I'm building up my shop which is located in my basement. One issue I'm running into is how to get heavy machines (TS, Jointer, Bandsaw, etc...) into the basement.
I have an external stairwell that leads from the side yard into the basement, so this make it somewhat easier (don't have to go through the rest of the house). But what is the best way to get the machines down the stairs?
I have a 1-ton hoist that I can use to lower the machines and I was thinking I could build some sort of frame around the stairs to attach the hoist to and lower the machines that way. I was thinking that I could use something like a Grizzly H8006 1 Ton Heavy-Duty I Beam Trolley across a piece of 2 1/2" flat a36 bar stock. But I'm not sure how thick I need the bar stock to support the weight. It would probably need to go across a 15 foot span. Additionally, how big do I have to make the frame to support this? Are there resources online that people know of that can help with these calculations?
The heaviest machine would be about 700 lbs.
Any ideas? How do other people lower heavy equipment into a basement shop?
Thanks,
Marc