Coalpail.com Forum

Lu47Dan wrote:IF there is head room in the basement than you could use an engine lift to remove the boiler section from the base. You will have to go at it from a corner,and then attach the chains so you can lift it up.
A four wheel machinery dolly would help if there is a concrete floor in there.
Lift of the boiler section than, take the base section out of the basement and than the boiler section.
A location in your profile might help in finding someone on the board local to you for assistance.
Dan.

If you have a good way to lift it out of the Bilco door, and if the base is sound, you can save a fair amount of effort by just moving the boiler and base together on pipes. If you need to use an engine hoist, the width of a 350 base is about 24" (26" for a 520). You may be able to approach the boiler from the front; a "tee" in the supply tapping made with short nipples works well if no other lifting points have been provided.

Mike

Close nipple with a tee in the supply and return tapping. Then you can take a chain and lift it from a balanced location. I tried just the tapping on the top, but it's so far forward from center that it really tilted. I used an engine hoist, and a stair climbing hand truck, and it was not fun. It will be worthwhile in the end, but it's work. Think it out before you touch it, and try to work smarter not harder.

If you think this may be beyond your capabilities, you might try a few EFM dealers that are pro's at this sort of thing...for the right price, one of them might pluck it out of the basement for you.

Someone mentioned piano mover? You probably hit the nail on the head. I bought a piano for my daughter that was in a basement. Four of us couldn't begin to get it up those stairs. We left it!!!!my wife called the piano movers and they had it out in an hour. No kidding. It cost two hundred. Not bad considering.

At least my wife SAID IT WAS TWO HUNDRED, we all know how that goes. So probably double that ,lol.

I had a boiler moved with a wrecker. Lifted it up out and we strapped it right onto the wrecker and drove home. Could have put it on a trailer and lifted it off at home with the wrecker I suppose.

kevin

You might try machinery movers and riggers in the yellow pages.

Riggers and safe movers...
Safe jacks are the Bomb...
If ya don't have the brains or friends with the brains for this...
Backyard engineering...
It is easiest to pay someone who does it for a living...
Then you get to see all the cool stuff they have...
Ivory Soap is used to lube the rails when they move Lighthouses here...

If you go to my following thread, it shows pictures of how to use a small chain fall to pick the boiler off the base. You drill the floor joists for a steel rod, hang the chain fall from it, and use a narrow short nylon strap threaded around a steel rod inside the boiler pipe hole.

If the joists look iffy, reinforce them with metal strapping and put a couple of 2 x 4s to the floor for additional support.

After lifting the boiler off the base, lower the boiler onto a four wheel furniture dolly.

See EFM 520 Install With Skid/Bulk Bags Feed

Go to pictures with descriptions in the flicker account.

thank you for the thread, those pictures were great, and you did a great job.
I got the boiler out today with my buddies crane truck, it only took us less than an hour to get the boiler out, but I spent an hour cutting it free and removing everything off the boiler so it would fit thru the narrow stairway. Now I have to do a complete restoration on the thing; that's the fun part.

Good deal alc--yep, now the fun stuff:)

Happy,Happy,Joy,Joy and all your discs in your back are intact! Congrats ! Keep us posted on the rebuild!

OH I'll keep you posted alright! I have to post some pictures. I had to cut off the stoker and the auger tube to get it out of the basement, so both of those pieces need to be replaced. The seller said that it was a 350, but I see no identification tags any where. Where is the ID tag?

There should be a stamped plate right above the fire viewing door with the model and some other info. Measure the boiler top with a tape measure, a 350 is narrower than a 520.

Also measure the OD of the top ring on the stoker, that will tell you if it is an S15 or S20 stoker.

alc, glad to hear it came out well.
Dan.