12 Jan
2010
12 Jan
'10
9:29 p.m.
--- On Tue, 1/12/10, Ian King <IanK at vulcan.com> wrote:
When I got my VAX 6660, it was on a pallet that was
well on
its way to being nothing more than kindling. As the
poor delivery guy was trying to get it onto the lift gate
and down, it listed seriously, and I wondered if we were
going to lose either the machine or one of us! We got
it down to the ground safely and wheeled it (on a pallet
jack) into my garage.
When it came time to move it into the house, I surveyed the
two steps up from my garage to the basement with
dismay. A friend came up with the idea of using a
standard appliance dolly to move it. We secured the
machine, tilted it over on the dolly's rollers and pushed it
into the house on its side. Then came the job of
picking it back up! We just could not get enough
leverage to bring it up off the floor. Finally, I
grabbed a floor jack, placed it under the spine of the dolly
and angled the VAX up just close enough to the tipping point
that the two of us could bring it the rest of the way up,
without dropping it on its feet. Thank God those
wonderful DEC casters took over from there.... -- Ian
Hehe. When I brought my Vax 6210 into the basement, I disassembled it. Of course, that
massive cabinet doesn't come apart, but the doors and top come off, the blowers and
power supplies can be removed, and it can be made somewhat lighter and more manuverable.
I've also moved another Vax 6000 by myself - loading it into the van on it's side,
then getting it out and standing up on it's casters again. I must say, that's very
difficult (and probably rather stupid) to do alone.
-Ian