Small Mobile Shop Crane

[Tmate]

I got tired of straining my back picking up large vises, grinders, tool boxes, etc. and decided to fabricate a small crane to do the heavy lifting for me.

The unit sits on locking casters, and is narrow and short enough to fit through a doorway. However, it is wide and tall enough to straddle a workbench to place a load. It uses a $125 110V electric hoist with a single line capacity of 440 lbs. and has a hand-held remote control.

The crane will fit around a 24" wide cart or dolly. Drill press sized equipment can be moved by lifting and placing it on struts laid across the bottom two frame tubes.

 

[OCD Solutions]

Interesting project.

I spend my morning researching side mount garage door openers so I could remove the overhead rail and install some form of rail mounted hoist system down the center of my work bay.

My truss package is less than ideal and will greatly limit my options so a rolling rig like that might not be such a bad idea. I’ve looked at rolling gantry setups before but they take up a ton of room.