Wednesday, December 30, 2020

Building a Gantry crane

 This week's mission was to get 400 lbs of thickness planer into a basement workshop .

After a run to the lumberyard we started making sawdust

Took most of the morning to build a pair of these
and one of these .  .  .

Rolled the planer in place in front of the basement bulkhead and assembled our home built gantry crane

After a quick run to the hardware store for some shackles . . .

The Chineseum chain hoist from Harbor-Fright picks up the weight nicely. . .

and delivers it . . .

. . .  nicely onto its base at floor level in the cellar .

One happy customer

And other than today's very sore back , no major blood letting injuries .

Now about those swamp rats in DC . . . We built this rig so it is modular and highly portable . It can be set up and broken down in a matter of about five minutes in any public square .


22 comments:

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    1. A bit more than cool.... It was down right freezing, at around 28 degrees most of the day. But yes the project was fun.

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  2. Slick, Mike! Question though: why do you need another planer? I’m really liking the dust collection going on there too. I hope you left room for a lathe and drill press? 😊👍

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    1. It's not my shop. It is my friend's shop and he was upgrading to a better machine. The dust collection set up is a recent addition and it does a fantastic job of keeping the place dust free. There is a lathe and a drill press, but I am told the lathe and jointer will be upgraded in the near future. Thus the justification for building the gantry.

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  3. That's thinking smarter not harder! I like it!

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    1. Just got lucky this time Kev. Most times the thinking part is what bites me.

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    2. Haha, you and me both! I have the problem where I make or do something and either my mate or my dad tell me afterwards how I could have done it easier - and they're normally right!

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  4. Okay, I'm impressed. I had to deal with problems similar to that when I was growing up. Then I hit 18 and left. Still, I've never seen a neater solution - and it's reusable!

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    1. Reusable and multi purpose. Gantry crane? - Gallows?
      As one notorious crooked old bat once said: what difference does it make?
      Zip it around from town to town sorting all sorts of problems.
      Door to door service.
      Hey!!! all in a good days work right?

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    2. Next step is to find a manufacturer that can "Ramp up" to large volume production levels quickly and produce the necessary quantities to handle the current problems.

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    3. Yea, being modular as they are, they will be easy to ship. And I figure the top cross beam could be built up to twelve feet long to accommodate three drops at a time. That would definitely increase the processing rate of the "government repair machine" to make good quality compost out of otherwise useless parasites.

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  5. nice! I hope this finds you well.
    Bob Kelim.

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    1. Holly crap, look what the cat dragged in . . . So glad to hear from you Bob. Hope all is well with you and you are staying clear of the Wuhan-clap.

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  6. Great Job - Would like to help if you get to put it to further use as outlined. Wish I had known what you were up to, I have several spare heavy duty shackles and pulleys that I'd have run over. Don't know how or why I got them, and probably hurt myself if I tried to use them seriously, so they'd certainly be in better hands. Congrats on another well executed solution, and Happy New Year.

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    1. Would not take much to run it up to Augusta and set it up in front of the Blaine House. We could fix all sorts of problems with this rig.

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    2. I'm just about 1/2 way there (Durham) - it'd be a hell statement, let me know.

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  7. You missed a crucial step, the blood sacrifice. No deed or good idea goes unpunished or fluid-less... I liked that idea to lower the planer, I am sure it will work handy removing some of the equipment too. Was the steps hard to remove?

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    1. Hi Kevin, no need for further blood sacrifice. Mine has already been shed on multiple occasions while working on that property over the last thirty years. In fact both cases of digit damage I shared took place while working for that family. My back however did take about four days of rest to recover from this misadventure. All in al it as not nearly as taxing as my previous post. There are more heavy machines planed for the near future so the trouble to build the gantry was well worth it. The steps just slip into those metallic stringers and are secured with one screw at each end so it took no more than five minutes to pop those out.

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  8. M, Now that it is mid spring, are we in store for more misadventure and general mayhem coming from you or are you in a long term hiatus? Inquiring (nosy) minds like to know?
    Kevin

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    1. Hey Kevin; Yea I know, I've been slacking. Not much going on right now. Cleaning up the wreckage from winter. Repairing 300 feet of broken fences and such. Nothing exciting enough to post about. Have a big ongoing project for a customer that I was into up til February, but its a hurry up and wait for the subs to get their part done so I can go back and do the finish work. I need to post about it but I need to cull through a thousand photos. Hopefully the goons up in Augusta will ease up on the chinki-pox restrictions here in Maine and we can have some outdoor events again soon.

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