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Aids for Lifting Heavy Items

Sweetcorn

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Feb 14, 2018
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North Central Ohio
I too made a wooden gantry on casters when I had to move my machine shop. Used 4x4 verticals, doubled 2x6 horizontals, and doubled 2x4's for all else. Plate steel on top with a chain fall. Lifted a Bridgeport, Weiler lathe, cutter grinder, and 850 lb. granite surface plate. Cost $150-$200 for materials. Still use it now and then and am wanting to design/fab a carrier for front hubs on a 4x4 Kubota tractor. Seems like some sort of holder/fixture for assembly that adjusts for height/angle that's on casters would help Olde Pharts that still do mechanical repairs (like me...) would be most beneficial to my diminishing physical abilities.

That sounds fun and interesting. What are you wanting to make?
 
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RoninB4

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That sounds fun and interesting. What are you wanting to make?
-Dunno but rebuilding the 4x4 Kubota front hubs meant you had to align a shaft, a spline, and insert a taper pin (IIRC) while holding up about 35-50 lbs. of hub. It required 4 hands and I called someone to help but wondered what I'd have done if I was alone. I've also done enough work on automobiles/motorcycles/machinery alone wishing I just had something to hold a component in place while I guided it to location and got a fastener started. I have a couple of concepts in mind but haven't decided on how to expand the base unit so it's adaptable to the widest range of possible tasks. A dedicated design is narrow in purpose. A small adjustable person seems to be a starting point for consideration. I have recently retired, have a full machine shop at home, and a couple of welders so some sort of mechanical/pneumatic/hydraulic abomination is in the future.
 

Sweetcorn

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-Dunno but rebuilding the 4x4 Kubota front hubs meant you had to align a shaft, a spline, and insert a taper pin (IIRC) while holding up about 35-50 lbs. of hub. It required 4 hands and I called someone to help but wondered what I'd have done if I was alone. I've also done enough work on automobiles/motorcycles/machinery alone wishing I just had something to hold a component in place while I guided it to location and got a fastener started. I have a couple of concepts in mind but haven't decided on how to expand the base unit so it's adaptable to the widest range of possible tasks. A dedicated design is narrow in purpose. A small adjustable person seems to be a starting point for consideration. I have recently retired, have a full machine shop at home, and a couple of welders so some sort of mechanical/pneumatic/hydraulic abomination is in the future.
Haha, I too have a full machine shop (and Fab) and this project sounds exactly like something I would do for something I own.

I'm not close to retirement yet though, so you got me there.

I look forward to spending my time doing things I want to do and get to keep instead of sending everything along once I'm done with it. I have been sneaking a fun project or two through here and there over the last few years. Can't wait to do more of that.
 

RoninB4

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Haha, I too have a full machine shop (and Fab) and this project sounds exactly like something I would do for something I own.

I'm not close to retirement yet though, so you got me there.

I look forward to spending my time doing things I want to do and get to keep instead of sending everything along once I'm done with it. I have been sneaking a fun project or two through here and there over the last few years. Can't wait to do more of that.


OT- Sounds like we've chewed on some of the same grit. I lived in Cleveland and Columbus in the 60's. Do you have a VMC/HMC for those prototypes I'd need a 3D or contour surface? I have good machines but all manual. Hope things are well for you and yours.
 

Sweetcorn

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OT- Sounds like we've chewed on some of the same grit. I lived in Cleveland and Columbus in the 60's. Do you have a VMC/HMC for those prototypes I'd need a 3D or contour surface? I have good machines but all manual. Hope things are well for you and yours.
I do have a 3 axis CNC.

My father in law has a produce farm and he's constantly creating some new piece of equipment to improve his farm. Anything from heavily modified tractors to harvesting machinery. There's always something intriguing going on there. I've always enjoyed working with the guy on stuff since he fears nothing. Rebuild an engine, split a trans, make something from nothing, etc. It's always interesting to see the solutions he comes up with for the problems or inconveniences he faces with his machinery.

When I saw your post about the Kubota hubs, it made me think a project like this could easily be something I'd see over at the farm and dive into with him.
 

RoninB4

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I probably would also enjoy working with your FIL, those type that don't fear failure often come up with creative concepts. If it's never been done then I can't really fail can I?

To the OP- Sorry for hi-jacking the thread.
 

Milton Shaw

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One of the handiest lifts I have is a two wheel hydraulic lift dolly. It works from floor to about 48" and then lets you move items. Also have a hydraulic roll around table from Northern that lifts from 3" to 35" or so. A hydraulic pallet jack, a automotive roll around jack, a Jib crane with a 500 lb electric hoist, a single post car lift with removable steel 4x8 table (makes an adjustable table height). Then a Bobcat with forks. I have a 1 ton electric hoist on trolley, but no beam set up strong enough to use it. There are still times when I need help, one of the attachments I use on the 500lb electric hoist is a 4x8 vacuum lifter that runs off shop air. It's great for plywood, and up to 1/4" steel plate.
 

quickfarms

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I have several vehicle mounted cranes but the most used item is my forklift but it depends on the size of your garage and your property combined with what your significant other is ok with

one thing that I have not seen listed is a car lift.

as we get older it is nice to bring the item up to work bench height rather than getting on the floor or ground
 

laser3kw

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A toe jack, at least mine, is a bottle jack with a "toe" to get under heavy equipment like a milling machine, to start jacking it up for cribbing. Very handy. There are many types.
Hmmm.... I could use one of those! Thanks
I can see using that mounted to some rollers / casters for a quick way to move heavy stuff
One thing GJ is good for - plenty of exposure to what you don't have :giggle:
 

TheShrine

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I need all the help I can get!
 

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RoninB4

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Hmmm.... I could use one of those! Thanks
I can see using that mounted to some rollers / casters for a quick way to move heavy stuff
One thing GJ is good for - plenty of exposure to what you don't have :giggle:

-A toe jack and 3 or 4 "machine skates" make things a whole lot easier when moving machinery. I can even move my 5,000 lb. jig borer by myself with these when need be. You can fab the skates yourself with a welder and some bearings if you want. Look these up.
 

tstaude

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This thread is great, i love the idea of the crazy heavy table with the hoist on it!

My current lifting devices are:
John Deere 1025 with a bucket and forks for mostly outdoor use.
Standard issue 2 ton cherry picker
Snap on mid rise scissor lift, I constantly use this for a workbench as well as unloading the truck because it goes 4' high.

For my new shop I am looking at a light duty rail setup using unistrut or barn door rails
 

BukitCase

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A few of my "back savers" -
2 of these

6 of these

1 of these

1 of these

2 pair of these

To go with this

We're saving up for a second shop (first one was a 36x48 pole barn which is 1/4 recording studio and 3/4 wood working, now partly shared with material storage and milling machine) until that happens I've built a couple (steel framed, 2" square tube) sheltered areas that are modular - one's 12x24, other is 12x20. BOTH are "transportable" by folding down part of the roof and using the loader on my Case backhoe, just drive in/lift/drive away.

Hoping that happens in the next year or two :cautious: - first pic below is tentative floor plan, note that involves two 40' high cube containers which will need to be MOVED (NOT empty), which explains the purpose for several of the above links...

Second pic shows the inside of the 12x20, including a HF pickup crane modded to be a small jib crane. Jib has about 320 degrees of usable rotation and serves both a 3x5 steel table with 1/2" top AND the 3x7 foot weld table with 1" top.

First version of the jib used a worm gear winch for lift, but using a socket in a drill got old REAL fast, now that's replaced with an 880 lb. hoist. The two tables are clamped together for more stability. The red vise sitting on the big table weighs right at 100 lbs, I can still lift that if I get STOOPID :rolleyes: (I try to do LESS of that as I get closer to 80)

Pic 3 - deck on my zero turn is light enough to pick ONE end up and use a hand truck (to move it from ONE of the shelters to the other), but the jib is easier on the back to get it up where I can replace spindles, etc, and weld up damages from my "less than pool table" mowing areas on just under 10 acres.

pic 4 - Some of the pins on my backhoe are 1-3/4" and needing some TLC on bushings, etc, so my mag drill weighs just over 50# (can handle over 2" cutters) - I bent up a strange shaped hook so it can be lifted by the handle to sit on the "MDVT" (Mag Drill Vise Table)

Pic 5 - The "MDVT" has morphed into this - under all the swarf is one of these

with a couple of HF drill press vises - the opposite end of the small table supporting the mag drill (3/4" thick top for magnet holding power) is also a vise jaw, with ways to implement "stops" for repeat distance from the end of identical fab parts - IOW, making all the different "tinker toy" tubing parts for various inserts into receiver hitch locations..

'Nuff for now, sorry if this got a bit off topic... Steve

Oh, forgot to mention - that XY table's lead screws are 10 TPI, the holes on that particular part are exactly 1" on center - just drill, turn the crank 10 times, repeat (while holding tension on the table the same direction each time, duh)
 

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Jazz1

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Thunder Bay On.
I use engine hoist frequently, have a chain hoist in garage as well and also use hand truck for moving stuff, all are back savers.
 

BukitCase

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amazon suckered me into ordering a second one of these

By dropping the price $33 cheaper than the first one was - "Hi, I'm Steve; and I'm a Toolaholic" :rolleyes:

Here's another "back saver", a small (about 12" trunk) tree on our property line, wind blew it over into neighbor's yard. Neighbor's too nice to say anything, when I found it it'd been down for about 3 weeks - I cut the trunk right at fence line, then

Pic 1 - setup a few of the "tinker toys" - the level 4' tubes used a 45 degree ell, purpose is to act like a pair of bale spears into the crown. The 2 6' going up at 45 degrees (no ell needed) are for rigging out to the trunk.

Pic 2 - tow strap temporarily wrapped around the tubes to avoid running over the strap in transit

Pic 3 - If you look closely at the far right of the pic, you can just see a bit of the loader bucket - picked the whole tree up and drove out on the road, back to my burn pile, cut the trunk off for firewood and left the crown on the burn pile for later. All I left behind on neighbor's yard was a couple pitchforks of small twigs that came off the crown. (Picked those up later with one of the larger Rubbermaid carts)

Pic 4 - about HALF of the "tinker toys" I've made, they get used to cobble just about any lifting job I run into - if I can't rig something with the ones I have, out comes the 2" receiver tube and a welder; next time that job gets easier. Been awhile since I needed to do that though...

Pic 5 - this one's to transport small to medium bundles of 20-24' steel from where they deliver it at the road, down to one of the containers for storage (WITHOUT needing a 30' wide road) - I can set the load about halfway into a container, set a modified jack stand under the rear of the load, back away and let the rear end of the bundle rest on the ground while I set one of HF's car dollies under the front of the load, then lift the rear and push it into the container the rest of the way. Dang, I love wiggling hydraulic levers instead of trying to snap my back back where it should be :=)

Pic 6 - A closer shot of the "sidecar" steel moving setup -

Coming soon - a tinker toy setup to move an assembled 10'x20' Costco garage - this one might be a bit of a challenge... Steve
 

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86turbodsl

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Michigan
Engine hoist, jib crane, tractor loader, forklift. Had em all. I'm currently finishing up a small forklift for in the shop.
It'll never lose a dollar of value. Your widow can sell it for more than you paid for it.
 
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BukitCase

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JRC, are those jack stands the sunex tall ones? I bought 2 pairs of those to use with the mid-rise, now all I gotta do is create another concrete slab with a roof over it so I can use the lift; but considering what prices are gonna CONTINUE to do, I don't consider it jumping the gun, maybe just DODGING the BULLET :rolleyes:

Man, if those stands were any heavier I'd be looking to mod 'em with air/hydraulic cylinders... Steve
 

BukitCase

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As promised a few posts back - "Coming soon - a tinker toy setup to move an assembled 10'x20' Costco garage - this one might be a bit of a challenge"

This garage was one of two protecting our 32 foot travel trailer (bought used for facilities while we basically rebuild our whole house in the next few years) - only ONE of the two garages survived some fairly high winds a month or so ago - these garages are fairly easy to put together for the most part, except for getting the pre-shaped roof stretched enough to fit over the frame as intended -

So I and my grandson figured out a way to leave the garage frame and roof together while moving it about 700 feet and use it to cover a small pile of firewood (rather than move the wood AGAIN to another wood shed - remember, this thread IS about NOT hurting yourself, right??!?) :oops:

Anyway, one of the things that made it seem doable was the brush bucket I built a few years ago for my Case 580B backhoe - it's 2' deep, 6' wide and 8' long, and with the use of a few components of my "tinkertoy" system, it can be attached or removed in about 5 minutes or less.

For this job, its extra length let me support the garage frame under 2 of its 4 "rafters", aka 1-1/2" tubes. I made up 4 plywood supports that cradle the rafters well enough to keep them from bouncing out of the grooves (cut at 30 degrees to match roof slope) then clamped the cradles to the frame of the brush bucket, spaced 80" apart to match the span between rafter pairs - then 4 tiedown straps kept things centered and snugly in the grooves -

Pics show initial 1-1/2" hole saw at 30* prior to sawing parallel to form a U groove, then a couple ready to move, and a couple more at the destination.

Part of the "trip" was down a fairly steep but short hill, in order to get around numerous trees and hedges (without which, the trip woulda been maybe 200 feet)

Things (for a change) actually went better than I'd hoped, both me and grandson were pleasantly surprised. We both got rewarded afterward with supper of spaghetti and garlic bread, washed down with a cold beer or two (grandson's 22, NEVER turns down ANY of those items) :evil: ... Steve
 

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NWOhioChevyGuy

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No pics but I have the following so far.

A) bed crane in my pick up, this was purchased to change a volute out on a pump for work. Required some fabrication and backing under the bed of the truck to reach it's capacity. Just a Cheapo HF one. lifted more deer than anything else into the truck. Does a nice job lifting my 17.5K "portable" Generac into the bed among other things also.
2) 1000# 120V electric winch mounted in the garage w/ some unistrut to lift wheels to racks on the wall. This set up needs some tweaking as I still have to roll the wheels into the racks once lifted. Can do it now but 10 years from now not likely.
3) Have a receiver mounted 9000# winch for the Truck also, simple block and tackle and it can lift most anything I'm tackleing.
4) If something too heavy for those items, I have the benefit of borrowing the neighbors 50HP Ford loader tractor, other neighbors skidsteer w/ forks, brother in laws BackHoe w/ forks, etc. I love it when the neighborhood has equipment and help each other out.
I helped my Brother in law pluck his Cat out of is KW this last week with the BackHoe - favors done, favors collected ;)
 

laser3kw

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northen IL
I just upped the ante in my arsenal of help. I use my engine crane / cherry picker to lift and move various things as needed. The stock crane comes with the 8 ton, hand pump hydraulic ram. Lots of strokin to go from floor to full extend. Harbor Freight has the air assist hydraulic replacement ram on clearance right now! There were none left in the local stores, I spied on in the next town over but it was gone the next day. A store 55 miles from here had a couple so I rushed down there and snagged it. $70.00 plus tax. Yay for me!
What a joy to use! Easy to install - pull to bolts and swap - anddd..... done.
Highly recommend modification.
 

LodiTJB

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May 14, 2020
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Lodi
I don't know what your workbench set up is like, but I love this thing. The table is extremely heavy, but i did the hydraulic jack and caster mod, so it moves easily whenever i want it to. I use it all the time for my home shop. In the first pic I'm lifting a crazy heavy smoker out of my truck.

Before anyone loses their minds, I know that isn't a lifting strap. I lifted the smoker up a couple inches, drove the truck out, and set it down. Its all my stuff and I was willing to take the gamble.
20220120_093709.jpg
Looks like a Yoder!
 

BukitCase

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Niget2002, just noticed your comments on page 1 of this thread - my HF gantry's only 1 ton, but you may wanna borrow some ideas from my upgrade mods, here


HTH... Steve
 

JRC3

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Southwestern OH
JRC, are those jack stands the sunex tall ones? I bought 2 pairs of those...Man, if those stands were any heavier I'd be looking to mod 'em with air/hydraulic cylinders... Steve
I have one of these in the garage. Great for moving the jack stands.

gTGTtV9KJ7DFoLNtXsZvAb6dbddBr9WkK8q04s2gE&usqp=CAU.jpg
 

ddawg16

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Son moved out? Just wait, he will be back when he runs out of money......

Rent out a room? Someone who is into the same stuff as you....and single....
 

alwaysFlOoReD

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Airdrie, Alberta, Canada
I happened on one of these at a yard sale for $10.00. I've used it for many lifting jobs, including a i4 engine in a small Plymouth Neon. It's small, light, easily lifted into the back of a truck if needed, and is rated to (iirc) over 300 lbs. It's a medical lift so will handle well over the rating and is very high quality.13240_life1.jpg
 

CoogarXR

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Ohio
Like others have said, I use my cherry picker for everything except pulling engines, lol.

My back is fubar, and I don't bat an eye at using it for anything of questionable weight. I just used it recently to pull a big cast iron inline cylinder head. I don't know how heavy it was, but I wasn't about to try to lift it by hand. I lift the riding mower with it too.

I just used the cherry picker this last hunting season to bleed a deer. With the boom extended all the way and the ram pumped all they way, it had enough reach to properly hang the deer completely off the floor. And it was just the right height to use my rolling stool to quarter it.
 

Slednut

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As said before a folding engine hoist is handy, made mine so I can install a set of steerable pneumatic tires on it so it can be taken off road.

I used it to lift a 75 pound hood and install doors.
 

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cruzer75

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gantry crane made from 4x4 post and 2x12 x 8ft lumber, lifts 2k (did the math)
hydraulic lift table on wheels (is kind of home made, so not as low as i would want, but super useful
tractor with loader now (650lbs says the book)
I put a lift ring for "light" loads (200-300lbs) in the ceiling (tube across joists with 5/8 carrage bolt and ring at end)
engine lift for those times you need a more mobile solution
 

dgstarr

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Jan 19, 2022
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My last son just moved out, 3 hours away, which makes my wife and I empty nesters.

I'm pretty involved in mechanical repairs typically having multiple projects going on: classic cars, small engine machines, tractors etc……

A couple of days ago I needed to rebuild a carb on a generator and realized I no longer had help (since my son moved out) lifting the machine onto the bench and ended up having my wife help me.

My back no longer likes me lifting and I’m pretty conscientious about it……

Anyone in a similar situation(?), and if so what kind of creative ways are you employing to lift heavier items in the shop with no help?
 
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