# Shop Crane Height Adjustment Solution



## MtnBiker (Jun 10, 2021)

We have a heavy (6 ton) gantry crane in the shop. Did I mention heavy? It's height adjustable with telescoping uprights. But actually raising it without another crane is an ordeal (imagine a car jack on a ladder and the crane rolling underneath). And we need to lower it all the way to roll it out of the garage to unload outsize tall stuff.

We settled on building an onboard lifting solution. Figured it was a good opportunity to use the new rotary table for the first time in anger.




A little calibration and measuring.




Making a support bracket for the jack.




Like the way that turned out. Two flute HSS seems to work really well for slotting (something I hadn't done much of).




Welding up the frame with upper and lower support brackets attached. You can see where that radius went. Glad my kid loves to weld. We also milled that lower support including a bevel to make it fit the jack. Fun with a facemill.




Doing a little test fitting.




So this is the idea. We'll have a jack on each side. We get over 19" of lift so that allows us to raise the jack three 6" spaced holes in one go (the limit in the garage). And we can secure the uprights, attach some still to be made lifting brackets, and go up to 12' total. That will let us unload tall stuff off the trailer outside the garage.

Some finish work taking off corners, wire wheel and we'll be ready for paint to match the crane. Fun little project that will make our crane a lot more flexible.


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## Dabbler (Jun 10, 2021)

That construction is pretty sweet!

To raise my gantry crane (5 ton) main beam I use an old used Genie lift to raise it.  I've used a jackall, and a hand winch.  The Genie works the very best!  It also allowes me to disassemble it and reassemble it by myself in about 25 minutes.


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## MtnBiker (Jun 11, 2021)

Dabbler said:


> To raise my gantry crane (5 ton) main beam I use an old used Genie lift to raise it.


The Genie looks very useful. I like it.

We keep the gantry up all the time...moving large plate steel to the plasma table among other tasks. Needed something for fast height changes.
	

		
			
		

		
	




1,400 lb lifting magnet for large steel plate.


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## C-Bag (Jun 11, 2021)

Dabbler said:


> That construction is pretty sweet!
> 
> To raise my gantry crane (5 ton) main beam I use an old used Genie lift to raise it.  I've used a jackall, and a hand winch.  The Genie works the very best!  It also allowes me to disassemble it and reassemble it by myself in about 25 minutes.


some pics please. I think I know the Genie you are referring to and have seen them cheap local on CL but were not on my radar. And pic and application might change that


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## Dabbler (Jun 11, 2021)

I'll be in the shop later today or tomorrow and can take a few.  My main beam weighs 225 lbs, and I'm getting a little old to lift it by myself without mechanical assistance...  Here's a picture in the mean time of a typical Genie lift.  I place the main beam across the forks, lift it up, and move the A frames underneath it.  The genie is used to move the beam and risers up and down and then the pin is put in. etc...


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## MtnBiker (Mar 4, 2022)

Finally got to try out the crane lifting thingies. Worked great!! Unloading our new sheet metal brake.






We'll eventually make some bolt on pads that will allow higher lifts (the crane goes to 12'). But for now, we can get stuff off our trailer without heroics. Pan brake in it's new home.


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## Dabbler (Mar 4, 2022)

nice work!

I forgot to link to a picture of my A frame gantry crane, here it is:


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