moved the guillotine
bobcat - vertical, originally uploaded by artnoose.
Nothing like a little morning snow biking to get the blood flowing.
Today I met my friend Shaun at his house and we drove two hours back to the couple in Ohio who I bought my letterpress from so I could pick up the big guillotine paper cutter. This was a much simpler operation than the press, although it was still loaded in with a Bobcat. The picture you see here is the first attempt loading it into Shaun's pickup truck vertically. We then decided it would be better to transport it on its face, so dude set it back down, we hooked a chain to it and then the other end to the Bobcat, and then eased it onto its face on the asphalt.
So, then all he had to to was pick it back up and put it in the truck that way. It needed some extra support, so his wife threw in a couple pieces of 2x4. When he lifted it up, it really looked like the wood was gonna bust, dropping the weight of the 500-700 pound beast down with it. However, he lifted it high enough to clear the truck bed and eased it back in. This was the most sketchy part of the day because at any point that wood coulda snapped, sending the cutter down hard enough to seriously damage Shaun's truck. Unfortunately, I was barely breathing through all this and was unable to get a picture at the most ridiculous moment.
It got eased into the truck bed and everything was strapped down tight. We had tea and then Shaun and I drove the 100 miles back to Pittsburgh. Shaun backed the truck through the snowy driveway--- the whole move was done in a persistent light snow--- and with M's help we eased it onto the cement pad in the back yard, under the tarp snuggling with the letterpress until I can contrive a system to get them both up one step into the house.
Best quote all day: "Um, at this point I think gravity's doin' all the work."