I don’t know how many of you have this problem, but I find that the older I become, the heavier a hundred pounds becomes! Does anybody have a suggestion as to the best way to pick up a 200 pound (or so) piece of furniture off the floor and put it on the workbench. My first thought was to just make a small block and tackle, but there may be better ideas out there. I have done a lot of searching on the web, and in Knots’ archives, and everything I find relates to lifting much heavier devices. I have a beam strong enough for the job directly over my bench.
Advice would be appreciated.
Bob Powers
Replies
Bob,
Sounds like a bit of work. Would you be making some sort of platform or pallet that the piece would sit on? What about a simple cable hoist such as is used for a small boat trailer? I believe you can buy similar winches that are electrically powered. Have you considered an assembly type bench that sits 12" - 16" off the floor?
Jeff
I've moved 4- 500 pound machines by lifting them with a comealong and sliding a wheeled platform under them. If you need to put your furniture some distance from your workbench, a bench-high movable table would be a help. You'd need another strong point to use the block and tackle to lower the piece from the table.
Inclined planes are also useful, perhaps with the block and tackle to move the piece up the plane.
What I refer to as a comealong you may know by another name. It's an inexpensive lever-operated device that winds a hook-ended cable on a drum. The drum is ratcheted to hold position as you reposition the lever for the next stroke. It doesn't have the mechanical advantage of multiple pulleys in the block and tackle as I understand it, but the long lever provides plenty of advantage for the weights you mention.
Healthy young teenagers , yours or someone else's, are an effective alternative.
Hi Bob ....
I unloaded a 950lb cast iron lathe off my car trailer with a 3 ton chain fall slung under an 8" deep steel beam. But that's maybe a little overkill (grin).....
If this is a problem you're faced with frequently (and I suspect I will be as well), a simple scissor lift platform wouldn't be all that difficult to put together. In fact, I just put that on my 'to be designed and someday built' list.
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Without seeing your particular situation, I'd make the following general suggestions. Assuming the beam is steel, use a beam trolley (<$100 for a 1/2 ton, which is overkill but the smallest my catalogs show). Make sure it conforms to either flat or tapered beam flanges, whichever your case is. Use a differential chain hoist (Coffing or CM; a bit over $100 for 1/2 ton). Differential chain hoists are the cheapest type hoists I know of. Ratchet types are twice the money. Make sure whatever you use is hoist rated, which will by definition be fail-safe. Block and tackle is not; if you let go, so goes the load. 200 lb isn't much until it lands on you. Come-alongs are not hoist rated (that I know of), although they would do the job. They're a bit tricky to operate, though. Watch your fingers. A pair of nylon slings or some good rope and you're in business. You may be able to buy used equipment from a rental house. Don't buy used slings.
Be seeing you...
TDKPE makes a good point about hoist rated lifting devices. Come alongs were NOT designed for lifting, but for pulling horizontally, as to get your 4X4 out of that muddy ditch. Their ratcheting mechanisms cannot be released safely with a load hanging from them.
BE SAFE!--
Lee in Cave Junction, Oregon
On the Redwood Highway
> ...Come alongs were NOT designed for lifting, but for pulling horizontally, as to get your 4X4 out of that muddy ditch. Their ratcheting mechanisms cannot be released safely with a load hanging from them.
Not totally true - you can ratchet a come-a-long out as well but it takes three hands, at times.
Dennis in Bellevue WA
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Dennis, I hope your thoughts are right, since I ordered a comealong from Amazon, but for $36.19, it doesn't have to be perfect. I decided to use advice that I received here. I have used a combination of dollies and saw horses for several years. I have a plywoood dolly, about 3'X5', reinforced with 2X4's on casters. On top of that, I place 2 saw horses. I have saw horses in varying heights from one foot to two feet. I then place another piece of plywood on to of the saw horses. This gives me a platform for finishing or whatever that is adjustable in height from about 18" to 30". I roll this platform up to my 37" high worktable, and that's where my need to hoist the project comes in, to get it from the worktable to the rolling platform. In addition to the suggestion that I use a comealong that I received here, Donald Brown mentioned that high-tech device called an inclined plane. My thought is to slide the project from the worktable to the rolling platform via the inclined plane, controlling the slide with the comealong. Maybe it will work. If it doesn't, the sun will still probably come up in the East tomorrow.
Thanks to all for your advice.
Bob
To ease a load "down" or under tension from a comealong requries pulling the lever to where you can release the drum latch, easing up on the lever to the point where it's almost at the end of its throw, re-engage the drum latch, release the lever latch, move the lever back to the start position, take another 'bite' and repeat the process. It's rather difficult to dscribe verbally but you'll see once you get your device in front of you. No, it's not their intended purpose but it can be done .... slowly. Using a comealong to drag your piece up the ramp is its highest and best use, of course.
That doesn't answer the question of getting it down off the bench though....!
Dennis in Bellevue WA
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This may well be another of those things I have bought over the years that doesn't do what I meant to do, but it's a starting place. I really can lift most of the projects I work on, but I am concerned about bumping things against the bench and dinging precious wood. Right now I am making a buffet server out of mahogany that was originally bought by ChrisCraft for their wooden boat business. It had been sold a couple of times over about 45 years, and I was lucky enough to get it. Gorgeous!!! That's just one reason I am very careful about lifting things.
Thanks for your advice.
Bob
Bob -
This doesn't help you right away but I'm working on the design for a scissor lift affair, something that you and I could put together out of fairly simple stuff we might have lying around. When/if I get anything definitive I'll post it if you're interested.
Dennis in Bellevue WA
[email protected]
Most cheaper come-alongs were not made for over head lifting, but there are many wire rope come-alongs that are. Lug-All is a brand that comes to mind. All Chain come-alongs are rated for overhaed lifting.
Mark
Bob -
I once rented a small hand operated hydraulic device for pulling an engine out of a car. It was on rollers and the arm extended far enough out to reach into the engine compartment. It could raise the engine high enough that I could have set it on my workbench. Now that I think about it, I wish I had one now! When I was a kid I could throw a 100 lb sack of cattle feed on my back and take off! Sigh.................
PlaneWood by Mike_in_Katy
PlaneWood
When I was about 16 years old, I worked in a hardware store nights and weekends. I was about 5'10" and weighed about 125 pounds. I well remember unloading trailers full of sheep manure and other fertilizer in bags weighing 75-100 pounds. Now that I'm 6'0" and 190 pounds.........well, you have followed the thread.
Bob, Harborfrieght.com often puts their electric winch on sale for less that $100. The max ratting is 440 lbs. I used one to build a gantry to assist in moving my disabled wife and was very pleased with it.
BJGardening, cooking and woodworking in Southern Maryland
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