Moving a press means rigging a heavy, top-heavy machine, meeting a foundation date and holding a shutdown window that can’t slip. Rigging-Busters plans press moving in Ontario so the press leaves on schedule and lands set, levelled and aligned on its new foundation, ready for your electricians and the maker’s start-up.
Rigging-Busters is a machinery moving and rigging company that provides professional riggers and lifters. One crew takes your press through rigging, transport, set-in-place, levelling and millwright installation: inside a plant, between plants, out of an auction or as a new install.
- Presses and moulding machines: for stampers, auto and EV parts plants, plastics moulders and auction buyers. Industrial work only; no equipment buying, selling or scrap.
- Ontario rules planned in: the pre-start review, lockout, MTO permits and spring load limits.
- Minimum job: 3,500 CAD. Per project, before tax; one heavy press, or several machines moved together, is a good fit.
- Quick replies: quotes within 2–4 business hours once we have the press details, and estimates are free.
- Equipment: jack-and-roll systems for loads up to 600 tons, hydraulic gantries, lift trucks up to 60,000 lb and float trailers for loads up to 50 tons.
- Insured: liability and workers’ compensation insurance (WSIB in Ontario), with a certificate of insurance on request.
Have the press make, model and serial number to hand? Send them with your quote request, or see how jobs are priced on our pricing page first.
or give a call +1-647-846-5179
Press Types and What Changes the Method
Tonnage is a force rating, not a weight: one maker lists its 220-ton-capacity gap-frame press at about 44,000 lb, so we plan with the maker’s data for your serial number.
- Gap-frame (C-frame) presses: open on three sides for die access; most travel in one piece with the slide blocked.
- Straight-side presses: columns on both sides, the drive in the crown, a bed and bolster below. Solid frames ship whole when doors and roads allow.
- Tie-rod presses: bed, uprights and crown clamped by pre-loaded tie rods. They travel as modules when the frame is too big to ship whole.
- Transfer and tandem lines: presses, transfer automation, coil feeds and straighteners, match-marked and moved in reinstallation order.
- Injection moulding machines: a clamp unit with platens and tie bars, plus an injection unit; larger machines travel as separate units.
How a Press Relocation Runs
A press relocation between plants runs in ten steps; a move inside one plant skips the haul and the permits:
- Machine data: make, model, serial number and the maker’s drawings, weights and lifting points.
- Site survey: doors, floor loads, pits and headroom at both plants, and where the trailer can stand.
- Lockout and disconnects: your licensed electricians disconnect power and controls; air and hydraulic lines are capped.
- Fluids, dies and moulds: oil drained where the manual says, dies and moulds removed, the slide set in the maker’s transport position.
- Split into modules: only where the press is built to split, with each part tagged and match-marked.
- Rig-out: hydraulic gantries, jacks and machinery skates take each piece off its foundation.
- Permitted transport: the right trailer for each piece, with the permits and escorts it needs.
- Foundation ready: pad, pit and anchors built to your engineer’s design and accepted before delivery.
- Set, level and align: the bed set and levelled, the press re-stacked and the tie rods pre-loaded by the maker’s method, then final levelling and alignment.
- Start-up: your licensed electricians reconnect; the maker or your team commissions the press.
Splitting a Tie-Rod Press
A tie-rod press is held in compression by rods running through its uprights; on reassembly they are pre-loaded the way the maker specifies, by heating them or with hydraulic tie-rod nuts. To split one, the rod tension is released the same way, then the crown, slide and uprights come off in the maker’s order, each piece match-marked.
or give a call +1-647-846-5179
Press Foundations, Pits and Anchors
Large presses often sit on a foundation built for them, sometimes in a pit. Your professional engineer designs it from the maker’s drawing and loads, your foundation contractor builds it, and we set the press to those drawings.
The engineer also decides when concrete and grout can take the load; one moulding-machine maker allows about 10 days in summer and 15 in winter for the anchor-bolt grout to cure before final levelling. Where the old plant had a pit and the new one doesn’t, the press sits higher and the feed line has to be adjusted to match.
What We Need From Your Foundation Contractor
- Sealed foundation and anchor drawings, with pit sizes and elevations
- Anchor bolts or sleeves set to the maker’s template
- The date your engineer accepts the foundation for loading
- A clear pit and clear access for the trailer on delivery day
Press Installation: Set, Level and Align
We set each piece, re-stack tie-rod presses by the maker’s method, and level and align the bed, bolster, slide and feeds to the manual’s tolerances. For a new press, we set it while the maker’s technician directs the assembly. For other machines, see millwright services and machinery installation in Toronto or millwright installation in Hamilton.
Large Presses Going Into Ontario Plants
A 3,000-tonne stamping press was unveiled in an expanded plant in Ridgetown, Chatham-Kent, in July 2026. Provincial funding announced in March 2026 supports a 2,500-tonne press and an upgraded tandem line at a Windsor-Essex stamping plant, and October 2026 funding in Windsor-Essex goes toward a new 4,500-tonne injection moulding press. Adding a press? Bring us in when the foundation is designed.
Ontario Rules to Plan For
Pre-Start Health and Safety Review (Reg. 851, s. 7)
In an Ontario factory, the owner, lessee or employer must have a pre-start health and safety review done before a new or modified apparatus is used, when a circumstance in the regulation’s table applies. For presses that is usually item 2: safeguarding devices that signal the press to stop (light curtains, area scanners, safety mats, two-hand controls or trips) or interlocked barrier guards.
Moving a press within the same plant needs no new review if nothing is modified and no new controls are needed. A press set up in another plant needs one there unless a documented exemption applies: the press and its safeguards meet current applicable standards and are installed to them and to the maker’s instructions. The Ministry’s guideline lists CSA Z142 (2010), the punch and brake press code, among the standards for that exemption. To claim that exemption, the guideline also asks for a written statement from the installer. If you need one, say so in your quote request and we confirm what we can provide.
The guideline treats the review as a design review before installation, so book your engineer before the move. An engineer signs, dates and seals the report, and the employer shares it with the joint health and safety committee or representative before the press runs.
Lockout and Blocking
Reg. 851 requires control switches to be locked out where a start-up could endanger a worker (s. 76), moving parts stopped and blocked before work on them (s. 75), and raised loads that a worker may pass or work under, such as a press module on jacks, securely and solidly blocked (s. 74). The regulation itself names no lockout standard.
Oversize Loads and Spring Limits
A load wider than 2.6 m, taller than 4.15 m or over the legal weights needs an MTO oversize/overweight permit on King’s highways, and municipal roads can need their own. MTO only permits loads that can’t be reduced (for example, more than eight work hours to dismantle), so a press that splits easily may have to travel split. Apply at least 5 business days ahead; a superload (over 120,000 kg gross, 5 m wide or 45.75 m long) needs superload escorts and a traffic management plan, and can take up to 6 months.
Escorts are needed from 4 m wide, 36.76 m long or 4.87 m high (a pole car), and some highways and regions set lower limits. In spring, reduced load periods cap axle weights at 5,000 kg on designated roads, and in southern Ontario annual and project overweight permits aren’t valid on King’s highways in March and April. Permits by city: see machinery transport in Ontario.
Presses From Auctions and Plant Closures
Plant sales put presses on the market with short removal windows. In September 2026, a parts plant in Dundas auctioned presses rated from 30 to 200 tons, a Scarborough sale gave buyers until October 30 to remove a 400-ton straight-side stamping press, and a Markham injection and blow moulding plant went into receivership.
Both sales named an exclusive rigger. When a sale does, we can take over at the dock, where the terms allow, for the haul, set-in-place and levelling. Removal dates and insurance certificates are confirmed per sale in the quote. See also auction machinery removal in Ontario.
What We Move, and What Isn’t a Fit
Presses and Machines We Take
- Gap-frame and straight-side stamping presses, mechanical and servo
- Transfer presses, tandem lines, coil feeds and straighteners
- Hydraulic, forging, trim and spotting presses
- Press brakes and shears
- Injection, blow and compression moulding machines, with their robots and auxiliaries
- Dies, moulds and die carts, moved with the press or on their own
- Printing presses: see printing press movers in Toronto
Not a Fit
Presses we would have to buy or sell, scrap and demolition work, crane or forklift rental only, hobby letterpress moves, and jobs under our 3,500 CAD minimum, such as a single benchtop press on its own.
Press Moving Cost: What Sets the Price
The price depends on:
- Weight and modules: the weight of each piece, and whether the press travels whole or split
- Access and pits: doors, floor loads, pits and headroom at both plants
- Foundation work by others: how ready the pad, pit and anchors are on delivery day
- Permits and escorts: the size and weight of each load, the route and the season
- Tie-rod and alignment work: re-stacking, pre-load and the checks the maker sets
- Downtime window: shutdown weeks, evening or weekend work, and storage if the new plant isn’t ready
Projects start at 3,500 CAD, before tax. See how we quote on our pricing page. Request a quote with the press details for a price on the whole move.
Areas We Cover in Ontario
We move and install presses across Ontario: Windsor-Essex, Chatham-Kent, London–St. Thomas, Kitchener-Waterloo-Cambridge, Brantford, Hamilton–Niagara, the GTA (Toronto, Mississauga, Brampton, Vaughan), Oshawa–Durham, Barrie and the rest of the province. Presses going to or from Quebec are planned the same way.
For plant work in one region, see auto and EV plant equipment rigging in Windsor, CNC and machine tool movers in Kitchener-Waterloo, and our Windsor and Hamilton pages.
or give a call +1-647-846-5179
Why Plants Choose Us as Press Movers
- One crew from rig-out to alignment, with the same riggers and millwrights at both ends.
- The maker’s data first: weights, lifting points and split lines checked before we quote.
- Delivery tied to the foundation: we work to your engineer’s drawings and your contractor’s dates.
Send These for a Fast Quote
Send these with your quote request and we can usually price the move within 2–4 business hours:
- The press: make, model, tonnage, serial number, and whether it still runs
- What moves with it: dies, moulds, feeds, straighteners, robots and auxiliaries
- Drawings and photos: general arrangement drawings, photos from each side, and weights if known
- Foundations: how it sits now (anchored, grouted or in a pit) and the pit and foundation drawings for the new site
- Both addresses: the pickup plant and the destination, with door sizes, headroom and any overhead crane
- Your downtime window: the shutdown dates and the day production restarts
- Trades and start-up: who disconnects and reconnects power, and who commissions the press
- Auction presses: the lot link and the sale’s removal terms
Other Services in Ontario
Moving a press between Ontario and the United States or Mexico? See cross-border machinery moving.
Related services in Ontario:
- Machinery & Heavy Equipment Movers in Ontario
- Machinery & Heavy Equipment Transport in Ontario
- Auction Machinery Removal in Ontario
- Millwright Services & Machinery Installation in Toronto, ON
- Millwright & Machinery Installation in Hamilton, ON
- Factory & Plant Relocation in Toronto, ON
- Factory & Plant Relocation in Hamilton, ON
- Crane, Hoisting & Heavy Lifting in Toronto, ON
Press Moving in Ontario: FAQ
Only when it has to be: a press that fits the doors, the trailer and the road usually travels assembled, which costs less. Tie-rod presses are built to come apart; we match-mark every piece and re-stack them to the maker’s method.
Your engineer designs it from the maker’s drawing and loads, and your foundation contractor builds the pad, pit and anchors. We supply weights and module sizes and set the press once the engineer accepts the foundation for loading.
Often, yes. Under Ontario Reg. 851, s. 7, a press with safeguarding devices such as light curtains or two-hand controls needs one when it is set up in a new workplace, unless a documented exemption applies. A move within the same plant, with no modifications or new controls, needs none. Plan it before the move: the review is meant to be done at the design stage.
Yes. Send the lot link and the removal terms before you bid. Where a sale names an exclusive rigger, we take over at the dock if the terms allow, for the haul, set-in-place and levelling.
Yes. The crew that moves the press sets it, levels it to the maker’s tolerances and aligns the bolster, slide and feeds.
It depends on the press, the split, the foundation and the permits. Two dates often set the schedule: the day your engineer accepts the foundation, and the permit lead time, at least 5 business days for an MTO single-trip permit.
Yes. Larger machines are separated into the clamp unit and the injection unit, moved, then joined and levelled on the new foundation. The mould travels separately.
Yes. They move upright on machinery skates or a heavy lift truck, with the ram down and blocked and the back gauge secured, then are set and levelled at the new site.
It is priced per job: the weight and number of pieces, access and pits, foundation readiness, permits, tie-rod and alignment work, and your downtime window. Projects start at 3,500 CAD, before tax. Send the details with our quote request form.
Yes. If the new foundation isn’t ready when the old plant must be empty, the press is loaded out on time, stored between sites and delivered once the foundation is accepted. Storage is priced into the quote.
