Electric hoist/overhead crane

[rjs89ia]

I've been working on an overhead crane system for a little while now. I purchased a 1320lb electric hoist from harbor freight with the intent to lift engines and whatever else might need lifting. I've been building a stationary single track system comprised of two stacked 2-3/8 O.D. 3/16" thick wall by 23+ ft long pipes. I've welded the 2 pipes together and have two 3"x1/4"x20ft pieces of flat stock that will be welded on either side of the pipes. http://s571.photobucket.com/user/ryan_sutcliffe1/library/Mobile Uploads?sort=3&page=1

I've got a system of 4x4 post that I'll be using to bridge the pipes across. One post will reach 10ft to the ceiling and the other I'll cut down to create a base for the pipes to sit on. Once that's all done I'll build a trolley to mount the hoist to. The hoist it's self should hang around 8-8.5ft.

I'm not 100% on how sound my beam/pipe system will be but so far it has only cost me around $100 in materials.

 

[Indycars]

Looks like a great project!

It seems you are getting ready to insulate, will sure help out with that air conditioner.

 

[87vette81big]

I have a Super Heavy Duty Chain Hoist I use sometimes.
A Vintage C&M.
Rated at 2 Tons.
Lifts Big Block Pontiac 455's, Olds V8, & my Tall Deck 427 BBC With Ease.
I have lots of old trees on my 100 year old Farmhouse property.
Use the Huge Tree limbs to attach my C& M Chain hoist.
Super lifting power....

 

[rjs89ia]

Looks like a great project!

It seems you are getting ready to insulate, will sure help out with that air conditioner.

Insulate indeed. I just picked that up last night, enough to get the walls done atleast.

 

[rjs89ia]

I have a Super Heavy Duty Chain Hoist I use sometimes.
A Vintage C&M.
Rated at 2 Tons.
Lifts Big Block Pontiac 455's, Olds V8, & my Tall Deck 427 BBC With Ease.
I have lots of old trees on my 100 year old Farmhouse property.
Use the Huge Tree limbs to attach my C& M Chain hoist.
Super lifting power....

I like that idea but tree's are not in abundance out this way. Plenty in the mountains scarce in the valleys. I'd kill to have a tree big enough to even give off some shade out here in the desert.

I tossed the idea around about using a chain hoist because they're smooth to operate but I didn't think it would be ideal to have the chain hanging down in my way especially around nice paint. I plan to put some kinda of retractable line on the control box so I can adjust the height easily for what I'm working on.

 

[Grumpy]

http://www.harborfreight.com/5-ton-chain-hoist-2239.html
I bought one of these differential chain hoist years ago rated at 5 tons
one of my neighbors bought the HF 3 ton rated chain hoist which is just as useful and faster to use,

http://www.harborfreight.com/3-ton-chain-hoist-2211.html

http://www.hoistsdirect.com/shop/1327

http://www.harborfreight.com/2-ton-capacity-plain-trolley-40493.html

 

[rjs89ia]

Picked up some more welding wire today. Got the 12 lb roll this time, burnt through 2 lbs in about an hour on saturday. Have to finish a few welds between the 2 pipes and then prep the 20ft plates for welding. Wish I had a hoist just for picking this thing up to put it in place. Probably weighs 200 lbs, great way to throw your back out.

 

[chromebumpers]

How high is your ceiling? If I am understanding this correctly, I've done something similar by my self with a 9' bottom of joist to floor. Work it up a pair of tall "A" frame ladders (or Bakers Scaffolding) and use a couple of adjustable lolly columns.

 

[rjs89ia]

The ceilings is 10ft. I plan to get the beam and trolley as close to the ceiling as I can with adequate room for the thickness of the sheetrock and the lights. I'll probably leave 1-2 inches of room which will put the beam around 9ft and that will leave the hoist at around 8ft once done and mounted. That should be enough room for the ladder rack on my truck to clear.

 

[rjs89ia]

I've made some more progress on my hoist. Still not much to see but here's a few pics.

Thankfully I work in aviation at a maintenance, storage and teardown facility and this aluminum plate was just right for a trolley. Probably 7075 off of a B727.
Also picked up some 4" steel wheels rated for 1500lbs. Being as cheap as they were I now realize that the wheels didn't have the inner bushing so I've got to figure out something for that.

Ignore the mess, I've been in the middle of all these different projects here lately and this hoist is top priority at the moment. Funny that 2 weeks before I had everything picked up and put away then it all got drug out again. I had to put in a second post on my loft to support the beam I'm building. The loft is a new addition as well and I'm starting to realize it might be necessary to get a connex to put all this misc. junk and boxes that have in to keep it out of my garage.

Managed to put up some insulation and get the post supports and post themselves installed on the north wall.

So far I've gotten the pipes welded together and both 1/4" plates welded on both sides. I made a rookie mistake with the welder when I switched from flux tosolid wire. Forgot to switch the polarity and used one 2 lb spool welding the pipes together and when I started welding the plates on the welds were all goobered
after buying a 10lb spool of flux wire and starting to install it I realized my mistake as soon as I lifted the lid and started removing the 12lb spool of solid core wire.
Turns out there was more than just the setup chart under there. Anyways I got that all fixed and spent a good 6-8 hrs welding and rewelding on Sunday.


I also got a small touch of weld fever after all that welding and picked one of these up the next day at the local weld shop. Fits under the welding helmet pretty well and does a great deal better than my nose at keeping out the toxins. http://store.cyberweld.com/milphama...p2cRt_7uoaeKlGmKUFCj8_O_xGg7HhOmvBRoCXAPw_wcB

 

[rjs89ia]

Getting closer to having this thing up. I hope to hang the beam this weekend. Still have to cut the plates shorter on the trolley and build the attachment brackets for the hoist.

 

[Grumpy]

hopefully the deflection in that welded cross beam is low enough that when used for its intended purpose the crane functions without excessively bending or deforming that cross beam.
personally Id weld a short section of some safety chain near each end , as a fail safe ,so if it does bend it won,t come loose and fall killing you or damaging the car!
keep in mind the leverage that crane has to support, when its supporting a significant load like an engine hanging mid span!

 

[rjs89ia]

hopefully the deflection in that welded cross beam is low enough that when used for its intended purpose the crane functions without excessively bending or deforming that cross beam.
personally Id weld a short section of some safety chain near each end , as a fail safe ,so if it does bend it won,t come loose and fall killing you or damaging the car!
keep in mind the leverage that crane has to support, when its supporting a significant load like an engine hanging mid span!

I understand completely. I do plan to load test it with a significant amount of weight before I brave an engine, probably borrow a load cell from work so I know how much weight I have. I'll leave it hanging for a while to see if it stresses. I was trying to avoid attaching anything to the the trusses because for some reason who ever built the shop decided to skimp out and used some less than #2 grade 2x4's. It may not be wise by building my own beam and I'm no engineer but it's trial and error. Definitely be standing back when I test it.

 

[Grumpy]

yeah when I was building my shop the roof truss supplier wanted to build the trusses from 2x4s I demanded he use 2x8s in my roof trusses and that boosted the price on the set of roof trusses $6000 over the previous price, but I felt that was money very well spent, as was the extra rebar, and 4500 psi rated concrete a minimum 8" thick floor.
the local code calls for 15" long 16 ga roof truss straps I paid extra for 1/8" thick 24" roof truss straps embedded in the tie beam every 24" to secure the roof trusses to the wall top edge

 

[87vette81big]

I am thinking Grumpy , Why not Reinforce his Overhead Crane Train Trolley Beam like a Bridge Span.
If you cannot reinforce bottom side do it Topside.
Like A Suspension Bridge.
How the San Francisco Bridge is Built and still standing intact.

Krazy Ed overbuilt his Garage too Grumpy like You did.
Mexicans wanted to cut corners.
Ed Fired them.
He did a lot.
I helped last Summer between jobs.

 

[87vette81big]

A Long Arch Radius is required Topside.

 

[rjs89ia]

yeah when I was building my shop the roof truss supplier wanted to build the trusses from 2x4s I demanded he use 2x8s in my roof trusses and that boosted the price on the set of roof trusses $6000 over the previous price, but I felt that was money very well spent, as was the extra rebar, and 4500 psi rated concrete a minimum 8" thick floor.
the local code calls for 15" long 16 ga roof truss straps I paid extra for 1/8" thick 24" roof truss straps embedded in the tie beam every 24" to secure the roof trusses to the wall top edge

That's a very nice shop. I could only dream right now of having something like that but I'm still a young pup so I can't complain about where I'm at. I bought this place "as is" as a foreclosure from a bank I stole at that so it was worth living with the crappy trusses. I've got over 1900sqft of garage space with both garages combined compared to the 1600 of living space. I could use 3000 sqft with all the crap I have but it's long stretch from where I was. I have been thinking of ways to lift and brace the trusses but its probably worth asking an actual engineer about fixing something that holds the roof over my head.

 

[rjs89ia]

I am thinking Grumpy , Why not Reinforce his Overhead Crane Train Trolley Beam like a Bridge Span.
If you cannot reinforce bottom side do it Topside.
Like A Suspension Bridge.
How the San Francisco Bridge is Built and still standing intact.

Krazy Ed overbuilt his Garage too Grumpy like You did.
Mexicans wanted to cut corners.
Ed Fired them.
He did a lot.
I helped last Summer between jobs.

I'm not sure how I can reinforce it from the top and still have the trolley be able to roll the entire length. I could probably have reinforced it from the bottom but it would put the hoist really low which would be impractical. I set it up though to have little clearance over head to keep it up as high as I could.

 

[87vette81big]

You would have to mount the Train Trolley Main Beam .
Then Reinforce Topside.
Hopefully it don't come crashing Down. as Grumpy Said.

Back in 2005 I worked at Caterpillar in Aurora -Oswego Illinois Factory .
They Had Huge Train Trolley Overhead Electric cranes throughout the Shop.
I was in Heavy Sub Parts Assembly.
Operated a Train Overhead Electric Crane nightly.
Mine could lift 50,000 lbs up to 50 feet off the ground.
I could never take pictures .
Cell phones with Cameras not allowed in Factory .
Kool Stuff.
Anyhow the Setup was Super Over Engineered Overbuilt For Safety.

 

[rjs89ia]

Well it was a long weekend of working but I finally got everything up and functioning. Still needs some cosmetics and the shop definately needs a cleaning. Thankfully I'll be pulling everything away from the walls to put the insulation in.
I did test it with my 4 wheeler and dry weight is 375lb. Well below the weight of a SBC engine but I'm looking at making some improvements.