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making a sliding winch??

pgoldston

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Jun 23, 2008
Messages
23
I have a second floor loft that I want to move my band saws up to but the saw is to heavy to get up the stairs. I also have a I beam that goes across next to the door on the second floor. I also have a 1000 pound harbor frieght winch. I am wanting to some how mount the winch to the i beam but I want it to be able to slide as this is in my work area as well and will be nice to pick up things with it as well. what is the best way to go about this?
 
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Hawk Thor

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Jul 23, 2011
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Iceland
Find or build a beam hoist trolley to fit your I-beam. Make sure your beam can take the load and that there is no wiring or anything else in the way.

Mount winch, put wiring on a reel, mount reel at one end of beam, extend remote down to reach.

I would have a spring on the remote cable at the top. That way it is just above head level when not in use but can easily be pulled down to see the buttons.

Make sure it rolls smoothly enough for you to move it with the remote cable or have a chain attached to the trolley to move it back and forth. You could also put a very small winch on the beam to move the trolley.

Put bump stops on the beam where you want the trolley to stop. I would also weld a small angle iron further than the bump stops, incase they fail, the angle will stop the rollers on the trolley.

beam-250x250.jpg
 

volvo

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Feb 19, 2006
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PNW 45th Parallel
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Do a thread search, there has been many good designs and low buck systems just like your looking for here in the past years.

#1 http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=8563&highlight=trolly

>>>a Harbor Freight 110V electric winch bolted

>>>>idea is the barn door track under the ridge, with the hoist on rollers so you can move it one way or the other away from a trap door that is hard to see from below.

>>http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=41831&highlight=parts+loft+lift
 

Jack Olsen

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A 1000# winch is not designed to lift anything at all. For that, you need a hoist. They look similar, but are rated in different ways and have different types of braking systems. A hoist has a locking brake. A winch has a dynamic brake that has to slide.

The winch is rated for pulling a 1000# weight on a horizontal service. A hoist is rated for lifting weight vertically.
 
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Milton Shaw

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Feb 11, 2011
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That's what I was going to say, Get a hoist and trolley, check craig's list. I have bought two high dollar hoists for about $100 on a 1 ton, and $50 for a new 500 lb Milwaukee hoist. Trolleys can be found too on CL. It may take a while to find one, I had to drive 200 miles to pickup one of mine, but combined it with another trip so it ended up being only about 60 extra miles. New hoists are $1000 plus for a good one, EBay or CL is your place to look. I winch has no brakes and should never be used for lifting and all of them say that in the instructions.
 

kbs2244

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Nov 11, 2006
Messages
14,065
Winch vs. hoist is big problem.

Winches are rated for a horizontal sliding load.
Hoists for a vertical lifting load.
Huge safety rating difference.

But, assuming you have the very common 1000# HF hoist, just go back to HF.
They have everything you need.
 

wssix99

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Mar 2, 2011
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5,156
Location
Chicago, IL
^^^ What they said. If you are going to use a winch, you'll want to make sure your will is in order first.

Is this a steel beam that holds up the house? If so, adding a point load from any type of lift could cause it to fail. (You'd need an engineer to determine how much of a point load you can put on it.)
 
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