Gantry Crane

[Tim9]

I don’t even have a high enough ceilings for a gantry but since this thread is about cranes... I’ll post a couple of pics of my Uni-Strut system I installed. I love it so much, I was going to start a thread on it and actually took these pictures the other day when I was swapping lathe chucks. That’s really when I mostly use it. But, I can move something from one end to the other,,,,cover every square foot of my workshop. Granted, there’s tons of specs for the unistrut and it all depends on how many hangers and their spacing. My rough estimate is about. 200 pound capacity on my system. I’m pretty sure that it actually a little higher according to specs and the way I have mine installed.
Max capacity can be as high as 500 pounds if my memory serves me correctly..

But as a safety factor I keep my usage lower....around 200 pounds. I have three tracks running the length... 24 ft each. I then have a cross strut hanging from those three.....and the hoist is attached to that strut.

 

[BGHansen]

I don’t even have a high enough ceilings for a gantry but since this thread is about cranes... I’ll post a couple of pics of my Uni-Strut system I installed. I love it so much, I was going to start a thread on it and actually took these pictures the other day when I was swapping lathe chucks. That’s really when I mostly use it. But, I can move something from one end to the other,,,,cover every square foot of my workshop. Granted, there’s tons of specs for the unistrut and it all depends on how many hangers and their spacing. My rough estimate is about. 200 pound capacity on my system. I’m pretty sure that it actually a little higher according to specs and the way I have mine installed.
Max capacity can be as high as 500 pounds if my memory serves me correctly..

But as a safety factor I keep my usage lower....around 200 pounds. I have three tracks running the length... 24 ft each. I then have a cross strut hanging from those three.....and the hoist is attached to that strut.

Great idea! I was looking at doing something similar using pole barn door track for chucks and rotary tables. The 90 lbs. 4th axis on my Tormach seems to be gaining weight.

Bruce

 

[C-Bag]

Great idea! I was looking at doing something similar using pole barn door track for chucks and rotary tables. The 90 lbs. 4th axis on my Tormach seems to be gaining weight.

Bruce

Same with my 110lb 10” rotary table. It’s not just that they are heavy, they always seem to need to be lifted higher and further away than even when I was younger would have been comfortable with. Unistrut properly mounted and with the right shackles is great for these kinds of weights of below 200#. I was only in one shop that had a real overhead and it was wonderful to say the least. I really like this setup for smaller stuff.

 

[Buffalo21]

I put a jib crane on the Franken-Mill to lift up the 10” rotary table and the 10” lathe chuck, I use on the RT. I wish I had a overhead crane system in the whole shop.

 

[Tim9]

Great idea! I was looking at doing something similar using pole barn door track for chucks and rotary tables. The 90 lbs. 4th axis on my Tormach seems to be gaining weight.

Bruce

It’s the first time I ever used Unistrut. I just love it. The rollers which you attach the hoist to or the crossbar to are only like 25.00 on Amazon. But the Home Depot Chinese knock off struts are really sub par. There’s no quality control. I’m sure they are fine for attaching electrical stuff to a wall....but the width and the rolled over inner curved part of the HD struts just don’t match up when going from one length to another. I had two lengths which I regret installing. Every time I would roll something over those transition points in the track.....The roller wheels would jamm up. Also....on one track the roller cocks sideways. In other words one roller is lower than the other side because the track itself isn’t uniform. I’m guessing they are just stamping these out and God only knows what’s going wrong. But the Unistrut tracks just aren’t uniform. They don’t match up when going from one track to the other. I’ve had to remove them twice to smooth them over and grind the track. It’s okay now....but I’d search for US made Unistrut brand if I did it again.
Anyway....I’ve got a really bad back. Plus no balance due to drop foot both feet. It’s quite hard for me to carry 30 pounds and walk across the shop. So this Unistrut trolley has been an absolute life saver. I love it.
I know if you google it...and check out the dealers....one of them does free engineering for designs of trolleys. My system is probably maxed out around 175-200 pounds. But they can handle much more. It’s an incredibly versatile system. I was looking for the link of the catalog I had which spelled out many of the design planning details but just couldn’t find it.

 

[rwm]

That Unistrut crane is brilliant! I also ran across Unibilt which would do the same thing.
Robert

 

[Tim9]

That Unistrut crane is brilliant! I also ran across Unibilt which would do the same thing.
Robert

I’ve looked all over for a PDF in which I ran across a couple of years ago. It’s what gave me the idea. So I really can’t take credit for it. I’ll look for it again because it had a lot of different ideas on using and designing the Unistrut system. It wasn’t hard to install. But like I said earlier..... if I did it again....I’d go to an electrical wholesale supplier and source a USA strut instead of getting my struts from a big box store.
Only other advice is I set my system up so the crosstrack strut hangs from rollers loosely . That way it doesn’t bind.

 

[DavidR8]

I'm definitely interested in those plans @Tim9

 

[Buffalo21]

I hope the Unistrut system works out for you, I seen 2 of the overhead Unistrut trolley systems fail, both with about 50-60# hanging on them. I work with Unistrut everyday and I would never trust it, in an overhead situation.

 

[C-Bag]

Can you elaborate on what exactly failed?