Crane for lifting heavy equipment

[randyjaco]

A few years back, I made a giant crane for lifting milling machine and lathe. The only issue with it is that it was a giant.

I am thinking of making another one. The 2 ton engine cranes we often see have the two legs narrowed, and pointing outward. That is not a good foot print for fitting into a milling machine or even a lathe. I was wondering why not having it wider, but more parallel. Would that cause issue?

It turns out there are those:

[DISCONTINUED] Hein-Werner 3 Ton Engine Crane - FREE SHIPPING - FREE SHIPPING FOR ~ 500 MILES

Get your Hein-Werner 3 Ton Engine hoist from Redlinestands.com today and enjoy FREE SHIPPING!

www.redlinestands.com

Norco Engine Hoist | Folding Engine Crane for Sale | Redline

Are you searching for the Best Folding Engine Crane for Sale Online? Say no more! Order your Norco 2,500 lbs. Folding Engine Crane and get to transporting your engines today!

www.redlinestands.com

However, for convenience, I am thinking of taking an existing crane such as from Harborfreight, and extends making it 1 foot taller, and 1 to 2 feet wider. This probably helps with the weight in regard that the boom does not need to extend far (and up), which makes it somewhat weaker (but mathematically, it's the same, since the torque is calculated on horizontally). Just longer means the more of the extension (smaller/weaker), and amplify the looseness between them.

Anyone has done this before? It seems to be very quick and simple modification (cut out, weld back a foot of steel).

I am sure safety would be a valid concern, but hope we don't just blanket it as unsafe.

Wow, those things have gotten spendy since I bought mine.

 

[Harry Knutz]

A few years back, I made a giant crane for lifting milling machine and lathe. The only issue with it is that it was a giant.

I am thinking of making another one. The 2 ton engine cranes we often see have the two legs narrowed, and pointing outward. That is not a good foot print for fitting into a milling machine or even a lathe. I was wondering why not having it wider, but more parallel. Would that cause issue?

It turns out there are those:

[DISCONTINUED] Hein-Werner 3 Ton Engine Crane - FREE SHIPPING - FREE SHIPPING FOR ~ 500 MILES

Get your Hein-Werner 3 Ton Engine hoist from Redlinestands.com today and enjoy FREE SHIPPING!

www.redlinestands.com

Norco Engine Hoist | Folding Engine Crane for Sale | Redline

Are you searching for the Best Folding Engine Crane for Sale Online? Say no more! Order your Norco 2,500 lbs. Folding Engine Crane and get to transporting your engines today!

www.redlinestands.com

However, for convenience, I am thinking of taking an existing crane such as from Harborfreight, and extends making it 1 foot taller, and 1 to 2 feet wider. This probably helps with the weight in regard that the boom does not need to extend far (and up), which makes it somewhat weaker (but mathematically, it's the same, since the torque is calculated on horizontally). Just longer means the more of the extension (smaller/weaker), and amplify the looseness between them.

Anyone has done this before? It seems to be very quick and simple modification (cut out, weld back a foot of steel).

I am sure safety would be a valid concern, but hope we don't just blanket it as unsafe.

Yes, I took the Titan Attachments 2 ton model and extended the beam 28 inches so I can get my Car hauler inside of it. I also put much better casters on it. I found an ingersoll rand air powered gantry hoist for it also.

I can carry it fully assembled on my car trailer and have a foot and a half to spare under bridges with the gantry lowered to it's lowest point (telescoping). Also repainted the beam gray to get rid of the hideous orange. In my first pic of the engine crane you can see the gantry I built from scratch in the background. I estimate it to be a 3 ton gantry, But it's not really something that rolls around. I have pneumatic wheels on the back of it and a tongue system that pins onto the front of it so I can roll it around my yard with a riding mower.

I also modified this engine crane spread the legs out and made them straight to get around any machine you would encounter.

I have since put these bad boy casters on it and boy what a difference! The engine hoist was one I bought in the late 80's from cosco, It was made in Taiwan and is a very good one. I beefed it up and put an air over hydraulic 8 ton ram hoist on it.

Engine Hoist Rebuild

Hello, A While back I had mentioned I was going to re-build my Shop Hoist as I had bought it new I believe in 1989 at Costco. It is a Taiwan made Hoist made by "Allied" The long ram still worked but leaked pretty bad. And one of the main legs was bent up making it where not all of the wheels...

www.hobby-machinist.com

 

[OldCarGuy]

Sixty years ago I used an old Oak tree in my back yard to pull engines out of cars. Since then I graduated to a Sunnex made in USA cherry picker style crane. Fortunately it's portable and folded into a corner just in case. The best thing I ever built for my home shops has been Bridge Cranes. Here's one of my present examples in my 30' by 50' home shop that I built over 20 years ago. As you can see it has a capacity of 4,000 pounds with a nine foot hook height off the floor... . I'm an older one man operation. And it's far easier to push a button to operate and guide the load into place by myself. Be it a 4,000 pound machine or 100 pound rotary table. Other than the cost of the Coffing chain hoist and electric reels,, there's less than $2,000.00 invested.

Two ReelCraft auto rewind electrical cord reels eliminates the mess of wiring....

Picking up a 4,200 pound shaper off my flat bed trailer. Then putting it into place...

Here is a second 4,000 pound capacity bridge crane located in another one of my garage that I work on cars. It still has the festoon style cable pulley wire set up that I have yet to convert to ReelCrafts.. The travel is limited because of the BendPak two-post lift. More than ample to p ull engines..

Taking out the two-cylinder engine from my 1910 Buick

 

[Harry Knutz]

I have always wanted a bridge crane, Probably not in the cards for me. Beautiful shop you have!

 

[Dabbler]

@OldCarGuy you have one of the cleanest, best organized and marvelously equipped shops I have ever seen!!

 

[RJSakowski]

Back in 2015, Franko modified his engine hoist to improve stability.

Franko's Hf Engine Hoist Mod

Every time I've needed to use my HF engine hoist, the support feet weren't wide enough for the task. I decided to make new support feet that would be wide enough to fit around the stands I have my equipment on. First the plan. I decided on Z legs that would provide a little more then 32"...

www.hobby-machinist.com

 

[rwdenney]

I widened the legs on my HF hoist using short lengths of pipe and 3/4" threaded rod+nuts - a non-destructive, reversible mod

Pics?

Rick “instantly curious” Denney

 

[woodchucker]

A few years back, I made a giant crane for lifting milling machine and lathe. The only issue with it is that it was a giant.

I am thinking of making another one. The 2 ton engine cranes we often see have the two legs narrowed, and pointing outward. That is not a good foot print for fitting into a milling machine or even a lathe. I was wondering why not having it wider, but more parallel. Would that cause issue?

It turns out there are those:

[DISCONTINUED] Hein-Werner 3 Ton Engine Crane - FREE SHIPPING - FREE SHIPPING FOR ~ 500 MILES

Get your Hein-Werner 3 Ton Engine hoist from Redlinestands.com today and enjoy FREE SHIPPING!

www.redlinestands.com

Norco Engine Hoist | Folding Engine Crane for Sale | Redline

Are you searching for the Best Folding Engine Crane for Sale Online? Say no more! Order your Norco 2,500 lbs. Folding Engine Crane and get to transporting your engines today!

www.redlinestands.com

However, for convenience, I am thinking of taking an existing crane such as from Harborfreight, and extends making it 1 foot taller, and 1 to 2 feet wider. This probably helps with the weight in regard that the boom does not need to extend far (and up), which makes it somewhat weaker (but mathematically, it's the same, since the torque is calculated on horizontally). Just longer means the more of the extension (smaller/weaker), and amplify the looseness between them.

Anyone has done this before? It seems to be very quick and simple modification (cut out, weld back a foot of steel).

I am sure safety would be a valid concern, but hope we don't just blanket it as unsafe.

so I'll offer one observation.

I am working on a new press from a soloflex machine. It's powder coated, probably so is the HF lift. When sanding using a disk it destroyed the disk by melting the plastic and filling the abrasive. I was glad to have discovered that before destroying some really good grinding wheels.

so hope that helps you get around this issue. maybe acetone, or a torch and wipe it off, since a torch melts the plastic.

 

[markba633csi]

RW: I'll draw a pic- give me an hour or so
Crude drawing but hopefully you get the idea:

 

[OldCarGuy]

@OldCarGuy you have one of the cleanest, best organized and marvelously equipped shops I have ever seen!!

Thank you sir. It took me over 65 years of collecting machines and tools and always upgrading when I get a chance to accomplish my dream garages. Needless to say I have my father to thank for teaching me the basics of most everything I know. Perseverance and always having a clean and well organized workplace. He passed 46 years ago and I still miss him so; but I know he's looking down on me with a smile. And of all my equipment, I know he'd cherish running my K&T Rotary Head Mill and Monaset T&C Grinder the most.. One of the biggest reasons I have those two pieces... Plus I can feel his hands guide me to make them create machine parts...