Sigh, iggy that should have been verizon.net, not .com, sorry. So please send me an email that I can reply to at carl . ijames at the aforementioned. Thanks.
OK, so, to boil my question down to a simple sentence, it is as follows:
How to guess the weight of an overhead crane, given 1) Capacity and 2) span. I am not allowed to climb on it and measure thicknesses, etc.
This is a very practical question and if I can find an answer, I am sure that it will be helpful to make money.
I just realized that it is not as complicated as I thought.
For example, say, I can ask a question, "find the weight of an optimal I-Beam that would support a given weight and span a given distance".
Well, this is actually the most common engineering question. I am sure that there are helpful I-beam calculators that can give me suggestion for an I-beam, given weight, span and acceptable deflection.
If so, then, the weight of an I-beam crane is just that. For other cranes, such as double girder, box girder and so on, it will be slightly different, but similar and proportional.
I understand that a crane has components other than I-beams, such as end trucks, hoist, etc, but again it should be simply adding a percentage allowance to the I-beam calculation.
I will dig a little to get an answer.
i