Pete.
Member
- Messages
- 14,234
- Location
- Kent, UK
I've wanted something to help with lifting medium-weight items (40-100kg) for a while and whilst I'm re-doing my workshop space I thought it would be time to make one. I got some bits together, all of it is reclaimed from either site demo or bits I've bought along the way.
The winch is a small (but very well made) 40:1 reduction gearbox that came of some plant we removed from a building. I stripped it down and it has nice ball bearings inside, a steel worm and bronze wormwheel. I fixed that to an off-cut of steel plate then hung that from some thick walled box section. I turned the teeth off the sprocket and welded on a bit of pipe which was also counterbored for a 28mm outrigger bearing.
To make a winch out of it I cut up a 1/2 ton loop strap and secured it to the pipe then welded a 9mm socket to the input shaft. That allowed me to turn it either with a nut gun or a tommy bar. Here it is fixed to my shelf racking for testing.
It held my 95kg weight without back-driving or breaking off so I gave it a test drive lifting the slotting head for my mill (the main reason I wanted to build it was to swap bits over on my mill without hurting my back).
Seemed to work ok with the 43KG on it and it fairly flew up using the nut gun.
Next evening the bearings turned up so I made an outrigger support and gave it a proper test. This is the base of my milling machine. This time I fixed the arm to my bench just in case it wrecked the shelving.
I had to use the tommy bar to lift this up because the nut gun would go into hammer mode after about 110kg. I used the nut gun to lower it though as the scales would turn off whilst I was lowering the weight.
My scales faulted at 135KG and the crane was still carrying weight so I'm guessing it's tested for 150kg or so.
So today I have set about mounting it in it's place. I finished making the gallows bracket and then made a support whch will do most of the work of resisting the lifting and twisting forces when it's swinging and it's also fixd to the soffit though I didn't get a photo of that in any of the pics here. This is all well above head height so no chance of bumping my head on it. I made a clamp lever so that I could lock the first stage of swing in position.
And here it is. I have a few finishing touches to make and give it a lick of paint but other than that it's good for service. I should not have to lift more than 50-60kg on it but it's nice to know the crane is good for 150kg and the swing bracket for about 100kg and it will swing under the shelves, over the mill and round over the bench.
The winch is a small (but very well made) 40:1 reduction gearbox that came of some plant we removed from a building. I stripped it down and it has nice ball bearings inside, a steel worm and bronze wormwheel. I fixed that to an off-cut of steel plate then hung that from some thick walled box section. I turned the teeth off the sprocket and welded on a bit of pipe which was also counterbored for a 28mm outrigger bearing.
To make a winch out of it I cut up a 1/2 ton loop strap and secured it to the pipe then welded a 9mm socket to the input shaft. That allowed me to turn it either with a nut gun or a tommy bar. Here it is fixed to my shelf racking for testing.
It held my 95kg weight without back-driving or breaking off so I gave it a test drive lifting the slotting head for my mill (the main reason I wanted to build it was to swap bits over on my mill without hurting my back).
Seemed to work ok with the 43KG on it and it fairly flew up using the nut gun.
Next evening the bearings turned up so I made an outrigger support and gave it a proper test. This is the base of my milling machine. This time I fixed the arm to my bench just in case it wrecked the shelving.
I had to use the tommy bar to lift this up because the nut gun would go into hammer mode after about 110kg. I used the nut gun to lower it though as the scales would turn off whilst I was lowering the weight.
My scales faulted at 135KG and the crane was still carrying weight so I'm guessing it's tested for 150kg or so.
So today I have set about mounting it in it's place. I finished making the gallows bracket and then made a support whch will do most of the work of resisting the lifting and twisting forces when it's swinging and it's also fixd to the soffit though I didn't get a photo of that in any of the pics here. This is all well above head height so no chance of bumping my head on it. I made a clamp lever so that I could lock the first stage of swing in position.
And here it is. I have a few finishing touches to make and give it a lick of paint but other than that it's good for service. I should not have to lift more than 50-60kg on it but it's nice to know the crane is good for 150kg and the swing bracket for about 100kg and it will swing under the shelves, over the mill and round over the bench.