After about two months of intense research, we ordered a Shop Sabre 23 last March. Shop Sabres are popular machines, for good reason, and each one is custom built for the customer.
Today, about 12 weeks after ordering the machine, it was delivered. We are going to recount our experience here.
First, let me say that the ordering, building, and shipping process couldn’t have gone more smoothly. Shop Sabre has been very responsive on all of the questions we have asked and they have held our hand every step of the way. We ordered the Shop Sabre 23 with a stand and toolbox option, which made the total load over 1,000 pounds, palletized. We don’t have a fork lift, so we ordered lift gate service to our location. The pallet and machine (with stand) were 4×8 and with the weight, were barely able to fit on a lift gate. Any larger, and that type of delivery would have been impossible.
At our location, we have a long paved driveway and then another “L” shaped gravel path to negotiate in order to get the pallet into our shop. The lift gate truck went to the end of the pavement, where the driver was able, after much man-handling, to lower the pallet to the ground. We took delivery and then had to figure out how to get the pallet the next 75 yards over a gravel drive without a fork lift. We tried several methods, but the load was just too heavy for our small Kubota tractor with forks. Our pallet jack, while excellent for moving such pallets around on a concrete floor, was, of course, useless on gravel with a load this large.
First, a couple of comments about the load. There was a heavy end of the pallet and a lighter (although not light) end. Because the length of the pallet was about 8 feet, and had to be forked from the end (the 4 foot side), it was difficult to deal with. Using both the tractor and the pallet jack, we were able to progress to the bend in the road, but no further. So we kicked in Plan B. I called a local rental place and they sent a forklift out. It was a minimum one day rental, and it took the delivery driver about 5 minutes to get the pallet the last 50 yards into the shop. But at least it was in there.
This is a massive package, and it was well-packed and protected. The photo on the left shows the pallet exactly as it arrived. After removing the protective plastic, two large boxes are revealed. One of them contains the computer and the other all other parts and accessories, including the instruction binder.
The legs of the table are bolted to the pallet. To remove the machine and stand from the pallet, I’ll need to remove the bolts making the connection and somehow lift the whole apparatus off of the pallet long enough to slide the pallet out. Since I don’t have a fork lift, I’m not at all sure how I am going to accomplish that, so I posted on the Shop Sabre Facebook page to see if anyone had any ideas. It should be noted that the instruction book talks about lifting the actual CNC machine, but doesn’t give any ideas about the stand, nor does it have any instructions whatsoever as to how to attach the wheels to the stand. The wheels were in the accessories box, but there were no instructions and none were found in the instruction binder.
So the next task is to add the wheels to the stand and remove the stand from the pallet. I’ll report back on how that goes next time.
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