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After getting my small lathe the addiction started. And a few months later I bought my second lathe. This time, it was... less transportable. A 2m long cast iron lathe bed at its centre weighing far to much for me to lift on my own, it was clear that I wouldn't transport it on my own. Instead I asked for help. Tearing it down, and fitting it into my sisters old Opel Astra, we transported it off. And it, of course, would not fit into my room (at least not with my bed still in it, and not with the floor staying intact.) So, I had asked my father if I could put it into his (rather tiny) basement.
After unloading it, just barely putting it into the house, the next day we (me and my father) started moving it downstairs into the basement. Most parts were fairly easy, some qualifying as a two person job. But when we got to the lathe bed the trouble started. With a guesstimated 150kg, a 60cm wide staircase and a 170cm tall ceiling, this was a challenge. The approach we took was, that I went first, and held it at shoulder height, were I wouldn't get to tired too fast, and my father setting it down one step at a time. This worked fine..... until we got to the point where the step was at the same height as my shoulder. From there on I had to go down... and down... and down.... and eventually I had to lay down. My arms got weak, and I ended up putting the thing down on top of my chest. Not the smartest idea I ever had... with that the horizontal position was kinda locked, and my father couldn't put it down to the final step. *dramatic suspense*
So, with some shimmying to move further into the basement, he could put his side down, and help me out from under the casting. All in all, not a fun experience, but everything ended up working out fine.
Afte that came assembly. Lifting one side and putting the A-Frame legs underneath, and bolting them down was easy enough, the carrige needed to be inserted from the end of the bed, since even with the gib and apron it wouldn't fit over the dovetail flatways. The Spindle could just be lifted onto the bed and bolted down however isn't automatically aligned. It needs to be readjusted :/
After getting proper machine feet and a precision level I leveled it. Still, there's lots to be done. The motor pulley doesn't fit as nice as it should and sits kinda crooked. The paint job done by the previous owner was utterly horrible. The Machine bed has quite a bit of wear. The automatic feed is missing (threadcutting is still possible, just regular automatic feeding is missing.). The leadscrews are "Normal" right hand threads, while nowadays left hand threads are usually used in lathes, since they're more intuitive. (turing clockwise should advance the cutter, turning couter-clockwise should retract it.) I might want to replace them with self made left hand ones.