- Joined
- Mar 30, 2020
- Messages
- 32
We just moved into new larger shop. The old shop had an I-beam crane over our manual lathe to use for changing chucks. The new shop doesn't have any overhead lift capability. One of the most used tools in our shop is a foot powered hydraulic manual fork lift we got from Grainger. It will lift 880 lbs so a 100 lb chuck is no problem.
I milled down some 3 x 3 x 3/16 angle iron to make a U channel that would just clear the width of one fork. Welded a strap across the bottom of one end to make a box section to keep it on the fork and drilled a 1" cross hole in the other end for a piece of 1" cold rolled (1018). I tacked the rod in place, I think I will replece it with a longer one now that I've used it a couple times. It slips on and off, no tools needed.
I lifted the heaviest chuck we use and even though the fork extension sticks past the front wheels a few inches it doesn't seem to want to tip. I was prepared to make some counterweights to attach to the frame but I don't think I'll need any. And now we can change the chucks on both our lathes, our other one is a Haas TL1.
I milled down some 3 x 3 x 3/16 angle iron to make a U channel that would just clear the width of one fork. Welded a strap across the bottom of one end to make a box section to keep it on the fork and drilled a 1" cross hole in the other end for a piece of 1" cold rolled (1018). I tacked the rod in place, I think I will replece it with a longer one now that I've used it a couple times. It slips on and off, no tools needed.
I lifted the heaviest chuck we use and even though the fork extension sticks past the front wheels a few inches it doesn't seem to want to tip. I was prepared to make some counterweights to attach to the frame but I don't think I'll need any. And now we can change the chucks on both our lathes, our other one is a Haas TL1.
