Give me a lever long enough and a fulcrum on which to ...

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<< Blog; 11th March 2015 >>

Archimedes statement "Give me a lever long enough and a fulcrum on which to place it and I shall move the Earth" sprung to mind when moving this rather large lump.

It's a blacksmiths' platen table used for bending, straightening and leveling, and they are as rare as hen's teeth! I'd been looking for one for a few years before I found this one. I "pressed the button" as soon as I saw it. The only slight niggle was that it was located 280 mile away in Dorset, in a extremely low garage, down a path too narrow to get a vehicle down ... and it weighed over two tons!

Under normal circumstances I'd have spent no more than a few minutes using a forklift to pick it up and move it. Instead I had to bring just about every piece of lifting and moving equipment I had and spent the best part of a day dragging it out of the garage and getting it onto my trailer. Time well spent!

Lifting the platen with an A frame gantry crane
This big old lump of iron weighs over 2 tons!
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