epic machinery moving
backyard machines, originally uploaded by artnoose.
Holy cow. It was an epic day moving just these two pieces of machinery. (Click picture to see more moving pictures from my Flickr page.)
With JJ's truck and a rented trailer we moved the letterpress and guillotine from the old house to the Cyberpunk Apocalypse. First thing that had to be done was to take off a few parts of each machine that can easily come off. I still remembered what came off and how. Both machines are on wood skids, so we tipped them up onto metal pipes and rolled them across the floor to the back door of the old house.
Most of this kind of thing is smart moving rather than brute force, although there was some of that involved. Seriously it's all about mechanical advantage. After much debate--- and Mary toting off a carload of random assorted non-machine stuff--- we decided to back the truck and trailer as close to the house as possible and attempt to roll the machines straight from inside the house onto the fold-down gate of the rented trailer. This involved what one person termed "jumping the gap" where at one point the press (and later the guillotine) would be rolled off the porch with one side hovering over a gap about 8" between the porch and the gate. This was the biggest breath-holding moment because if the press didn't jump the gap, it would crash down to its potential doom. It didn't, and we did the same with the guillotine, taking both machines in one trip because honestly backing the trailer up through the yard was possibly one of the more time-consuming and stressful parts of the day.
During a quick trip over the hill to the new house, I put the word out for the Lawrenceville crew to come to the house and help unload. Getting the machines off the truck was easy enough, with a few strong pushes with our legs. Getting the machines up the slightly sloped brick yard was another matter, especially since a few of us were pretty tired at that point. An after-work cameo appearance by N. really sped things up. At some point rolling on pipes was eschewed for straight-up wrangling.
That was enough for one day. JJ and I clocked our time spent moving at 9 hours. Now the press and guillotine stand sentry under a tarp, ready to be brought into the basement.
All Pittsburgh residents: Please show up to the Cyberpunk Apocalypse at noon this Sunday Dec. 20 to help me get the machines from outside the basement door down three steps into the basement. Hot beverages and free zines.