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I oversaw the deconstruction and separation of a 70-ton printing press for extrication from a basement pressroom summer before last. The auction winners subcontracted a rigging crew to get it out of the building and loaded into standard ISO containers.

The basic manoeuvering tool was a 10-ton forklift with hydraulically adjustable forks. With a 13-ton component, the forklift was really just pushing things around. To support the tip of the fork, the riggers had two four-wheeled skates about 10" square, and about 3/8 or 1/2 inch steel plate, and less than the overall height of a standard 4x4 lumber block. Amazon will sell a set of four four-wheel 5-ton load car dollies for about $240.

Jack up the component with a bottle jack, block with timber, drive the forks underneath, secure the skates, bottle jack down and onto the forks. Very simple sequences repeated again and again.