Maybe a Gantry Crane would be the way to go. You could pick your equipment and roll it into place, break down the crane and store it in the corner when it's not being used. No need to engineer your building to hold up a giant I beam.
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Maybe a Gantry Crane would be the way to go. You could pick your equipment and roll it into place, break down the crane and store it in the corner when it's not being used. No need to engineer your building to hold up a giant I beam.
Confidence: The feeling you experience before you fully understand the situation
[OP]
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Other than storing the thing in my small space, this does have some advantages... no need to get a 635 lb beam into place, or structure to support it. Once lifted, the equipment could be rolled into place in the shop (assuming I can get the 4'x8' gantry through the rest of the shop). Portability potentially, though I think most of them are 400lb+, so not easily portable. Would be nice to be able to take the thing with me to pick up new equipment too, but that's probably a big ask.
Storing the thing is def my biggest hangup. Only have a little over 600 sq ft, and I like big equipment. Want every inch to be as useful as possible.
Will give this some thought though. Wonder if I can get an easily broken down gantry with a 3/4-1 Ton rating that's a bit narrower than the usual and therefore lighter? Think as long as it could span the width of a truck bed, that would be more than sufficient, but that really only gets you down to 7 ft if you want it to be a tight fit. If it was easily broken down and light enough, I could potentially store it elsewhere when not needed.
Originally Posted by Jerry Bruette
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My choice would be two parallel lighter beams with a fixed rolling beam between them. This would roll in and out and have some side movement as well, the chain hoist being on the cross beam.
Chris
Everything I like is either illegal, immoral or fattening
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[QUOTE=
Storing the thing is def my biggest hangup. Only have a little over 600 sq ft, and I like big equipment. Want every inch to be as useful as possible.
Will give this some thought though. Wonder if I can get an easily broken down gantry with a 3/4-1 Ton rating that's a bit narrower than the usual and therefore lighter? Think as long as it could span the width of a truck bed, that would be more than sufficient, but that really only gets you down to 7 ft if you want it to be a tight fit. If it was easily broken down and light enough, I could potentially store it elsewhere when not needed.[/QUOTE]
Mcmaster.com has aluminium gantry. You could probably rig a pulley system to hang it from the ceiling for storage, like people hang their bikes or canoes.
Confidence: The feeling you experience before you fully understand the situation
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Just got to thinking about a beam extending outside and a loft door - like an old timey hay lift/barn loft.
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Like you I have an upstairs workshop. I just run two planks cut to fit the length of my stairs and use a chain hoist to pull heavy good up to the landing on a dolly then wheel them to where they belong. Works very well for me. I have thought of pretty well all of the above suggestions but for how often you are moving something that can't be carried this has been all I've needed. So far the heaviest has been my fully assembled (rails and side extension off) saw stop cabinet saw.
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A jib crane that can swing outside might work for you. A rolling gantry is often parked over a lathe or workbench. use an army type hoist or at least a low headroom trolley.
I do not understand what you are doing at all. A gantry will not lift above it's top rail. There is no good way to use a gantry upstairs unless the entire floor is designed for the extreme point loads. Note that no crane, short of a bridge or jib crane, is really designed to be moved horizontally under load. You never said how long the beam needs to be?
Bill D.
[OP]
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I'm only seeing stuff around $3000+ for aluminum, in a quick search. I can build in a steel beam for way less than that and not have to deal with the gantry being in the way. The plus side to one of those would be ability to take it with me to pick up stuff, but only if easily breaks down.
Rigging it to the ceiling might work. Generally legs are 4' wide, so even if it went up sort of flat or sideways, would still stick down far enough that I'd hit my head on it with my 9' ceilings.
[OP]
Member
If I was in a large production shop where I'd get a lot of use out of such a setup, this is def what I'd be looking to do. But costs on a setup like this would be at least 4x, for my level of use, just not justifiable.
[OP]
Member
Thought about this option too, but the garage is butted right up to an alley. City would never approve of a beam projecting out the building over their street. Also the engineering of this with the design of my building would be quite difficult - a 32- long beam plus the overhang to go front to back, supports for that, massive extra support over the garage door to handle the load there, etc. In the right situation, this setup could be great, just don't think it works in my tight urban setting.
This would also be similar problems for the swing out crane. Even if the city allowed that, the structure over the garage door would have to be just as beefy as what I'm thinking, if not more so. Plus wall reinforcements to handle the swinging jib, etc.
[OP]
Member
I have an affinity for old iron. A sawstop would be well on the lighter end of the things I'm thinking of moving. If I wasn't building from scratch, probably would just make do, but think I can do a setup like this for a little over a grand or so as part of the construction process. That's worth it to me.
[OP]
Member
Parking the gantry over a lathe is not a bad idea. The 4' depth of the runners would still be a tripping hazzard, but seems like it could work.
The entire floor is designed for heavy point loads. I wouldn't be able to put a 1500 lb piece of equipment (on its 4 legs) onto the floor if it wasn't, so the gantry lifting that with its 4 point load will be fine, if I go that route.
As far as moving under load, that just depends on your gantry. For my minimal use, I wouldn't worry about it. For everyday use would be a different story. https://www.spanco.com/gantry-cranes-moving-under-load/
I thought I did say the beam length, but anyway, the building is 24' wide total, about 22.5' unsupported between the walls.
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This is a side comment, but I’m in the middle of a new shop build and will also have it fulll of old iron. You should talk to your architect or engineer about load bearing for your floor. We significantly increased our live loads after reviewing the machinery weights.
Jon
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Old iron machines will range in the 1000-3000 lb depending but they are always more than you would guess. The second floor shops I've seen full of old iron are often made with structural concrete rather than wood. You may want to stay more with used newer Euro type machinery with steel bases, lighter motors and less build. Cuts 1/3 to 1/2 of the weight. Dave
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To second David, i would shoot for atleast 2500lbs min. for whatever you do right now. I dont know the spec weight of that robland/laguna you are looking at, but i guarantee its over 1500lbs. Surprisingly, you dont need to go too far before you tip the scales. Would suck to have your structure under engineered by 500-1000lbs 1-2 years down the road when you have a tool you want to upgrade. Already this year ive watched a dozen northfield/oliver/tannewitz 32-36" bandsaws sell for $400-700 jut because i cant fit their height in my basement. You dont want that to happen to you with weight.
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