Re: Shop Crane Revisited

On 12/22/2024 8:13 AM, Jim Wilkins wrote:

"Snag"  wrote in message news:vk8144$f4q8$1@dont-email.me...
 On 12/21/2024 6:41 PM, Bob La Londe wrote:
 

Hmmmm....  I wonder if I 'll get lucky and stumble across a big piece of thick wall steel tube I can use to make a jib crane over by the mills and lathe in the back of the shop.
>

   Depending on the load capacity needed ... I built 2 swiveling jib
cranes with a portable base* for handling firewood . My first out of 2x2
thin wall square tube and I've handled up to about 400 lbs with it using
a hand crank . Then I got some thick wall and built another with a 2500
Lb electric winch mounted on it . *I also built a pivot mount in the
front corner of my 5z8 utility trailer . The light unit with the hand
crank stays on the portable base , been useful for tasks like hanging a
truck door out of my way while I replace hinge pins . The other stays on
the trailer for handling firewood rounds and dragging logs out of a
tangle .

For a jib crane I am thinking something a little more substantial. although bolting part of an engine hoist or truck bed crane on to the roof of my office did occur to me.  I'd like something for triple duty. I don;t often swing heavy parts onto the lathe or mill in the back, but I do from time to time.  Heavier than the hundred pound vise I take off and put on the mill table.  I'd like to have a jig with a trolley so I can set things on the mill table, into the chuck jaws, and lift things up to the roof of my office.  Standard height 8' ceiling office inside a metal building with a 16' eve height.  Roof of office was built with 2x12s on 16" centers, and hen ineter laced with two layers of 3/4 plywood glued and screwed to the beam/joists and glued and screwed together,  Both layers are half lapped.  Theoretically two corners could be slightly weaker, but each is supported by two walls at the corner. Not enough difference to make a difference.  I intended storage up there when I built it.  I don't like carrying stuff up and down the to steep stairs (that's how much room there was at them time), or throwing things up there.
I'm thinking if I could find a twenty foot piece of 6inch well casing or similar I could build both ends onto roller bearings and easily swing 1000-1500 pounds on a relatively short jib of 6-8 feet and meet all three purposes.  I'd probably get the Harbor Freight trolley and the 1300 pound electric winch they sell.
A jib crane is really secondary.  Primary is a gantry crane to meet most of my needs without buying a forklift.  Yes I have bucket forks, but they will only lift about 1500 (and it complains about it) pounds, the tractor doesn't have room in the shop, and it doesn't reach high enough.
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Bob La Londe
CNC Molds N Stuff
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