shop hoist

[driftpin]

I have a loft above my two-car garage. I needed to improvise a way to get heavy things up there safely. This is what I came-up with.

It's a 1-ton rated cherry-picker adapted to sit in a floor joist bay on a 'shoebox' of welded 3/8" steel, on a swivel pedestal. The arm is adjustable for reach. I adopted a HFT 1-ton cable winch to the cherry-picker. I designed it and fabbed it up w/wood for 'proof-of-concept,' and then brought to my friend the machinist who did the steel fabrication for me. I installed it, and it works very well.

You may notice the hydraulic ram has been replaced by a 2x4, that was during the 'proof-of-concept' phase. The ram is in place now. It works like a dream. About the only consideration is that the safety switch to shut-down the motor is now out of the cable run for its actuation, I might put a micro-switch at the top of the last cantilever arm pulley to do the same thing. That, and a couple of cable guards above the pulleys to prevent the cable from jumping-out. And yes, the Vise-grips isn't holding the axle for the rear pulley any more.

I am limited as to headroom, and this design gave me more room to work with than by using an I-beam attached to the ridge beam, and a trolley for something like a chain hoist.

I haven't lifted anything close to 1/4 the weight the cherry-picker or the electric hoist is rated at (2,000 lb), but I hooked it up to my Powermatic 64 table saw (~300 lb) and it effortlessly did the job. I'd post more pics but when I use my iPad, when I try to load > 1 pic even on separate attempts, it just erases the prior one, and substitutes the new one. Also, sometimes when the pic is correctly-positioned in my photo gallery, when it uploads, it changes the orientation, I dunno why. Anyway, the lift makes it very easy to put things into my loft or to remove them from there, safely.

It wasn't cheap, the labor of my friend the machinist was the largest expense, but everything is robust and solid.

 

[kbs2244]

I like it.
It gives you the vertical travel needed and, with the swivel, a way to get the load onto a weight bearing surface.

 

[bob15]

Not bad. Just be careful you don't get carried away with the weight.

Have you thought about using superstrut's trolley system in your loft to further halp move things around? I believe the trolley is rated for 750 or 100 pounds (4 wheel design).

 

[Z2V]

And your loft will hold the weight of all that you put up there,?,
Looks good

 

[driftpin]

Thanks for the comments and suggestions.

The #1 thing I was after was to be able to lift something as-tall as I could fit into the space available at the highest point, the ridge beam (~61" from the loft floor to the underside of the steel ridge beam). I have to contend w/the roof slope, so being able to transition the load from parallel to the front of the loft, at the beginning of a lift, and then being able to swivel it parallel to the gable roof ridge beam, to get it onto the loft deck was an advantage of this design. I thought about using pulleys to statically-mount the cable winch to the loft deck, but that seemed to be more-complicated than this design.

I have some lolly colums which I would use (one) if I ever tried to lift something of four figures' weight. I would place one under the steel 'shoebox' in the loft floor joist cavity, or two if I was lifting anything much-heavier than that. Odds are, I won't, I thought I'd be storing vintage motorcycles up there, but the more I use the space, the less-likely I've decided I'll do that. I expect the heaviest loads lifted into the loft will be complete motorcycle engines (~240 lb), which in the case of my motorcycle collection are less than the weight of my Powermatic 64 table saw.

I've considered fabbing up a bench for using the lift and placing a bike on the bench to work on it, but a Handy Lift seems like a better solution (I later bought a Handy-Lift pneumatic motorcycle lift, what a back-saver!). Easier to get a bike onto it, and easier to vary the height; they take up a lot of room when you've only got a 2-car garage though, nearly half-filled w/tools.

Yes, I'm familiar with Unistrut but the Super Strut I'm not. If I had a higher ceiling, something like that would work. I think you could do something in a loft floor joist bay w/the trolley system though so it was not portruding below the base of the loft floor joist. I have 7'1" from the garage floor slab to the bottom of the loft joists, and they are 2x8's. At this point, I don't know how I would use the S.S. trolley, but thank-you for the suggestion. Materials to remember.

Right now I use the HFT furniture dolleys and cargo straps to secure the loads to the dollys for maneuverability in the loft. I was going to use wire rack shelving on casters, but the stack height cost me too-much room, and the lower eaves are < 4' in height, meaning the caster-equipped wire racks can only go 1/2-way from the ridge beam to the eaves walls.

At the same time I was doing this, I was getting a set of plans done to convert a 1 car carport to an enclosed garage (another location). I already had a set of approved plans that I never built, and I am having them updated to current code for re-submittal. The city will allow me to reactivate the expired permit, which will save me a bit of $. That's where I'll probably be storing complete bikes, and moving them into the loft-equipped shop one-by-one to work-upon. Then it will be back to the complete-bike offsite storage. Yes, a few irons in the fire.

Note: I bought a premanufactured 10' X 20' building for a garage at the other site, there's a thread about it. https://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=368713&highlight=needed+storage
I put it on a concrete slab I had poured, and it's got a rollup steel door on one gable end, a seamed steel roof, and 3/4" PT plywood walls covered with Hardi-Board exterior walls. Because I'm one mile as the crow flies to the Atlantic Ocean the structure is rated for 175 mph winds. Florida has hurricanes, so the Florida Building code is written for HVHZ conditions (high-velocity hurricane zone).

 

[driftpin]

My instructions to the old-school architect were, "I want to store complete motorcycles up there," and he asked how-heavy one was. My reply was 600 lbs, and that's the figure he gave to P.E. structural engineer, with a near-100% safety factor. I was looking for the approved plans but they're at another location. So, yes, it was designed to hold many hundreds of pounds per square foot. The municipality made the architect make a notation, 'not habitable space,' as there is no stairs access, it's for dead storage. It's about 260 sq.ft. w/five feet at the ridge beam. Just right for dwarves, elves or Munchkins.

And your loft will hold the weight of all that you put up there,?,
Looks good

 

[zkdiesel]

I would be worried about ripping it I off your
Joist

My 10' arm job crane has a 4'x4'x4' concrete holding it

 

[bczygan]

Also note that the 1 ton rating of the hoist is without the arm extended at all. Capacity is reduced when the arm is extended.

 

[hedhunter9]

I built this Jib Crane to put bikes up on top of my work shop..
Bob

 

[driftpin]

Yep, similar style, similar load. I'm not using mine to hoist VW beetles to the roof either.

Is that an early 1970's Husky in your avatar? Sure looks like a 250/360.

I built this Jib Crane to put bikes up on top of my work shop..
Bob

zkdiesel wrote
I would be worried about ripping it I off your
Joist

My 10' arm job crane has a 4'x4'x4' concrete holding it

See notes about the underlying construction details supporting the loft, below.

 

[KDXSR5]

I am liking this thread. Thanks for sharing guys!

 

[bob15]

Unistrut & superstrut....same thing.

The trolley system track hangs down about 3.5".....so, head space loss isn't terrible.
This website, it has decent info on the system: http://www.unistrutohio.com/techtalk/unistrut-trolley-system-offers-support-to-varying-load-capacities/

 

[dirt_dobber]

I built this Jib Crane to put bikes up on top of my work shop..
Bob

great idea.

 

[driftpin]

Here are some pics of the 3/8" 'shoebox' (pics 1,2,3) I had fabricated from steel plate. This is the support for the cherry picker 360 degree rotating column sitting in the 'shoebox' base. It has four 3/4" bolts (pic 2) through the sides into the loft floor joists, and a 3/4" threaded bolt which is through-bolted to the 1/2" wall thickness 4" x 8" steel beam at one end of the 'shoebox' where the floor joists are hung off the steel beam and three 2 X 10 'sandwich.' (pic 2)

The 4" X 8" X 1/2" wall thickness steel box beam (pics 5,6,7) is sandwiched by three 2" X 10"'s (pic 2) ripped in height to match the steel box beam. In pic # 2 you can see the Simpson joist hangers nailed to one of the 2" X 10"'s, the one on that side of the box beam (there are two height-ripped 2 X 10's on the loft floor joist side).

The 1/2" wall thickness 4" X 8" box beam spans the width of the garage (pic 7). It was site- welded to two flitch plates (pic 4) (one on either end) which are set into two 8" X 24" poured concrete and steel-reinforced columns (pic 5) which go from the building footer to the roof rafter poured concrete tiebeam at the top of the wall. I gave the architect and structural engineer my needs for weight-bearing in the loft, and the P.E. designed this structural beam and steel-reinforced concrete support system to bear the weight for heavy storage.

I was going to drill & tap into the steel beam for bolts to hold one end of the 'shoebox' floor, the tongue which extends below the steel beam, but after using the lift for awhile, I don't thank it is needed. I might measure the deflection under the lift at the bottom of the 'shoebox' just to see what it is. Under the 300-400 lb load I've done as tests I haven't seen any visible deflection. No creaks from the load-bearing structure as the hoist is made, either.

When I was designing this loft lift, I asked a friend who is a Michigan State University (MSU) engineering grad, and a registered P.E., to come over and check out my concept. He made a couple suggestions on gusseting the 'shoebox,' and we discussed fasteners and metal thickness. I made a wood template and showed it to my machinist who advised me too. I incorporated the suggestions from both the P.E. and the machinist, and made the wood template. I mounted the wood template in-place between the loft floor joists. Then I fitted the base of the 'cherry-picker' to the wood template box, to check for clearances. Once I was satisfied with the design, I delivered it to my machinist. When the steel fabrication was done I was able to fit it with a bit of grinding & trimming of the steel. It fit pretty-well, and then it was finish the 'cherry-picker.'

The shear strength of one 3/4" steel bolt is more-than 2200 lbs where the threads are, and 3300 lbs where the base of the bolt is full-thickness (3/4"). I have one 3/4" bolt which passes through the 4" X 8" X 1/2" thick steel box beam, and the end-plate of the 3/8" thick 'shoebox.' I have four more 3/4" bolts through the sides of the steel 'shoebox,' and through the adjoining floor joists, spaced about 1/3 down from the top of the height of the joists (pic 2). Any one of those five 3/4" fasteners is capable of bearing the full shear load of the rating of the hoist. I'm not going to be lifting anything remotely-close to even 1,000 lbs. so the system as-built has a significant safety factor for the loads it's going to see.

The front gable end wall of the garage is all poured-concrete, and the steel in it is 7/8" rebar, and a lot of it! The building is designed to withstand 175 mph wind loads.

 

[glentre]

Driftpin,
I went through the same problem regarding only being able to upload one photo at a time, as have many others. Seems the problem is usually photos that are too large and need to be reduced in size. I use an ipad also and reducing them with a separate app still didn't let me load more than one at a time.

After many hours of trying to resolve the issue myself, I posted here on the Forum for help and immediately got a suggestion that I download a program called "Tapatalk" which links to this forum and many others. It allows you to reduce the size of photos and load them directly into our GJ site. Without instructions, it takes some practice to master the Tapatalk program but it does resolve the photo size problem and also lets you add descriptive notes under each pic.

I see many members use the same program so I'm sure it's safe to download and use.

Glen

 

[driftpin]

Thank-you for the suggestion about Tapatalk, I've seen people using it on other forums, maybe time to try.

I am able to use my Android Galaxy S7 edge to upload multiple pics, at once, but not my iPad! The S7 also takes great pics, higher resolution than the first couple of digital cameras I've had.

At times, I've had to use an older format to get pics to load on other sites, and yes, I've also had to reduce the file size. I generally never try to send anything via upload the size of an old floppy disc-2 mb.

Driftpin,
I went through the same problem regarding only being able to upload one photo at a time, as have many others. Seems the problem is usually photos that are too large and need to be reduced in size. I use an ipad also and reducing them with a separate app still didn't let me load more than one at a time.

After many hours of trying to resolve the issue myself, I posted here on the Forum for help and immediately got a suggestion that I download a program called "Tapatalk" which links to this forum and many others. It allows you to reduce the size of photos and load them directly into our GJ site. Without instructions, it takes some practice to master the Tapatalk program but it does resolve the photo size problem and also lets you add descriptive notes under each pic.

I see many members use the same program so I'm sure it's safe to download and use.

Glen

 

[hedhunter9]

Yep, similar style, similar load. I'm not using mine to hoist VW beetles to the roof either.

Is that an early 1970's Husky in your avatar? Sure looks like a 250/360.

Yep, That is a 76 250CR.. I have few more. A 81 and 82 250CR and a 81 430CR.. and then a couple 84 and 85 400's (WR and WRX) and a 85 250WR.

and then a few Honda CR's.

I race a lot of Vintage and Post Vintage Nationals..

Bob

 

[TJ808]

After years of just reading and learning here I had to reply to this post. I built a similar setup for the same reason, to get some of my bikes upstairs and out of the way in my shop. The lighter colored railing in the first pic is hinged and it swings out of the way.



Here's one of my old YZs on the way up....



I guess us moto guys think alike.

 

[Innovate1]

After years of just reading and learning here I had to reply to this post. I built a similar setup for the same reason, to get some of my bikes upstairs and out of the way in my shop. The lighter colored railing in the first pic is hinged and it swings out of the way.

I'm interested in more info on the movable railing.

 

[pbon]

My plan is to buy a 10’ small I beam and 2 trolleys and attach an electric cable hoist to them. I can hang the I beam from the rafters above my 2nd floor ceiling. I already have a trap door above my lift but even up on the lift I have about 3’ to go so I would like to do the electric hoist and trolley.