Hoisting a mill redux......

T

tigtorch

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I posted a question about hoisting a mill earlier. When I did that I had only wanted to place my mill in it's final resting place. I subsequently decided I want to place it on a newly fabricated pallet I made with 3" 3/8" steel angle and plate and 4X4 wood runners, so I can set the machine where I want with my pallet jack. That allows me to offload it in a different place.

It weighs about 1600#. I will remove the table before I proceed so maybe 1450#. My house is a large 5 bedroom all brick upscale house built in 2003 and in the basement there is a steel beam running approx. 20 under my family room. It appears to be a 10X6.5 beam (I don't even know if that is a standard size). It is only supported on both ends. I want to use this to lift my mill about 6 inches and then lower it again, all in the same place, and as close as I can get to one side of the beam (about 24"). The I beam is lined with wood to mate with the house framing and the only surface available for hanging is 1.5" on each side of the lower flange on some wood that is installed there.

My question: how do I design a hanger for my chain hoist to grab the 1.5" ledges (the outer edges of which are 6.5" apart) and connect this to a sturdy hole for my chain hoist to hang on, which distributes this load properly.

I have metal working equipment and can cut and weld up to 3/8" steel easily. I also plan on supporting the steel beam as close to the mill as I can on the other side with a 4X6.
 
I can't really visualize this beam based on description. By any chance, did you see my thread called (YALB: Yet Another Lathe Bench)? I used a gantry to lift my lathe. It's about 7' tall. It's home made. I've reused various pieces of it for various things over the years but it was originally built to lift 1-2 ton diesel engings. -Easy enough to make. Mine is overkill by a factor of 5 but if you went to the scrap yard, you could knock this out in a day.
 
Boy this one is hard . How thick is the web ? Is it rated for lift? Check your building plans.If you don't have them you can get a copy at your local building dept.
If nothing else I would put extra suport under the beam to be on the safe side.
*************Just Saying***************Gator************
 
Update. First of all I said I would put a 4X6 wood beam on the other side of the mill so the unsupported length of the beam will be about 5'. Also I just measured the beam as best I can, it is 12" high, the flanges are a bit over 6.5" wide and the edge of the flange is 3/8" thick, the internals are covered with wood so I can't tell if it is tapered or flat. I will post pictures.

Since I am only using 5 feet of this beam it seems to me there is little danger IF I can grab onto the beam properly. Right now that is a big if.
 
How is the other end of the beam supported? When I have to lift something heavy from my roof support beam I do the same as you suggest, I place a temporary leg support under the beam as close to the lift as possible. I don't think you will have any problems lifting that small load on that beam you have, if you brace next to the lift.

Patrick
 
Since it sounds like the flanges are covered with wood, I slip a couple of metal plates onto them before tightening the clamp into position. I like your plan to make a strong version of that beam clamp. Don't even need a T-handle, for the number of times you'll be using it.
 
HSS said:
How is the other end of the beam supported? When I have to lift something heavy from my roof support beam I do the same as you suggest, I place a temporary leg support under the beam as close to the lift as possible. I don't think you will have any problems lifting that small load on that beam you have, if you brace next to the lift.

Patrick
Click to expand...

I think that you're the first one to point out that this is not a huge, scary load. 1,600 pounds is roughly the equivalent of 8 people. Would tigtorch freak out if 8 people stood closely together in his family room?
 
Just to wrap up this thread.....I finally did this and everything went flawlessly. I hadn’t intended to but I had to remove the motor to get the mill though the basement door to the portion of the basement where the beam is. I also decided to remove the table because of it’s width: if the mill were to rotate during hoisting, the table could have contacted the pipe jacks. So actually the final weight was probably more like 1350 or 1400 instead of 1600#.

I didn't end up using the I beam to support the weight. I used a 5' piece of 5" X 3" X 3/8" tubing which is heavy (17 lbs. per foot) and was totally up to the job even in the horizontal (3" side vertical) orientation. The only purpose for the I beam in this situation is for stability (non "tipping over" stability), all of the weight is born by a pair of 18,000# pipe jacks. I purchased the pipe jacks, was very careful with them and intend to return them as I will never use them again. A little tacky, I admit, but I just spent over $1500 at this establishment so I don’t feel too bad and the jacks are in virtually new condition.

Here are pictures, for some reason they are out of order (click on the little left arrow under the photo for more photos):

P1010670_zps8e92344e.jpg Photo by meincer | Photobucket
 
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