Tool Crib of the North

[red]

"Thanks for watching/reviewing as always! Welcome your comments and feedback, but now its time to go reload the photo-cannon with another project(s). Until the next edition: stay safe & healthy out there, everyone"

Thanks Matt,
appreciate your ingenuity in making complex solutions look easy.
Decided to take a break from my chores, only to feel like I haven't accomplished much after watching your updates.

Will you pour the first few feet then set the box?
Or will you set the box first and pour around it?
What size stone & concrete psi?

 

[hpw]

Kinda of hard to tell from your pictures....looks like your rebar is on the vary outside edge of your pit almost touching the dirt.
You might want to look into this info., and 1 other variable is the size of rebar, but doing a quick search I didn't see anything on that



https://www.constructionknowledge.net/concrete/concrete_basics.php
this is about halfway down the page in the link

Rebar Rules for Distance to Edge of Concrete
Minimum Concrete Cover
Concrete cast against and permanently exposed to earth 3"
Formed concrete exposed to earth or weather: #5 bar and smaller 1 1/2"
Formed concrete exposed to earth or weather: #6 through #18 bars 2"
Formed concrete not exposed to earth or weather: slabs, walls, joists: #14 & #18 bars 1 1/2"
Formed concrete not exposed to earth or weather: slabs, walls, joists: #11 and smaller bars 3/4"
Formed concrete not exposed to earth or weather: beams and columns: 1 1/2"

But you really do some nice work

 

[matt_i]

Well friends, its been a couple months and I've still been busy. Time for an update....

Photo cannon engaged!

I thought someone had posted a comment about rebar "cover" meaning my bars were pretty close to the dirt....don't see it now (removed perhaps?) but any kind of criticism or discussion is greatly appreciated!! I did put some thought into it even though I didn’t reply at that point and decided it was probably most important that the rebar cage basically be a “belt” to hold the concrete together as a large cube. In this case if an outer part "flaked" it would be no problem, its the big mass we are depending on here to do the work. So my solution was to climb into the pit and do some welding. The rebar ties are good but nothing as good as some stick welded beads to hold it all together! I think the “concrete cover” is important when the concrete itself is holding the rebars together (thin wire ties just hold it inplace and offer minimal actual strength). But the welds are another story, these can hold a decent amount of tension.



My son was hanging out that day and made a little scientific experiement to find the max temp he could measure with a non-contact heat gun. He would hide around the corner shielding from the arc and then pop out as soon as the arc dropped and point it at the still-red slag.



Sample welds…







Here’s a detail I added to keep concrete out of the tapped holes, little dollop of silicone caulk. I figured these would seal the back side of the hole and in case 1 thread stuck thru it would just squish out of the way.



Lowering the box into position and c-clamping it for level, screws would replace the C-clamps.



This is a view with the camera stuffed underneath, quite a lot going on with the X-braces and the anti-pullout “feet” on 6 vertical rods. It took a very intricate dance to get this all aligned. There isn’t really room to reach underneath and even set a single rod, it all has to be assembled on top and lowered.



Couple more pieces of prep work, I used a long length of 2x10 to tie the box between a large steel bench and the grating popped out of the floor drain. ~300 lbs of cast iron tractor wheel weights were carefully placed in the box to help counteract “float”



Trapped the leg of a ~600 lb bench


And the floor drain, some custom cleats wedged in place of the grating plus an offset to deal with the slope in the floor and add length.



Added a custom cover to keep the box from collecting “flung” concrete.



And fabbed up a little chute, the metal was used approx. 5 years ago when pouring the footings for the new shop! Was sitting on a “Scrap Metal” pile the whole time but it might stick around longer. In conversations with the concrete yard they suggested a short extender might be needed. Red above asked about the concrete mix, this is 4000 psi/6 bag mix, 3/4" standard aggregate.



****
Yoda to matt_i: Ready to pour, you are? Tested, your assumptions will be, young Jedi!!!!




Kudos to my son for using his phone to record an assembly of videos of the process, its kind of slow and dry so I snipped various photos out for the highlights.
And so it begins. Very calm and easy at first, we were just watching mix drop into the hole.





Sort of a raw shot but this will become relevant in a minute…



This is nearing the end of the fill, just trying not to make a giant mess and have excess everywhere.



Working concrete around with a flat shovel.



I vibrated the concrete for the 2nd time here (first time was before it touched the bottom of the box).



I filled one extra wheelbarrow, and showed the driver where he could wash out and he was gone. I was going to grab my magnesium float at that point. And while I hadn’t seen it yet, the camera did…..my box form had “floated” upwards…..!!!





Now I will say there are “oh $hit moments” but this one took the cake for this year. Upon discovery I was panicked about what to do next and not really thinking clearly. I did know without a doubt that I had about 20 minutes to un-screw this situation or have a really big problem on my hands. Brute force seemed like the best option. There are no pics but I dragged in a ~400 lb chunk of ¾” steel plate on a 2 wheel truck and tipped it down on top of the box, then hauled with my Dad and son, approx. 400lbs more cast weights inside and placed on that. And with ~220lb “me” jumping up and down on top of it I couldn’t get it to lower.

So that shifted the panic to 2nd gear. I was dripping sweat, bleeding from my forearm where the flame cut edge of the plate sawed me. What I think happened was that when the box floated up, one of the anti-pullout plates slipped by one of the X-braced rebars above, and then it was going to take 15,000 lbs more to make it move.

I thought if I could get under the center I could loosen one or more of the nuts under the box and allow it to go back down. A flat finish on the bottom was not important as I planned to grout in a future step. So I hauled out the super Sawzall and hacked a hole in the bottom, but soon stopped, I could see that if I broke any of the studs out I would be in deeper trouble even if the box turned out perfect. So I stopped that, Strike 2. I reached thru the concrete on the outside of the box and could just grip the nut despite the concrete burning my forearm, but I couldn’t get a grip to turn it. Foul Tip. Still Strike 2. But I was running out of time and ideas.

Thankfully my mind went to clear for a minute. If I disconnected the angle iron from the plywood box, I could level the angle frame to the existing floor (very important). The box, while slightly tilted out of level was still centered and I could deal with the ~1” of raise in my design (had some extra room) and could reduce the grout thickness slightly to compensage. So I pulled most of the exterior of the form apart. And that, friends, is the look of a man who just dodged a cannonball ��





(original construction for reference)



This is after cleaning up some of the mess, intial mag float. Note the sides of the wood box are bowed in but its just cosmetic, the angle iron frame sets the dimension of the edge of the floor.



Went and had a bite to eat, decompress, clean up slightly ��

3 or 4 rounds of steel trowelling.





Painted the curing sealer with a chip brush, a quickcrete product from Lowes…don’t have a pic, but it’s a 1 gallon size, goes on milky.



After a couple more hours, I tore down the wood box. Wanted to correct things as much as I could before the concrete fully hardened….this was easily dispatched with the rub-brick.



Bottom of the box was “stuck” but after some work with the oscillating multi-tool it was removed in pieces.



All form parts removed at this point.



And all sides were painted with the curing sealer.



As an epilogue to this segment, I am not disavowed to any and all future concrete projects, in fact I have several more planned! It was a fail but I recovered well enough not to lose my 1/2 truck investment . What I missed in hindsight is this: Archimedes Principle…The buoyant force is equal to the mass displaced. So 30” x 30” x 15” deep (divide by 12 cubed to get cu ft….divide by 27 to get cu yds and multiply by 4000 lbs/cu-yd) = almost 1200 lbs of uplift assuming this is a fluid. I was a bit short with my initial 300 lb counterweight Also extremely helpful would have been less space-junk in the shop and the 7k forklift handy, I might have had success with the power forward-tilt to put a couple thousand pounds of down-pressure on the form (its 11,500 lbs total). But I knew once I got in trouble that it was going to consume the full 30 minutes I thought I had to get it out and working on the problem.

TO be continued!!

 

[wout]

It came out all good! Couldn't you put some kind of strut between the wood and the ceiling?
When you 'vibrate' the concrete, it creates a giant amount of force so you have to be careful not to overdo with the vibrating tool. Good luck on the next concrete tasks! About the distance between the rebar and the outer line of concrete, I have been learned it should be at least 2,5cm (about an inch). Otherwise the rebar can rust out of the concrete.

Wout

 

[T-handle]

Great update Matt_i Looks like a strong footing for the crane. I've been there few times too when the form gives up a bit. You can really feel your heartbeat in that moment

But no worries, it came out great!

 

[hpw]

I thought someone had posted a comment about rebar "cover" meaning my bars were pretty close to the dirt....don't see it now (removed perhaps?) but any kind of criticism or discussion is greatly appreciated!!

Absolutely not intended as criticism...just an observation. It is a mute point as now the concrete is in

 

[matt_i]

Wout, T- and HPW, thanks for your comments and feedback, my heart got a good workout lol. I was hoping for a relaxed controlled pour. Got to respect that ********! I think I could have put a post in but the ceiling is just drywall, I would have had to hit a truss directly. If I did it again I would probably make a bolted piece that attaches to the angle iron frame and bears on the underside of the existing concrete slab-edge with some pressure-screws. That would also be good as I could eliminate the long board going across, a couple attachments and it will all self-fix.

I will keep these learnings in mind for the next installation And I am definitely learning as I go here, so thanks for all of your support and constructive criticism, I know there are many people on the forum who work with some of these elements every day and I'm always glad to get pointers and ideas!

So back to the problem at hand, I did a post-mortem survey of what am I left to work with. Over 24” of level its out by about ½” of shim. Not ideal but definitely recoverable.



Brought the post in from the back shop where it had been hanging out for seemingly a few months. Last I touched it, was when I had welded on the cap. And that was winter!



And promptly dropped it when my hand slipped and I killed the 4 wheel dolly. If you recall it also claimed the life of an angle grinder….grr….The good news is that some old splintery plywood gave up and the casters aren’t damaged.



But I got it stood up so I can test the fit of the base into the pocket.



I could see from a tape-measure “survey” of the studs that the one in question was off by a bit, I needed just a little tweak to bring it over, out came the porta power and a block of aluminum to protect the thread.



You can see my first attempt with a softwood 2x4 didn’t work correctly….the base of the cylinder just punched a hole into it (!!) You can see the flat steel backer above…



First, armed with the forklift, I dispatched the 3/4" steel plate back outside...no more hauling that heavy sucker around with a hand truck!! To handle the column, I wrapped a 2” ratchet strap around the post with a couple of 2x4s trapped in opposition. I reversed one of the J-hooks that attaches to the steel ratchet body and also reversed the way the loose strap end fits in so it didn’t dig into the OD of the column. The j-hooks are connected with a trapezoidal link borrowed from another piece of rigging. This works but must be banjo-tight.



And, while several studs are piloted some are also off. I thought this could be an issue. I’m using 1-1/8” studs instead of the required 1” diameter, so the 1-1/4” thru-holes are kind of tight. I thought I had it solved in the form as I tested it but I think the dynamics of the pour got them off slightly.



Typical field-fix would be to break out the torch and “slot” the holes, but I didn’t want to go that route. Instead I pulled a 1-1/4” holesaw and a 1-1/2” holesaw piloted on the same arbor.



Like any holesawing operation thru metal, some chip-dropout holes are mandatory. My old holeshooter was getting *HOT* and so I let it rest by the fan while I drilled these holes with a cordless.



Eventually I got all 6 punched thru, holes deburred with a half-round file.



In my haste I killed some 1/8” pilot bits, leaning too hard on them while breaking out the bottom…this job was done late in the last day of a vacation, I got a late start as my neighbor had the orange forklift in his shop and was working that day, so I had to wait until he got home before I could start.



Success! I can go back to work knowing I accomplished something One of my first send-cut-send.com projects was some laser cut washers for this project, they are ½” thick hot rolled. Something I could have done on the lathe but with a lot more time and prep. Instead I just designed it in CAD and sent off the .dxf file, wait a few days and voila! On my doorstep.





Now I’m onto aligning the column vertically. Starting with the rough measurement on the torpedo I’m off by about half a bubble.





Enter this tool of great sophistication, some steel flat counterweights, a notched piece of repurposed concrete form, and a plumb-bob. I read about this concept in the Gorbel manual awhile back, and it makes perfect sense, rather than relying on the eyeball accuracy of a 10-12” torpedo level, spread the error out across 7-8 feet with the plumb bob.



The bob…is a Starrett 177 which is no longer made, allegedly there is Hg = mercury in the tip of it…like any old Starrett tool it’s a supreme piece of craftsmanship. I always admire the neat way the stringline is quickly laced right to the centerline of the cap. The cap unscrews and extra string can be stored within the body.







So now the game is to iterate on measuring string position out from the OD of the tube, compare top and bottom measurements and shim in between until everything is measuring the same. Move 90 degrees and repeat, move back 90 degrees and check previous work as I was using 3 stacks of shims so there would be no rocking.
The question is where does one stop, this iteration could go on forever lol. I was satisfied with a deviation of 1/64” in the scale measurement over 8 feet. Should be less than 1/32” on the 12 foot crane arm. At the end I did go around and check the 180-degree opposite sides to verify they were equivalent.



I started with a 5/8” nominal block and I am using these Douglas Stamping shims, excellent to have, these are in 1.0, 0.5, and 0.25mm steps. More or less I think of my finest step as being 1/4mm or ~.010”. Various other pieces of steel flat made it into the mix, at the end it doesn’t matter much what is used. The shims just give an organized way of thinking about where to go next. I did end up using a piece of .004” shim stock to cut the last spacers. I think that level of detail is way beyond where a typical professional millwright contractor would go with this, being that I usually see stacks of flat washers on non-grouted cranes that bolt to the floor where I work.







With the bolts snugged tight on the shim stacks, everything verified one last time, the plumb bob can go wait for its next job. And I can goto the Home D for a bag of Quickcrete “precision” non-shrinking grout.



I’m going to use the “fluid” mix, ideally I want this to self-level under the large baseplate of the column and provide “perfect contact” with the unlevel concrete. In my case I don’t have to build a dam around the base, the pocket walls will suffice, and 1 bag of grout checked out to be sufficient volume. Even in the weakest state which I’m using its documents advertise a compressive strength of 5000 psi, which theoretically should exceed that of the 4000 psi concrete.



Preparing tools and materials….



And I’ve got a pail full of grout.



I will say I would have liked more of the “self leveling”….but I didn’t want to make a weak watery mix.



You might be able to barely make out my special installation tool which is a tig filler rod bent so that I could push grout from the outside in towards the center.



Instructions state to moist-cure the grout 3 days, so I filled a spray bottle and hit it morning and night. At first it seemed very thirsty and this went down day by day, not sure if that was related to the exothermic heat or environmental conditions, but I stopped spraying at day 5. I can’t water-spray the grout trapped under the base at any time, so I’m just relying on diffusion or wicking to get there.





Epilogue to this episode…everything went as planned here, no pitfalls to report other than a few broken drill bits. I’m pleased as I was able to “erase” the errors of my ways with the concrete pour. At this point it will only be known to us on the blog Thanks again for following along!

 

[matt_i]

Good news, I did find an appropriate hoist for this crane!!!



HAHA! This is a 30 ton Crosby crane hook that I saw on a trip to HGR Surplus, my foot is on there for reference size.

With the column now set in place forevermore, I have to confirm a measurement I knew about before. Because of my placement, I was going to have to shorten the I-beam a couple of inches to make it work. Where you see it now is not an issue but 90 degrees from here it passes the drywall and some piping, and that needs clearance. The end of the tape is the extreme outer end of it into the bay of the shop. Should be good coverage. My basic intents for the crane are to be able to unload things from a pickup truck, to be able to disassemble and reassemble parts of various large machines (future plans), and possibly pull a V8 engine or transmission from a truck or SUV.



And so when I transfer measurements I have to snip off 4-3/8”.



The arm has been “hibernating” outdoors for a year along with some other junky-ness that its accumulated. There’s a 3/8” steel plate so I can transport the forklifts without breaking thru the wood deck and a chip conveyor for the Mazak which wouldn’t fit in the shop.



Pretty standard stuff here, bring out the trailer, take off the arm and place on the Wellsaw for some cutting. This saw is a 7x12 capacity and the I-beam is an S8 of some sort, so it can be cut on its side. A little reconfiguring of the vise jaws and then resquare the fixed jaw to the blade.







This is the outer race of the tapered roller bearing (cup) and while it looks crusty and nasty from sitting outdoors, I slopped some Fluid Film in there as soon as I got it home a years. I don’t have a followup picture but the condition is excellent with all of it wiped away.



While part of me wants to go and put this together I can see the paint job is a half-step short of horrific. Some person in its previous life really boogered the paint on it. I can see the original brown-yellow got a bit dingy and someone got the job to paint a bright yellow, but for reasons we will probably never know it was a very low grade incomplete job.


Drips and runs



Why not paint over the model and serial number info…



More and more…





I had the idea I might be able to sand out the drips, give a light overall scuff and then start painting. But my OCD kicked in and I decided to try to color-sand it back to removing the terrible orange-peel (rough nap roller??) and all of the drips and try to salvage the sticker. All 60 grit paper. The more I sanded, the more my inner anger was rising, I recalled some DTM paint that a facility manager pushed on us at work some years back, telling us about how everyone who uses it loves it so much more than the “old” oil-based enamels…..and it was a complete lie, the DTM paint was complete **** although environmentally friendly but was thin and streaky and the bond was terrible. I sort of pictured this poorly applied bright yellow as an extension of that and it pushed me to correct it.
I can’t really describe the pile and piles of paint-dust that were generated and fed to the shop vac . Complements to 3M’s Cubitron sandpaper (purple in color) for doing as best as it could and not permanently loading up. The grit does get “dulled” slightly over time but it doesn’t flake off easily and that was my main interest.



This sight and much worse were very often seen over the next couple of weeks. Thankfully I managed not to track any of the dreaded yellow dust indoors





Decided to give a color-test to the “elbow”, I chose Rustoleum Sunburst Yellow, a very nice color. It was really thick though and I decided to put a bit of research into paints. Painting is something I’ve avoided as much as possible my entire life and I think its time to change that game. I will admit to being impatient and losing interest in a project before I could put in all of the cleaning and prep work but finally at age 50 I think I’ve settled down enough I can put a better effort into this and my interest is sparked which also helps a lot . Beyond the crane, so many other things could use paint.



Getting a first coat. I settled on this magic formula. Get a clean, washed-out McDonalds cup (other family members are buying drinks-only seemingly every time they leave the house, it has to do with a diet coke addiction!!) Cut the cup off with a knife, Pour in rustoleum, pour in two “shots” of tractor supply Majic catalyst hardener, and pour in 1 gulp of mineral spirits. Mix with cardboard stirrer and apply with a chip brush, dispose of all solids at the end. After the coat dries, I would very lightly color-sand to remove anything stuck in the paint like bugs, extra bristles, or other dirt, a couple times I left a run that had to be dressed down.



Color is improving, I ended up with a total of 4 coats.



A little paint workshop sprang up in the main garage…this is good because I have some extra space to work but bad as other family members are observing my progress very closely now lol.



You might have to zoom this photo by clicking it but it’s the side of the elbow that is going to be most visible, despite having a uniform color, the surface looks terrible with a ton of imperfections…..and so….I decided in a moment to color-sand it back to a more even surface like the I-beam. Which about 20 minutes into that undertaking a large argument started as it was suddenly noticed that I was sanding down a surface which was already painted and then into the length of time this project was taking…. But we’re all good, it’s the yin and yang of working outside the shop where there’s extra space but there can be more “feedback” lol.



This is also an imperfection that drove the above sanding, some sort of sticker was looking sketchy thru the paint, only way to get it out was to sand it clean. I should say here that I’m not trying to goto bare metal. The original paint job is a good one in my opinion albeit not the brightest color. Its a primer coat and then the dull brown-yellow outer layer followed by the crappy roller paint, but its easy to blend it by hand just looking for the colors to appear and make sure there’s some white primer showing.


And the column needed attention. I had a new idea to bring out an old friend and try to save the shop from the attack of the yellow paint flakes. I don’t think I’ve fully recovered from sawing the concrete and this would probably have been helpful then. It’s a woodworking dust filter designed to capture fines that the main tubular dust collection can’t catch. Works quite well here, I relieved the filter element from time-to-time with the shop vac to take off the heavy stuff.



Blotchy, but blended ��



Chewed thru quite a few tack cloths…these are approx. 25 years old hanging out in a drawer with woodworking biscuits….my indication it was ready was when the huck towel wipe with mineral spirits showed no trace of yellow.



First coat of yellow on the column.


A few flaws to work on, color sand and recoat. Eventually got 4 coats on the column, that was the level I thought I needed for a uniform color with no bleed-thru of the previous coats.





This part was originally very rusty. It’s the carrier for the column-rollers, mounts inside the elbow. I sent it for a couple days into the EvapoRust bath and it came out with a nice black coating.



In the meantime, I found this gem on eBay, a dessicant dryer and coalescing filter, and I now own a HVLP harbor freight spray gun. The crane isn’t the right project but I’m going to give this a go before summer’s out! I am threatening to follow thru on upping my paint game somewhat. The air system is mostly there, I would paint out in the backyard, just in the open for now.





For now I’m using this “painting tree” where I hang up various parts to be hit with spray cans.



A host of other parts have been painted, the column-rollers, the pins, the washers, cotter-pins, the hex nuts and washers. The rollers are adjustable in order to tweak the I-beam for level and I will get to that after the assembly.



Epilogue for this episode….everything went according to plans, I probably should have painted the column before I installed it = less mess in the shop. It would have been nice to spray this, the finish would probably be really great, but I’m happy with the brushed results. The enamel hardener seems to be the biggest gain in the perceived quality of the paint, its definitely noticeable compared to the canned spray paint which doesn’t have that and is much softer.

 

[jbmatth]

Nice save on the concrete pour, that would be a very puckering moment that would have been very tough to recover from if not noticed before it dried.

JB

 

[matt_i]

JB – thanks, it was pure panic, I feel lucky I didn’t have a catastrophe to report on. Learned some good lessons for the future! Normally, “what to do next” in a problem situation seems natural but on this one I didn’t have a good plan and a very short window! Whew

At this point in time, all of the parts are painted, and its time to assemble this thing! First order of business is to tighten up all of the bolts. If you look closely, of the 6 “pockets” I have only finish-painted 3 as I could remove 3 bolts, paint those pockets and then move-on. However the window to assemble it came before the bottom end was fully completed, but this is below the floor level eventually, and something I will fill in. Ultimately I got out my ¾” square drive tools, a 1-11/16” socket, and basically got it as tight as I could physically do without resorting to cheaters. Official torque spec is around 400 ft-lbs and I probably got ~250 just by guessing at a 2.5ft lever arm and 100 lbs of force. Needs more follow-up as well.



Opened up the shop on a super humid day (undesirable but no other choice…it could be worse and raining lol). The first step was repurposing some of my 2x10 footing-form timbers which I save for all sorts of temporary construction. Some 4” GRK screws and we are good to go.



Due to the height of that square lifting frame, I needed to raise the “elbow” up approx. 16” so all of the holes would line up. Out came a massive stack of cribbing that was mostly stored in the attic. Since we are now dealing with painted parts, a little extra care is going to be needed. I’m not opposed to some touch-ups but hoping not to create any major scrapes or bruises…



This was fairly easy to tilt the elbow up vertically and then bring over the I-beam. I had my son drive the forklift for the first time, mostly it idles around and control of the brake is the trickiest part. We talked about how to drive the rear-steering unit and how to look down at the rear wheel to “read” whether the machine will go straight ahead or on a curved path when positioning. The need to drive the machine like a surgeon and not a butcher! Overall he did a great job although I don’t have a pic of him driving it



We worked on assembling the hardware, I elected to retrieve some new ½-13 HHCS from my inventory rather than deal with brushing paint of the original hardware. Grade 5 rating was retained and we spent some time demonstrating the need for bevel washers



After the elbow was connected its time to assemble the column roller assembly. This is mounted on 4 heavy threaded rods 1”-8 to be able to level the arm at assembly.





My original idea was this: after assembling the elbow, carefully test the assembly for center-of gravity and carefully pivot it 90 degrees to align the long-axis with the direction of travel. But after starting on that path I realized it was not a safe one, and I needed to stop and regroup.



So the solution was to raise it up to level, place one end atop the 8ft ladder, and then clamp some support posts to the elbow, with the idea I would “parallel park” the forklift underneath.



This is the setup, I removed 1 fork to make it easier to align and make sure I didn’t tap one of the posts when parallel parking. It does deserve another look at a better way to do this. Ideally this could be handled with a rigger’s boom, and I have the basic materials to repurpose my truss hanger post into that device rated for about 500 lbs at 4ft. However some measuring of the shop, the top of the tapered roller cone and the drywall ceiling says I have 18-3/4” of clearance and have 18” of structure to fit in there. So any lifting from overhead is out, just not enough clearance. It has to be done from below. An alternative would be to first mount the elbow to the column, and then bring in the arm and try to assemble it in that state. That would eat the 18” in two steps and allow the elbow to nest first and then give me 18” of clearance to bring in am 8” tall I-beam. However, right or wrong, I discarded that due to the degree of difficulty in assembling the heavy components at height, the elbow has to raise up approx. ½” from the top of the column. I thought about blocking it up with strips of wood but there’s literally no clearance under there to try to extract them later. Essentially two heavy components needed to be independently position-controlled if I went that way and so it seemed like higher hanging fruit…





So now its aligned for transport and the supports removed. Its very stable here, weight is underhung and its approx 25-40 lbs heavier in the back end which is fine, I have a concrete transition to go over at the entry door and so I ratchet strapped this into place.



Now entering the shop, another dimension is becoming apparent that I need to close the garage door most of the way down. Not the end of the world but it did become hotter in there running the forklift. I braced the door open about 1ft for some air circulation even though the propane combustion is safe for indoor work. Grandma came up with pizzas in hand and my son lost interest in this project for now lol! Old Dad and Grandpa were left to finish it up.





From this position I basically have to raise the I-beam up to be almost touching the ceiling.



I could see that the pipe hangers for the airline have to come down temporarily. The airline has a bit of flex over many feet but locally its not enough.



The hydraulic part is easy, just pull back the lever lol. But the back end needs cribbing in stages to match what the forks are doing. Keep in mind I’m not moving the machine relative to the ground and only will move another ~12 inches forward in total.



The height of the cribbing got silly and I didn’t want to crash, so enter the “H” shaped structure which is more solidly clamped and screwed together. Its only bearing about 40 lbs due to the balance of the arm biased slightly rearward.



Solidly clamped to the overhead guard. Don’t take those off, they can come in handy



So now it’s a matter of threading the needle between the tapered roller cone, the bottom channel of the elbow and the ceiling.







Getting a new visual I can’t from the driver’s seat!



And its just a matter of carefully lowering in stages, removing the Jenga pile one piece at a time so the beam lowers parallel and I don’t score the column. Took a bit of tweaking to get the tapered roller cup and cone perfectly aligned and it dropped together with a satisfying “clung” at the end. The camera captured this like the shop is lit up like the 4th of July…which it actually was…but its not that bright in reality.



Time to pose for the family and off to other July 4th activities!





Epilogue for this episode….this has been a long time coming together and while not 100% operational yet its very close. Happy to have the structure up and ready. I have to level the arm (the adjuster nuts on the roller assembly), mount the hoist, and deal with a couple of known obstructions near the ceiling, finalize the base-bolts and work on the floor plates which close up the square-to-round transition in the floor and I can get my toolboxes back to normalcy. In the blog I kind of straight-lined thru the crane installation, in reality there has been a lot of zagging thru other projects if one looks at the true timeline and I’ll try to touch on those separately in my next post. Thank you for following along and I hope your summer is going well if you are in the northern hemisphere!

 

[bimmer1980]

I always enjoy your posts! This one was no exception.... I can see myself doing many of the same tactics that you use in lifting and moving items. The safety nazi's would **** their pants over your methods, but I thought it was a nice balance between safety and getting it done. I've got a few ideas for what I might do to add to my overhead lifting needs and your ideas are helpful for my future planning.

The jib crane looks good!

 

[Krokodil]

Great job.

 

[wout]

Maybe nice to know for future projects, you can buy this kind of spacers to hold the rebar away from the outer skin of the concrete mold.

Wout

 

[Terrick down Under]

I absolutely love the "Tested" blocking. My son is always embarrassed when I stop and pick up pieces of 6x3 or 6x2 timers. I am just going out to my house and try and fit the upstairs windows today, If all goes well I will post up in a couple of days.

 

[matt_i]

I have been "gone" from the thread for a bit...6 years (!!)

To quickly update...

Built a 6 cylinder HEI distributor based on 1990s GM "small cap remote coil" for my tractor to replace the OE international harvester design...



Built this air distribution system in my attic...



Brought in this Monarch Series 612 lathe...



and was reminded my driveway is not up to the task...



A dude brought me his extreme screwup, Merc sterndrive where he drilled off center to release the oil but wrecked the internal threads in the process. The boat he bought could not get into the water and I think he was under extreme pressure at home...



She ain't pretty but is still out there running around (!)



Upgraded from permanganate rust removal to hydrogen peroxide



Worked more overtime than I had in my entire life, our plant was scheduled for 360 days for 2-1/2 years...so many shifts and 12s to cover it all.

Complete gut and remodel of kitchen, I hired a tile guy to fit and lay tile, but I did all other work. Floor is electrically heated (!)







Brought in this Cleereman 7.5hp drill press



Brought in this Devlieg 2B36 horizontal boring mill (which is a 13,000 lb machine)





And then this Rockford Openside Hydraulic Planer (which is north of 15,000 lbs)







Went a little wild at an auction, purchased 27 Wetzler clamps for $270.



Working now to pull in a new 3 phase circuit for the 15hp hydraulic planer....

And my plant (home for 16yrs) is closing and I started a new job within same company at a different facility as a machine tool technician.

 

[MWitte]

It's good to see you back, and making use of the shop. I followed your build with great interest through construction. Looks like you have added enough equipment to fill it up!

 

[jbmatth]

It has been a while since I thought about your thread, some major tool upgrades. Glad to see you are still kicking around, I look forward to what you work on next.

JB