Mini Shop Crane

[tmate3]

I started to build this to lift the head off my milling machine, but decided to make a mobil shop crane out of it instead. At 6 1/2 feet, it's short enough and narrow enough to fit through doorways, but tall enough and wide enough to straddle a work bench or cart and lower a load onto it.

Casters each have a 300 lb. capacity, and the comealong 1,000 lbs. (I take that with a grain of salt). I think the framework will take anything the come along can handle.

To store the crane, I put it around a drill press, and they occupy the same space. The drill press can be used with the crane in place, if I'm to lazy to move it. If I wanted to move the drill press, for example, I would lift it enough to put a couple of slats across the bottom two cross braces, and set it down on the slats.

I just ordered a Warn Pullzall to replace the comealong.

[DIYer]

Thanks tmate3! We've added your Shop Crane to our Cranes category,
as well as to your builder page: tmate3's Homemade Tools. Your receipt:

Shop Crane by tmate3

tags: crane, winch

[tmate3]

I decided to use a Champion 110V a/c hoist on my crane project, rather than the Warn Pullzall pictured above. It has a 440 lb. single cable capacity and a hand-held control.

[jdurand]

Looks a lot like the hoist we got for our trolly track (with plans to borrow the hoist for an indoor crane as needed). Ours is rated at 250kg single, 500kg double and runs on 220v (of course). Didn't want anything bigger, overkill and harder to work with. Probably slower too.