The whole thing came crashing down the first time I lifted it. The three 1" lag bolts that were holding the winch to the boom pulled right out of the wood. It was pretty scary, and it made me reconsider the way I was doing things. The problem was that there was no redundancy in the design. If the point where the chain was fixed below the steel lifting assembly failed, the whole thing would come down. If the mounts for pulley up on top failed, the whole thing would come down. If the central crossmember that was taking most of the load for the ladder-shaped component failed, then I'm pretty sure the whole thing would come down.
You get the idea.
So good sense prevailed at that point and I added the two vertical pieces on either end of the ladder/cradle thing. At that point, I would raise it a foot and then re-fasten the pair of 2x4s on either end so that if the crane gave out, it would only come down that short distance. Stopping every 12" also let me readjust the fore-aft and left-right balance of the thing so it stayed level and wasn't encouraging the boom to lean in any one direction.
Now that I think about it, 'good sense' might not be the term to describe it, really. Maybe 'less stupidity' is more accurate. But the good news is that after I replaced those lag bolts (with 3"-ers), the thing didn't come down. And I knew that if it did crash down, there wasn't much danger of it injuring me, since the spider-like shape of the whole thing put the impact points along the perimeter of the deck. If the crane failed, I knew the steel would do some damage to the fence and walls. But that's better than doing damage to the builder.
I should be clear about my methods on this project. OSHA would tear me new one for doing it the way I did. And I'd encourage anyone reading this to not try it the same way. There are hoists out there with remote controls. You should never be raising something heavy while you're standing beneath it.
But thanks for the kind words. I'm still not really sure what the finished project is going to look like. But I'm only about ten days from seeing it.
dozerbuilder01, the dies are from Swag Offroad. They have a whole set of products to turn the $111 Harbor Freight roll bender into a motorized powerhouse. The dies were $150, I think -- which isn't bad at all for what they are. They also make an improved drive shaft for the bender, as well as wings that improve the structural strength of the thing, and a kit to add a bottle jack and a pipe threader to power the thing. I've been really pleased with everything I've bought from them. So here's a link.
www.swagoffroad.com
I didn't take any pictures today, but I disassembled the ladder-shaped cradle and the boom/mast where they stood. Because I've added aircraft cable to support the arches, it was easier to just disassemble the pieces up in the air than it would have been to thread everything back down past all the obstacles. I won't have the paint to finish the job until this coming Thursday, but I want to finish up everything but the paint before then. After that, I oil the deck itself, install the fireplace and put in the furniture.
Sorry Jack I could not resist. 
