The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area The Tool Chest Don't Strain Your Milk now!!!!

That was a saying that an old buddy of mine used whenever we were lifting heavy STUFF.
Ed's long gone now and I never even thought to ask where he got it from,
we always knew what he meant by it.

I'm just an old retired guy now a days, I never reached the status of tool & die maker, but I've been cranking
handles on lathes and mills ever since I was a kid as my pop and big brother always had a mill and lathe in the
basement shop. Also on the job over the past 50+ years I've drifted in and out of the machine shop when the need
arose. In my home shop I've had my Logan 10" and round ram Bridgeport for about four decades.
Now for about half that time, I've had this 1912 Lodge and Shipley 16" selective head waiting to put back in
service. This is finally the winter and I'm putting the finishing touches on what it needed to get it running
again.
Problem is.....at 73 close to 74....I don't what to strain my milk lifting those big old three and four jaw
chucks into place. My shop area is like stuffing 10lb. of crap into a 5lb. bag, in other words, it's pretty
crowded and the Large & Shapley lathe is in a rather awkward spot to get the cherry picker maneuvered in.
http://www.pbase.com/dennygraham/image/158511117/large
I need to cover the length of the bed so I can pull the tail stock or load a heavy work piece into place.
I'm planning on rigging up some kind of hoist over the lathe, probably with a Reese Winch or something similar.
The wall behind the lathe isn't sturdy enough to hang a Jib from so I'm going to have to hang something from
the 2x8 floor joist 8' above the bed. Oh....and the other thing is....it's gonna have to be something I can fab here
in the shop and something inexpensive, remember now....I'm an old retired dude on a fixed income.
Any ideas to get the juices flowin' and get me started at the drawing board????

Denny Graham
Strained to the limit in Sandwich, IL

Nice shop and setup.
How about using something like a sliding garage door system.
Uni-strut attached to all the floor joists to spread the load out and rollers that would run it the uni-strut.
1/4 ton hoist attached to the rollers would be all you would need.
I have seen this setup before for light loads and they worked good.

Don

Small I beam bolted across the joists to spread the load. Longer than the machine so you can drop things to the ground. Then find a trolley and hang your winch from it.

If you had more head room, I would say you could set up a rail system. Which you probably could still do if you set the rails along your joists, above the bottom of them, the width of the room. Attach some rollers to your I beam so the beam hangs and rolls on your rails. Then trolley for your winch. You'd have to get creative with the lighting, maybe attaching the fixtures out from the wall as opposed to hanging them.

Hang something like this from the ceiling. Mount your winch to it rather than a door. You can get the hardware from Home Depot.

http://www.unistrut.us/index.php?WP=show&GRP=Trolley

http://www.unistrutohio.com/unistru...ppc&gclid=CJry16DMuMoCFQymaQodcK4KIA

Just did a quick search.

I was going to say all that Don already said...
To add to those ideas here is a link to the unistrut and trolley stuff.
http://www.eberliron.com/store/category/Unistrut_Trolley_Assemblies/1056.html
I think this would be better than barn door hardware in this case, and more compact.

For the hoist I'd want manual control for carefully positioning things, not electric or air.
Something along the lines of a 1/4 ton chain hoist would be about right. Might find one with a loop of chain to operate it.
http://www.harborfreight.com/1-4-quarter-ton-lever-chain-hoist-67144.html

Grigg

I know just enough about rigging and hoisting to know that it's no joke. Does anyone have some idea what sort of strength/ dimension of a wood beam would be needed for a chain hoist attaching point? For a beam that might see a max of 1000 lbs and spanning about 12 ft?

Here's my situation:

* Got a "garage/shop" (some call it a john deere room) and one end of my walkout basement. Concrete wall on one side, stud wall parallel separating the finished portion. Probably 12 ft wide or so with joists above crossing perpendicular. A "cherry picker" can and has been used in this area but takes up way too much room.

I don't want to use a joist for the beam, even if I doubled one, because I see some risk to the tile floor above. (Pulling down the sub floor above).

My thought would be to rest a beam across this area, in an existing joist cavity, but isolated from the joists. The very heaviest thing I would ever try to lift would be a stovebolt engine (600-700 lbs). Would also be very handy for lifting the front of the zero-turn lawnmower for under-deck maintenance (probably secured with jack stand after lifting).

Probably would get a manual 1-ton hoist as overkill. Just need to spec the beam and figure out attaching point (eyebolt vs chain or cable looped over the beam).

Denny you might check out McMaster-Carr in there pulling and lifting sect.,#3626t11 and #3310t212. root

Strained my danged milk today! I feel like I'm laying on bag of baseballs, and keep making ole man noises. I thought we are supposed to get smarter as we get older...

So...that's what I did. Good for 300lbs which is more than I'll
ever load/unload to/from the lathe:
http://www.pbase.com/dennygraham/image/162516819
tks for the ideas guys.
dg

That's a very nice setup Denny!
I was thinking of just a single beam. Your bridge setup is so much better.

Grigg

Looks good Denny!
That should do you well.
Edit: Like Grigg said, I visioned a single rail.You took a general idea and improved it.

The only things that may get in your way are the lights.
Most of the shops I have worked in had the 4 foot lights hanging from threaded 3/4 water pipe attached to the lathe headstock.
Vertical, a 90 elbow and then a horizontal.
The elbow was not tightened and you could swing the light out of your way to load/unload the machine.
Just food for thought.

Don

Put hooks at 90° to the far end. I just swing the end over the
bed over to the other hook and then I can use the whole length
of the rails. I won't be using the crane that often, only to
change chucks, which is pretty seldom, and maybe to lift
something heavy into the chuck, like a crank.
dg

Denny
I thought you would have it planned out some how.

But, and here is the but, about changing chucks.
Once you get used to a four jaw chuck, you will never go back to a three jaw.

Kind of like water skiing, once you learn how to ski on only one ski, you never go back to skiing on two skis.

That is a nice system that you have built and I can be jealous!
Do you need any indicators, mags or mics?
My machining days are probably over, and I still have most of my tools.

Don

Not really Don, but thanks. Been collecting for half a century
myself. I'd love to have a good digital height gauge but I'll
have to be satisfied with my 12" vernier height gauge, just
a bit more work now that those lines have gotten so small.

dg

That's awesome.

I've spec'd out some much larger bridge cranes (5-10 ton), but that one is just cool.

Vernier scale, not too many machinist now a day even know what that is.
Ran an old 6" hoz. gantry G&L mill years ago, that you rode on a platform.
Vernier scale on the hoz. was six to ten feet below with a light on it. You had to look thru a microscope type of lens to focus in and read it from the platform, or climb down close and read it.
Edit: Floor type Hoz mill.
It was also equipped with a DRO, but always like to check the vernier to make sure on the big stuff.
http://fultoniron.net/

Don

Had one like that at Fermilab in the main machine shop, called
it the "Queen". We had a lot of old surplus Navy machine tools
when I started there in the 70's. A particle accelerator is a
huge machine to find the smallest of things and it took a lot
of big machine tools to make the machine.
Cut my teeth on vernier instruments. I handed my daughter my
Post slide rule once and she thought it was some kine of
musical instrument.
dg

Denny,

I'm a little late to the party, but after looking at your pictures I have a concern. It doesn't look like there are any bolts going through the joist, so I'm assuming you just lagged the strut to the bottom of the joist. If you attempt to pick a load up from one of the corners you will have the entire load hanging from just one screw which could pull out of the joist.

Here's the way I'd support the system (see link), at least on the corners. I hope you already have something and I just don't see it! Would hate to hear you dropped some heavy item and got hurt.

http://s160.photobucket.com/user/st...5254_zpsm2tivmo0.jpg.html?sort=3&o=0

Mike B

Not sure If you are a welder but if you check out roustabout lifts you might get some ideas to build one. You can probably build one from a broken engine hoist and an electric winch.

Just so you have an idea:

Broken engine hoist:
https://newjersey.craigslist.org/tls/5471927577.html

Roustabout:
http://bubbatool.com/product/sumner-r-250-15ft-roust-a-bout/?gclid=CISSweWascsCFQsnHwodKaAPeA