Hi,
I have a lathe and a milling machine in my home shop. I want to install levelling feet under the machines, so I need to lift the machines at each corner. The machines are rather heavy. The lathe is 3700 pounds and the mill is 4200 pounds. I have looked for machine jacks that would be able to lift these, but they are around 600$ here in Turkey. I don't want to spend this much for a tool that I will maybe use just one time, so I decided to build something that I can use to lift the machines, one corner at a time.
I want build a hook from 3cm x 3cm mild steel rod and then I want to push this hook up using a regular hydraulic car jack. So the hook will look something like: I will also use suitably thick I beam to make a 4 legged frame that has a rail where the hook can go up and down and a spot where the car jack will be placed.
Machine The edge hook | ===== | || ^ | || _| || | =====
My biggest concern is how to weld these pieces together. I have a 250A 3 phase stick welder. What kind and thickness of rod must I use for the
3cm x 3cm rod and for the I-beams (1cm thickness maybe). Any recommendation for making a solid weld to carry the above load much appreciated...Timur