I bought a band-knife splitter

[Matt S]

Perhaps this should be alternatively titled "Matt's 800lb pig in a poke".

I've wanted a band-knife splitter for a while. There's one I use in a workshop an hour away from me but that's not very convenient and it has reliability problems. I got a quote on a new one and, realising that the number the man said to me was the price rather than his phone number, I managed to find one used for a far more reasonable price. However the seller was a dealer in general industrial machinery and didn't know much about such machines so it was sold "as seen".

It appears to be a Fortuna/SAS UA, which is an older model with a 12" capacity. I asked a couple people what to look for and spent Christmas poring over service manuals. (I sure know how to have fun.) In the new year I drove to the warehouse in the English Midlands for a bit of a look-see. The Midlands used to be a sprawling mass of industrial production the envy of the world. Nowadays it makes Pripyat look like Paris, but I managed to leave before the shellsuit-wearing locals roasted me over a tyre fire for their dinner so it's all good. The machine looked fine apart from a little cosmetic rust, probably from being rained on briefly. Nothing crucial appeared corroded, all the grease and oil points were still greasy and oily, no buggered screws, and all turny bits turned smoothly, which I hope means the bearings are in good nick. Nothing was at its maximum adjustment, which is usually a good sign. The knife tension assembly looked like it wasn't worn out or broken, which I had been told is a mission-critical check. So the man made me a cup of tea and we had a chat (during which he tried to sell me a Pederson clicker) and he told me that the splitter had come from a company that used to make laptop bags but they'd stopped certain lines so it was no longer needed. Now I've always been taught that you buy the car not the story it comes with but this did give me another indication that the machine wasn't worn out. So I decided to take it.

I had it delivered on a tail-lift truck and persuaded the driver to get the pallet onto my driveway. So much for the easy bit. You see, this machine weighs 350Kg, which is nearly 800lb, and I had to shift it 30 yards through very tight areas, across 7 level changes, uneven ground and turf.  Notice also that the machine is significantly wider than the gate, and that's not even the narrowest part of the access to where it need to me. This was going to be fun.

 

Edited January 28, 2019 by Matt S

[bermudahwin]

Way to go, Matt...

Waiting for the next chapter.

Genuinely jealous,

Harry

[Matt S]

Luckily I have a friend who amongst other things is a tree surgeon and machine dealer so we put our heads together and figurated a moving plan. I removed everything I reasonably could to reduce weight and sticky-outy bits. Also, because there's no specific lifting points, it's important to remove any sheet-metal guards that might have weight borne on them during a lift.

Now because people these days seem to have difficulty quantifying risk and taking responsibility for their own actions I sadly need to point out the bleeding obvious: we knew (vaguely) what we were doing, one of us is qualified to handle loads many times this weight, we were willing and capable of making good any damage we caused, and we put a great deal of homework into this move. I recommend that anyone who doesn't meet these criteria (or even if they surpass them) to seek the services of a professional moving firm.

As you can see the prime mover in our endeavours was this used and abused engine crane. If the access were flat and a little wider we could have just wheeled it along and finished the job in an hour. As it is, it took eight, split across two days. Here is my friend suddenly realising what he's got himself into:

Our primary method was to rig the machine, via lifting straps, to a large eye bolt on top of this heavy 12ft length of C-channel. One end was rested in a pocket on a very sophisticated piece of rigging cunningly fashioned from two old pallets and some scrap wood. The other end of the steel was lifted with the crane until the machine lifted off the floor and the eye bolt rotated by hand to roll it down the slope. The man on the crane lifted in time with the machine advancing forwards, so at any one time it was no more than an inch from the ground. We were able to adjust the slope of the steel and the braking effect of the lifting straps on the rough steel to be very closely balanced, so you could move the machine with nearly zero physical effort. It was actually a lot less shonky than it looked and most of the time was taken in setting up each move as securely as we could, building temporary structures to level the floor and screwing braces from the pallets to whatever we could.

This was probably the dodgiest part, as the crane didn't really fit on the step. You cant see it but the crane and pallet are pretty securely strapped and braced from moving in any direction. All wooden structures are screwed together, with none of the weight bearing a shearing force on the fixings. Here I am guiding the machine with less force than it takes to open a stiff door.

Once we were on the grass things moved a lot quicker -- maybe 15 yards in 15 minutes, rather than 15 yards in 6 hours. As you can see we put the machine on an industrial dolly, and ran it over sacrificial 1/2" ply. It was a bit top-heavy so a third pair of hands was borrowed for this section of the move, which made things run even smoother and stopped the thing toppling head-first into the mud.

All in all the move took about 8 hours split over two days. Zero injuries to men or machines, though there were times I was glad to be wearing my brown trousers. Two doors to rehang, and a few patches to paint.

I want to stress again that we knew (vaguely) what we were doing and that we followed a great deal of safety procedures not mentioned above. We had contingency plans and backup contingency plans, including separate means to lift the machine if it fell on top of somebody. It is in no way intended as a "how to", more of a "how we did".

*To be continued*

[Matt S]

30 minutes ago, hwinbermuda said:

Way to go, Matt...

Waiting for the next chapter.

Genuinely jealous,

Harry

Thanks Harry. I know not many small concerns have splitters like these, and I understand why -- cost, space, expense, weight, complexity. Once/if I get it serviceable it'll give me a massive flexibility in what products I can offer as well as consistency of product. If I can't, it'll form an interesting conversation piece on the futility of hubris.

So long story short, we wrestled it into the shed, though the last bit was fairly tricky. My mate had to re-rig the whole machine to rope rather than straps to get through the reduced height doorway into the shed. Tight? I almost called my midwife aunt for advice.

So it's in. I've left it in this position for better access while I get it running. On the plywood I can just about move it by my skinny self but it's fairly easy with two.

I've now had time to go over the machine more thoroughly. Cleaned the majority of the grinding muck offn it. Filled the oil tank. Fixed the upper feed drive. Whispered it a few sweet nothings. Good news is that the machine appears to have made the move intact, the only damage being the control panel and thickness gauge. Now neither was in the finest of health when I bought the machine and the wiring to the control panel is fairly complicated so I didn't want disassemble it until it was in a well lit environment like my shed, figuring I was going to replace it anyway.

Next installment: electrickry.

Edited January 28, 2019 by Matt S

[Itch]

Nice Work ..

[JLSleather]

On 1/28/2019 at 3:59 PM, Matt S said:

realising that the number the man said to me was the price rather than his phone number

That sounds like a plan I might come up with .. put it in teh back yard and then build a shed around it!

 

[Mark842]

Ahhh..memories of moving my first clicker press into my shop. We wound up buying a used pallet jack for about $20 and with the help of a buddy we cut the pallet jack in half, took 6" out of the width and welded it all back together. This made the pallet jack as wide as the base of the press on its sideways (narrowest profile) so we could get it through doorways. We had 4 or 5 places we had to go over a change of elevation of a few inches. All of this was accomplished by either rolling the press onto pipes or using two hydraulic floorjacks depending on if we were going up or down. Took about 5 hours if I remember right with two of us doing the work, five friends who were the peanut gallery and the women who helped us by telling us we were crazy..it will never work...be careful..don't hurt yourself...and other useful advice. And then 4 years later we moved it to the new place and did it all over again. At least the new shop has garage door access and a cement floor!

That being said, I just took delivery of 1600sqft of leather I purchased from nstarleather (thanks Mike!) that I have to hand carry up a flight of stairs to my leather room.  Guess what i'm doing for the next hour or so. This is why I usually only purchase a couple hundred sqft at a time but sometimes you gotta take the deals when you can get them!

[chrisash]

Was that your wife Matt i met in the estate agents, who said she had just found the ideal new house and going to surprise you next week with the news, just thought you should know 

[Matt S]

2 hours ago, Mark842 said:

Ahhh..memories of moving my first clicker press into my shop. We wound up buying a used pallet jack for about $20 and with the help of a buddy we cut the pallet jack in half, took 6" out of the width and welded it all back together. This made the pallet jack as wide as the base of the press on its sideways (narrowest profile) so we could get it through doorways. We had 4 or 5 places we had to go over a change of elevation of a few inches. All of this was accomplished by either rolling the press onto pipes or using two hydraulic floorjacks depending on if we were going up or down. Took about 5 hours if I remember right with two of us doing the work, five friends who were the peanut gallery and the women who helped us by telling us we were crazy..it will never work...be careful..don't hurt yourself...and other useful advice. And then 4 years later we moved it to the new place and did it all over again. At least the new shop has garage door access and a cement floor!

Mate that sounds crazy. Got any photos? I'm going to steal that pallet jack idea.

The guy who sold me the splitter tried to sell me one of those enormous old Pederson clickers too. It's still there.

27 minutes ago, chrisash said:

Was that your wife Matt i met in the estate agents, who said she had just found the ideal new house and going to surprise you next week with the news, just thought you should know 

 If we could afford to buy a place of our own I'd be happy to move the splitter!

3 hours ago, JLSleather said:

That sounds like a plan I might come up with .. put it in teh back yard and then build a shed around it!

That was the fall-back plan... but then I'd have to give up the space I want for my metal-work shed...

3 hours ago, Itch said:

Nice Work ..

Cheers Itch, and thanks again for your help and advice. I think I may be bothering you again fettling the damn thing.

[bikermutt07]

Glad it all landed safe for ya.