Alright, now for the fun stuff.
I missed the shot of us hoisting the collar up in place, mostly because my father and I had our hands full and my wife hadn’t come out to shoot pictures yet, silly me. But here I am bolting the two halves of the upper clamshell together. The upper is a bit difficult to assemble because it also has extra clips over and around the joint that help to ensure a very strong joint as the upper is in tension instead of compression like the lower collar.
We decided to use the hoist (the one that will eventually end up in use on the crane) to lift the I-beam into place instead of trying to muscle it up there.
After I bolted the I-beam in place I threw a level up and using a spacer under the end of the level closest to the pole leveled it up. What was the spacer for, you ask? I wanted to give the I-beam about ½” slope from end to pole so that when there is a load hanging the trolley wouldn’t want to roll out to the end of the crane and when unloaded the trolley would stay at the pole end where I wouldn’t walk into it constantly.
With the I-beam in place the final dimension could be taken for the tie rod and I could weld the ends in place. Once that was done the ends were secured with ¾” grade 8 fasteners.
Now I just need to hang the trolley and hoist and it’s a Crane.
Here’s some shots of the whole thing finished up and working smooth as silk.
And last but not least. These things always need extensive testing before being put into service so we found something that wouldn’t be hurt too badly in the event of a failure…
At least not if I land on my head.
So there you have it and it only took me 3-4 months to do the design, and find the supplies, time and money to build it. But I guarantee that my back will thank me in the long run even if my brain hates doing the calculations to get this thing built.
I’m sure that you guys will have questions and I will do my best to answer them. However, if you ask for the design I will not give it to you simply because I am not an engineer and I wont be responsible for something falling on your head, so don’t bother asking. But I will be happy to answer anything else.
Thanx for playing along,
Jaysin