[TheForge] Cranes

Mon Mar 16 11:55:34 EDT 2009

Terry- I have used a variety of cranes.
In my mind, the BEST is a bridge crane.
This is a beam, that rides on rails that are set on each long wall,  
high up.
A trolley goes across the beam, carrying your lifting device-  
chainfall, or whatever.
This gives you 100% coverage of your entire shop, x and y.
Again, the best is remote control, with a pendant, of an electric  
chainfall or wire rope lift.
50 tons is WAY overkill- 5 would be too, for that matter.
I think, for most of what you do, 2 tons would be fine.
I once built a small one, entirely hand operated, about 1 ton  
capacity, but much better is motors on the beam to move it back and  
forth.

Used bridge cranes are pretty common- but usually not the exact size  
you need. 5 tonners are all over the place, check www.machinetools.com  
or www.locatoronline.com

Your building will not support the weight, though- you will need steel  
posts to hold the rails.

Next down, in terms of desirability, is a swinging jib crane. This is  
a single post, which is bolted to a footing, and then attached to the  
building at the top. It has a swinging arm, which will cover a  
circular area with a radius the length of the arm. Again, you use a  
chainfall or wire rope hoist. I have had a couple of these in  
different shops, and they are simple and very handy.

What I think you are calling a "gantry crane" is what I would call a  
rolling A frame- and I have one of those, too. Built it myself, back  
in about 1992, 1 ton capacity. Mine is on huge, 8" casters, which  
lock, and is adjustable for height. I copied a Wallace gantry-
http://www.wallacecranes.com/prods.htm
These are cheap and easily moved- but the big problem is that they  
need to touch the ground in 4 places- and there is usually something  
in the way. If you have a big, open shop floor, they work best. But if  
your shop, like mine, is full of tables, machines, power hammers, and  
the like, its tough to get them to where you want them half the time,  
as there is an intricate dance of moving the A frame around big tools.
I use mine a lot as a jig, these days, I have sockets set in the ends,  
and I put big rotating jigs in it, so I can weld or work on all sides  
of a piece simply by rolling it in space.

The monorail crane is the least desirable, in my book. I have had them  
in a couple of shops, and find that whatever I want to lift is usually  
NOT under the monorail. Pretty restrictive.

For any of these, I would pickup a good used american made electric  
wire rope hoist, knowing your physical state. You dont wanna be  
yerking on a chain all day long. Coffing, CM, Yale- skip the Harbor  
Freight and Northern Tool stuff- you dont need another accident.

One thing to consider, which I have found to be the MOST handy, is a  
plain old forklift. I have a nice used Mitsubishi forklift, 4500lb  
capacity. It is easier, quicker, and more flexible than any of my  
various cranes. Unlike a crane, it worked 5 minutes after it was  
delivered, and I could sell it for about what I paid for it in a day.  
A crane is built in, usually, and not worth much more than the scrap  
value.
A Forklift can unload trucks, lift stuff, be used as a manlift with a  
proper bucket, can hold work while you are welding it, is an assembly  
jig, and much more.

We use the forklift all the time, and its incredibly handy. With a few  
straps and chains, it will do most of what a crane will, but do it  
anywhere.

Ries

On Mar 16, 2009, at 6:18 AM, terry l. ridder wrote:

hello;

well, today is going to get to 63 deg fahrenheit so my friend charlie
will be coming over to layout the new shed/shop. the new shop will be 28
feet wide and 32 ft long. gambrel barn style. the walls are going to be
2x8 instead of 2x4 to allow for insulation of the exterior walls to keep
the shop warm in the winter months and hopefully cool in the hot months.

over the weekend with the help of my son and using the front end loader
on the tractor i put together the 25 ton horizontal/vertical log
splitter. there are several things i would like to change now that it is
together. i should have gone with an electric start briggs & stratton
10.5 hp gasoline engine. i should have gone with the 21 gpm hydraulic
pump instead of the 16 gpm hydraulic pump. there are some other design
features which will change in the next couple months. it seems to be a
waste to have the hydraulic unit dedicated to that one machine when it
would be able to power several other hydraulic machines at other times.
the log splitter is built on a tow hitch frame. i am able to tow it
around with the tractor. i could see building a press that would use the
hydraulic unit for power. i could see building a billet rolling press
that a friend could use to roll his billets on.

the subject of a shop crane has come up for discussion several times. i
am in favor of using a portable gantry crane instead of a fixed gantry
crane. my friend charlie knows of a business that is closing in chicago
that has a gantry crane that they are willing to sell. the crane was
originally rated for 50 tons. that was probably 60 years ago. i think
that this is overkill for what i would ever consider doing. charlie and
i have visited several businesses that are closing and looked at the
shop areas for used equipment and design ideas. i can see why charlie is
pushing for a gantry crane. i would like to hear suggestions, comments,
hints, etc concerning cranes and lifting devices.

i have seen in one shop a mono-rail trolley unit. several small trolley
units ride on an i-beam rail system. each trolley unit has a lifting eye
on the underside. from this lifting eye a chain-fall hangs. material is
lifted using the chain fall and rolled around the shop floor area on the
monorail.

-- 
terry l. ridder ><>
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