Hillbilly Engineering

Terry Coombs · 2019-08-27T20:33:59+00:00

I'm getting so tired of my back hurting ... and right now the culprit is firewood . Red and white oak rounds 18" and bigger in diameter and I cut mine 20" long more or less . Them puppies weigh around 200 lbs or so when fresh cut and I just can't hack it any more . So I looked around in my piles of scrap metal and found a portable swiveling jib crane ! Well it wasn't that easy , took me 3 days to cobble it together , but it does work . The base is made from some 8" x 3" C channel , probably around 16 gauge . The vertical post is made from some 2" square tube , with a swivel joint in the middle using a 1 3/4" diameter piece of solid steel 18" long for the pin . I had to machine some centering bushings and thrust bushings because the fit of the pin inside of the tube was just a little too loose for smooth operation . The horizontal at the top is also made from 2" square , about 3' reach . I used TIG on the welds I consider critical , my baby MIG for stuff that's not so highly stressed . I'm re-purposing a hand crank winch that I was using for a sheetrock lift , all the angle braces are of 1" heavy wall square tube that used to be part of a device to weigh bee hives . The top (swiveling) section lifts off the base for mobility since I plan on carrying this thing out in the woods to lift those heavy rounds onto the log splitter . The way I built this it can be used for many things - when I started the intent was to build a lifting device that was powered by the back stroke of my log splitter , but that would have very limited utility . What I built can lift almost anything probably up to 1,000 pounds - maybe more , but for now if I can lift those logs without straining my back I'll be a Happy Hillbilly . And up to this point I've spent zero out of pocket , this is all material I had on hand . I'll probably buy some bigger cable , what I have is I think 1/8" or 5/32" , I think I'll go with quarter inch . I'll also need to fabricate something to grab the logs with ,...

Aug 27, 2019 86 Replies

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Larry Jaques 6 years ago

I think a dual sport bike would have been the preferred method of travel there. There are =so= many hills in Italy and Greece! Did the "migration" hinder your EU vacation at all?

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Clare Snyder 6 years ago

Not at all. I saw areas of Athens and Naples where I definitely would not walk at night - and would be VERY careful in daylight - but the same can besaid for Toronto, Vancouver, San Francisco, or many other large North American cities. I see a lot more black and brown faces here at home in Waterloo Ontario than I saw ANYWHERE in itally or Greece - or even in Tuirkey (discounting "mediteranean" brown (or Olive)

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