Pulled the spindle, parked the Z on a stack of foam; used 2 jacks to equally lift both sides of one end of the table, then the other, installing a skid-cart with casters. The large (8"), rubber casters made for easy rolling.
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I first referenced the load capacity of the cross member connectors at the 8020 web site- they can easily carry the machine like this. After cutting the wood to length and caster bolt holes drilled outside the frame foot print with sufficient room for the caster to rotate freely, the longitudinal boards where clamped to the bottom cross members; the wooden lateral braces were pre-drilled for 3 lag screws at each overlap, snugged up against the inside edge of the bottom extrusions, then used as drilling guide for the underlying longitudinal planks, and lag screws afixed. Stop blocks where screwed to the planks against the outside face of the bottom extrusions.
Then two jacks where placed under the longitudinal planks at either end of one bottom extrusion, progressively lifted in tandem until high enough to install wheels on that end the table, then moved to the other end to repeat.
When strapping the machine down to the trailer, the strap bore across the bottom extrusion captured by the sled, putting no appreciable strain on the table. Having at least one set of locking casters was a great comfort at many points of the move. If I were to do it again, I would have jacked up the table far enough to remove the leveler feet entirely, as they posed an occasional obstacle transitioning over the trailer ramp top. Fit nicely onto a Home Depot 5 x 8 rental trailer.
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That’s a great way to do it. I’ve moved a few similar machines this same way.
Cleary you didn’t need it, but you can easily remove the spindle box and the control box, everything on there is pluggable. It can make a machine like this much more balanced and easier for a couple of strong folks to pick it up.
When you get it back to it’s new home make sure you square, level and tram it all up.
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Oh, I’ll gross level the table, then pull the Z axis, then adjust all the rails- table and gantry- to my satisfaction. I’ve discovered that, unless I do these things, there will always be an itching suspicion when struggling to close tolerances to a target. “Don’t trust, verify” has become the motto!
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