This post is inspired by the discussion of "huge milling machines for sale".
I find it that owning, minimally repairing or reselling various moderately heavy machinery is fun and profitable. By heavy I mean stuff under a ton, obviously not a lot by many people's standards, but quite a bit for a homeowner like myself. Things such as generators and compressors, that sort of thing.
So far, I used a chain hoist depicted here:
formatting link
and various wooden platforms on casters. I have a nice concrete garage, and a concrete walkway to the concrete patio in the yard. So, this equipment can be moved. There is about 2" "step" at the garage entrance. I am looking for practical, preferably non-powered, suggestions and experiences how you people move heavy things about.
My wife worked for a transport company that specialised in relocating heavy equipment - 1 tonne machinery upto a 375 tonne turbine for a power station. The common method of moving the "light stuff" was a "pallet jack" which fitted under the machine, jacked up and then the machine was wheeled into a position where a truck mounted crane could lift it.
I'm on my 3rd 2-ton import engine hoist. My current one is just like the one you reference. It works great and has a small footprint but it is suboptimal in one way -- there isn't very much clearance between the legs. My old one could easily straddle a Bridgeport base but my new one can barely work. I'm going to make my own pretty soon but then I've been saying that for years :-)
For final tweaking the location of something heavy, an assortment of steel lever bars is nice if you need to shift something just an inch or so, or even a few feet for lack of a better method. Blocks of wood in various sizes come in handy for fulcrums, as do bits and pieces of dense rubber padding.
I like the "three pipe method" for rolling something heavy along a flat floor, if the base allows it.
If you will be hauling on the road much, chain binders are a must.
You drive your vehicle into the garage over a 2" step?
Mine is from Pep Boys (Arcan) and yes it will lift that much. You will find that it certainly doesn't "glide" when you roll it with that much weight but it will do it. I've used it to lift the 1,571# battery for the forklift into the back of my truck.
The booms on these usually have boom positions with ratings of 1,000#,
2,000#, 3,000# and 4,000# so you won't be lifting 2t at full extension.
Yes, no kidding. With a huge caveat. You must have all the legs fully extended and bolted tightly, you must have the hook centered over the load, you must have the overhead jib in the 2ton position. Then it will lift, yes. Roll, not really. Those hoists will lift 2 tons but will only roll about 2000 pounds without really hurting the casters. On my last hoist I finally wondered why the damn thing didn't roll like it used to, took it apart and discovered 4 bent axles. No *way* were those casters rated for 1000 pounds. I redid them and it worked much better.
When I make my own shop crane it will have most serious wheels. The older I get the more I spend on casters.
On 22 Dec 2004 11:50:45 GMT, Ignoramus31279 calmly ranted:
Grok that. Grant goes with more money, I go with larger wheel diameter. But I have lighter-weight needs and the 5" Chiwanese rubber-wrapped cast iron jobbers work well for me. HF gets $3.99 for the swivel-style on sale. I wouldn't even THINK of using them for anything heavy.
My buddy Terry gets his at Darnell-Rose:
formatting link
've seen their stuff at shows and it's very well made.
-------------------------------------------------------- Murphy was an Optimist ----------------------------
Grant Erwin wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@corp.supernews.com:
On the engine hoists I have used the load was not centered between the pairs of wheels, so some of them see more than 1/4 of the load (plus their share of the weight of the hoist itself). If I built one I'd be inclined to assume the wheels have to take 1/2 the rated load. If it has to roll over anything rougher than a smooth concrete shop floor make some allowance for impact loading as it goes over the bumps... not that I want to haul a Bridgeport over an uneven surface if I can avoid it.
PolyTech Forum website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here.
All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.