Finally IT IS UP

[volaredon]

my 2 post lift, that is.... gotta hit the farm store for a few odds and ends tomorrow (roll pins, 3/16 dia cotter pins etc to put the feet on the arms)
but its up. It took more shimming than I thought it might for the columns that's for certain.
Drilled all 16 holes in the concrete didn't hit any rebar, as much as in there I am surprised. (I worked in maintenance at a steel mill that made rebar when the garage went up, so there's a lot in there. still gotta extend my 220V line to the other side of my 30X36 garage; I'm running the lift temporarily on a 220 "extension cord" to bleed the lines and adjust the safeties and equalizer chain etc. but its up and operational with no leaks at least.

Mine is a 1986 vintage Weaver AFH 90 with the floor plate/ yeah I know, but for what I paid, I can certainly put up with that. (alternative = no lift for me)
the one thing I do not get, is that the edges of the floor plate do not touch the concrete, as I recall when I bought the lift it did in the PO's shop... I'm gonna have to get me some 10' long treated 1X6s to put under the leading/trailing edges of that floor plate. Seems like the plate dud contact the ground at the PO's place.
I completely redid this lift/ rebuilt the cylinders, took it all apart and had it blasted/powdercoated, new lift carriage bearings and equalizer chain bearings..and some time spent freeing up the links in the chains, from sitting. for what I paid to buy this lift back in October, and what a guy across town paid for his lift (same as mine only he has the 7K capacity version) I think I stole this one,,,, made it worth doing the work on it. Most was preventive in nature or to make it "look good"

 

[fflintstone]

with this title I figured you started taking ******.....

congrats on the lift.

 

[volaredon]

and for those that ask if a __ __ foot ceiling is enough for a full sized lift, I will say this; a 10 foot ceiling is great for doing brake jobs and such, but being I am an even 6 ft tall myself a 10' ceiling is NOT enough room... maybe if you have something like a Miata but certainly not for a Cherokee or a Wrangler...
I can however get the Cherokee high enough I can sit on a rolling stool/creeper and reach pretty much everything on the undercarriage without having to lay on my back with the car supported by jack stands..... seems like its time to do some ceiling joist removal. That is one advantage to traditional "stick built" construction. and people wonder why I said "No way" to using trusses when this garage was built.

 

[CNGsaves]

Congrats.

So gotta tell us . . . . what did you pay for the lift??

Let's see it . . . post up some pics !!

 

[TurboCup87]

Congrats on the lift!

 

[Garage5.9]

That's what she said

 

[volaredon]

Congrats.

So gotta tell us . . . . what did you pay for the lift??

Let's see it . . . post up some pics !!

I have had several bit-and-pieces threads on it, since buying it.
I was debating, trying to somehow link them all together from the powdercoating questions to parts source questions etc... but me not being a "computer-techno-type" would probably prove fruitless and frustrating. so I'll put it together and tell the story about how/where I got mine, here.

IDK about the pics, thing same "not a computer guy" reasoning
my son has one of those stupid assed "smart phones" and he has some pix on that; (I just have a plain "rugged grade" flip phone and don't use 10% of the **** on "it" as it is now, LOL) I have some on my Sony Digital camera's memory card, and do know how to transfer them to the computer but trying to post to a forum, has proven "iffy" for me at best.

My lift is a 1986-vintage Weaver (not "Derek" weaver) that was bought out by Rotary in 1989, to squash their competition.... model AFH 90-B.

It is a 9000 lb capacity. Yeah, it has a floor plate and no overhead connection between the posts; but man this thing is HEAVY... built like a tank. and I have found parts to be VERY available, and not necessarily having to be had from a "lift supplier"
This lift has no cables anywhere. It is all very heavy chains.

I bought it via Craigslist, back in OCT 2012... "stole it" and it was still all assembled and working when I saw it, I took 3 helpers with me to dismantle it.
and it took all of us, to get the posts down without anyone getting hurt/ this isn't your current model "2 guys can walk these up easily" variety.
One lift cylinder was claimed to be a leaker... I rebuilt them both, while I had the lift down and apart. seals are available, cheap, and they are stupid simple to work on..

I also took the whole lift completely apart, and replaced all the bearings in the chain rollers, and the carriage support bearings... Much cheaper matching the bearing number up via Ebay, than getting new rollers from the lift parts company... doing the same via Motion industries or other bearing supply house, would have been more/ but still cheaper than from the "lift company" turns out these bearings used are a very commonly used roller bearing throughout industry

and my son (does no more) happened to have a job at the time, where he was the sandblast/powdercoater guy at the time, so he talked me into letting him take it to his work, while it was all in pieces. He sandblasted the whole thing and powdercoated it, so the lift looks like brand new again.

The 'worst part" of this lift, was that the raise/lowering safeties were worn, the pins for the cams that held the safety off the post so it could be lowered, had enough side to side play that they "fell off" the lock rail.
Having contacts in industrial maintenance with lathe access at their work, to make me new pins for the safety cams that now work and will last longer than the originals did, certainly is a plus.
the lift parts company shows all new safety lock "assemblies"; IDK what they get for those...IDK if I want to, either. probably a lot. mine are back in place and very functional, for $0 cost.
these machines are very simple no "rocket science" involved....

my son has also worked for a horse farm for 6 years, around school and other jobs that have come and gone he borrowed a tractor with a bucket from there, which was a huge help in unloading the columns from my utility trailer and standing them up... once standing, it wasn't that hard to 'walk' them into place.

The 1st thing I did before I started the install, was to measure out my floor and I made some templates of the base, out of some old wood paneling/ that I set in place to help "scope out" the best placement of the lift given my shop size, garage door non-interference, and proximity to walls, room for workbench etc.

I had a member here send me pix and measurements of the decals from his lift, that's the same one as mine is. I plan to go to a local screen print place to see about getting new ones made.... I destroyed mine when I used a heat gun to get them off, despite trying to be as careful as possible with them before my son took the columns in to be blasted....

This particular lift was made in 5K, 7K and 9K variations. there is a 5K version of this exact lift on Ebay right now, for $1300. I know a local guy (a regular auto repair shop business) that bought a 7K version of it used, also off of CL, a couple hours away from here for $900... he is now asking me about the work I did on mine!! another contact my son made for me, as he now works delivering auto parts (he's still in community college, full time) He happened to see their lift on a delivery, and it was one of those "hey, that's just like my Dad's" moments....

I paid <$500 for my 9K GVW version, and have around another $250ish in it for "preventive maintenance" work done to it while apart-- the bearings and seals I mentioned, new fluid, etc... but it is all redone to be just like a brand new machine... my son wont tell me what his job charged him, for the powdercoating, he tells me they didn't, but I think he is lying....these figs don't include the Redheads (concrete anchors) I needed to mount the lift. those were another $~75-80ish.....
and I have 2 brand new pumps (not the whole power unit just the pumps within,themselves) that came with the lift new-in-their-boxes, when I bought mine. the PO of mine bought them along the way as "spare parts" in case he ever needed them.

The PO that I got it from, was the "original owner" and from what he said he'd had it set up a few different times in different shops he's leased over the years.
His most recent was "up" and he wasn't renewing this time, and the landlord was "pressuring" him to get it out so his new tenant could move into the space that was a lot to do with how I got it so cheap.
I have been all over online, both here and other places/ looking at various brands,, prices, construction, concrete requirements, and such; also I checked out a few in some of the shops around here for comparison sake. The only currently made lift that comes close to being "the same as mine," is a Mohawk....

 

[fflintstone]

sounds like you have a very nice lift for not a lot of $$$. It's amazing what you can do for a few dollars if you have skills and are not afraid of sweat equity.

 

[volaredon]

I used it the next day had to play with the jeeps (oil change on the Cherokee exhaust donut on the wrangler) my next jobs 'for me" will be to replace the leaky rack n pinion on the Dakota, repack the front wheel bearings while I am at it, and then put my popup camper up on it (it's folded up at the moment, wise guys) and repack its bearings, bolt on my new tires, wire brush/paint the frame and rewire my lights.
I was supposed to have a buddy over tonite w/a Sebring convertible for a couple ball joints/control arms, but were under tornado warnings so he wussed out....