Rebuilt Shop Features Crane And Service Pit

Rebuilt Shop Features Crane And Service Pit FARM SHOP Maintenance Having your farm shop burn down is never good but Dan Gray made the best of a bad thing He spent nearly 20 years thinking about what he would have done differently with the shop he built in 1995 When he rebuilt in 2014 he made some changes The biggest one was to install a traveling crane extra storage space and an oil change pit “When the shop burned we were able to salvage the floor so I built on the same 32 by 48-ft footprint ” says Gray “I made it taller 18 ft high so that I could have a 14-ft doorway for combines It allowed me to install a 16-ft high traveling crane with a rolling hoist that the doors could clear ” Knowing he couldn’t justify a commercial crane the size he wanted Gray drew up his own design He had 6 by 12-in I-beams fabricated for the 48-ft support rails and the 24-ft long traveling crane at DW Fab a local metalworking shop The shop also welded axle hubs from 3-ton truck rear ends to make the rolling supports for the crane “I was aware the hubs could walk off the rails so we welded cast iron flat pulleys from an old combine to the hubs to keep them in place ” says Gray Gray credits his cousin Alan with helping make the entire project more cost-effective Alan had 40-ft lengths of 8-in diameter oil pipeline pipe He made them available to Gray for use as support posts at no charge Gray made flanges for bolting the pipes to the I-beams and the floor “I hand drilled all the holes on the flanges the pipes and the I-beam while everything was on the ground and outside the shop ” says Gray “When I set it up inside everything lined up just like it was supposed to ” Gray needed a drive mechanism for the trolleys that supported the traveling crane He used a worm gear gearbox off a manure spreader to keep the two trolleys at either side walking in place He coupled the gearbox to a high-torque DeWalt mud mixer drill A roller chain runs from a sprocket on the drill to a sprocket on the gearbox A self-retracting extension cord reel provides power The gearbox drives a cast iron pulley against the edge of the upper flange on the 48-ft rail A shaft connects the drive pulley to the crane I-beam “The crane I-beam rolls easily but I wanted the extra torque on the drive ” says Gray “I bought an extra handle for the drill and wired it for remote control of forward and reverse as well as the variable speed I can walk along with the crane as it rolls up and down the shop ” Gray mounted trolley hoists to the crane to complete that phase of the shop A much easier project involved extra storage “In my old shop I had a mezzanine on one end ” says Gray “With the pipes in place I could build 8-ft high 4-ft wide mezzanines along each side When I built them I couldn’t imagine they would ever fill up but they have ” One mezzanine runs the entire 48-ft length The other is only 27 ft long due to the addition of a door at the far end of the shop for the oil change bay and pit The pit is 4 ft wide 14 ft long and 6 ft deep Gray lined it with LEDs and has a platform he can slide over the pit when not in use The pit has a sump in the bottom so it can be washed down and the water pumped out “I put an oil field platform on the bottom for rails and set a rolling hoist on it with a 12-volt hydraulic pump with a lift cylinder ” says Gray “I can roll it back and forth to position it to lift a car or truck end when draining oil ” Oil is drained into a 100-lb propane cylinder It can be pressurized to push the oil through a line to a 1 000-gal propane tank outside the shop Gray has few regrets about his shop and the crane is definitely not one of them “It isn’t as sweet as a commercial hoist but it serves my purposes ” he says I couldn’t afford a commercial unit This was a cost-effective alternative I probably have only $5 000 invested in it ” Contact: FARM SHOW Followup Dan Gray RR 1 Dewberry Alberta Canada T0B 1G0 ph 780-871-2948

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