard to beat!

[pete hammondParticipant @petehammond94283]

Thank you, all good advice and clearly we are like  minded- priority is to work safe.

My reluctance to trying to sell is based on responses in the past of; (not sure if there is a geographic divide (I am a Southern softy) or a younger generation attitude.) Yes these are generalisations and I expect less applicable to model engineers but with many of us advancing in age, this is probably a young mans project to relocate and refresh- already equipped from actually working these types of machine.

 

Please send photos, followed by please send more photos and answer questions that the photos clearly show answers to , followed by Oh no I never wanted to buy it.

It is not easy to load /transport and again people ask for delivery even when clearly listed – collection only.

Can I have it for less than half of listed price.

And then the – arrange to view and don’t turn up brigade and no apology or further contact. Perhaps my expectations are to high.

Of course there is a very limited market as well, my friends/relatives think I am totally mad to spend my time in a shed at the bottom of the garden- they may be right.

The scrap man just collects- and its gone.

I will try to sell the 3 axis DRO and the int30 tool holding, but again will limit my expectations.

Any further advice/ encouragement is very welcome.

Pete

[pete hammondParticipant @petehammond94283]

Update,

Listed the Beaverpal mill on the classified section, after my ‘grumble’ last night it seamed only fair after advice and guidance received- Thank you.  Having removed the ‘it will  come in handy one day dross from the bed and all around, potentially it has many more years of service, looks like it fif when I got it really but I still think transport is actually the major issue, even managed a couple of photos. (I think the Beaverpal is actually slightly smaller/shorter than a Bridgeport and the Beaver is larger)

The head looks straightforward to removedue to its ability to rotate, not so sure about the original table gearbox feed  unit hanging on the end of the bed and even that looks heavy.

Plan is coming together.

Pete

 

 

[PeteParticipant @pete41194]

I’m not at all familiar with those Beverpals, but if it’s the same general arrangement as an actual BP mill, they all come apart pretty easy. I don’t know that rotating the head to a horizontal position is the official way to do it though. Pull the motor, then I just run the knee up as high as it will go, slightly extend the spindle until it just starts taking the weight. With a second helper, have them hold the head balanced on the table as the bolts fastening it to the knuckle are removed. The heads are heavy so are best moved by two people. When you set it down and transport it, be EXTREMELY careful that head can’t roll at all. Some of the controls are fairly delicate and they will get damaged. If it’s got the usual turret, just rotate it 90 degrees and the ram should come out the front.

If you pull that top turret cap, the spider inside the column will drop off as the last bolt is removed. That’s not an issue. just something to be aware of. Pull the tables X axis hand wheels or cranks, and dial assemblies. Remove the X axis gib, fully unscrew the X axis feed screw from the nut and remove it. At that point the table can be slid off either end. IT’S HEAVY. Remove the Y axis crank, dial feed screw and gib in the same manner as that X axis. Slide the Y axis off the knee. Run the knee as high as it will go, remove it’s gib. With the ram off the column, the knee slides out the top. Again IT’S HEAVY.

That now bare column and it’s base and depending on the size of that mill, should now weigh somewhere between 300 & 600 pounds. If that mill has a one shot lubrication system on it, then obviously it and the lines should be disconnected as each table part comes off. When I bought my own BP clone, I’d never operated or seen one disassembled before. It took me about 4 hrs. Today I could probably pull mine down to it’s basic components in about 2 hrs. But if you’ve never done it before, then plan on it taking as much time as it’s going to.

[pete hammondParticipant @petehammond94283]

Update,

Steady progress, decided remove everything I can in situ initially- every bolt/screw making parts lighter;

DRO carefully removed and stored safely.

Motor from head removed – ready for the scrap man, condensation over many years had rendered it a liability.

Belt casing (ally) and pulleys removed – ready for the scrap man. will keep the ally step pulley.

Head removed in component form – casings for the scrap man, now have a box (heavy) of the gears/shafts- for those one day projects.

X axis feed motor and feed unit removed – a real fight has a control lever through the bed into the feed unit , the x axis feed screw has to come out the end with the feed box, guess which end I had against the wall

Table removed, very heavy – ready for the scrap man.

Ram is challenging I still have working Knee with y carriage so possible to slide off  Ram and lower but the rack and pinion drive restricts forward and back. The rack has blank sections at both ends that the pinion will not ride over? Interesting the gib on the ram can only be removed after the ram comes off- strange to me – as it stops lifting the ram off the rack.

Or leave and lock down the ram and ram turntable, fully lower the knee, remove the y carriage. Then juggle  out the rest on some bar/rollers.  Leaving knee on helping to reduce any toppling and only use 1 inch bar as rollers. (The base will have to come out that way anyway but had hoped it would be lighter)

Found a really old coolant pump tucked inside- removed – ready for the scrap man.

All good fun! just wish I was younger.

Pete  Any advice still welcome

[PeteParticipant @pete41194]

Try removing the pinion that drives the rack on the bottom of that ram. With blank ends on it, then the pinion has to come out first. Back off any locks or gib adjusters completely, and the ram should slide right out.

[Mark RandParticipant @markrand96270]

Easiest way to get the ram off the column is to lift it with the turret. The turret doesn’t add a lot of weight, but it’s only four nuts to remove. The crane helps, but even without, it should be possible.

[pete hammondParticipant @petehammond94283]

Update on Beaverpal Mill removal

Tried to do this yesterday, pressed submit and it has not shown up- in the ether somewhere.

The mill is gradually moving down the path to be collected from the drive  by the scrap man- possibly as soon as Friday.

Good but slow progress today using scaffold pole  and conduit tube as rollers and a 5ft crow bar, a couple of twists and turns tomorrow-hope it stays dry!

Then although its very slight up the drive means 10 metres,  UP it may be slight but need to ensure no roll back, I am cheering every inch currently.

Its possible I am using the scaffold poles the wrong way- used across the machine, I have some much longer . slightly less diameter, poles and could use these fore and aft, already thinking I need some form of roll off protection used this way. Any advice welcome?

Pete

[pete hammondParticipant @petehammond94283]

Update

Friday 13/12/24 the remains, the heavy parts of the Beaverpal mill have been collected by a very professional recycler who in lieu of payment will get the scrap value when he weighs it in. I am happy/relieved and of course grateful to the advice on this forum in the past week.

Interesting to me there were no enquiries to purchase either all or any parts/tooling. I now have a collection of gears/knobs, and handles etc to add to my –  there must be a project looming that needs that/to good to scrap  and can maybe even sell -one day.

Of bigger fascination – how the space vacated has so quickly filled back up 🙂

Pete -now back to playing with my bench top CNC machines.

 

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