Unistrut Trolley for Lathe/Mill Tooling Handling?

They have a Unistrut display in the electrical section of our HD. It stays empty, the electricians keep it cleaned out here. Just oddball stuff left over.
 
And there you go. I was totally wrong.
Jeff, No it is not wrong by asking a very good question! For me that is one of the huge values of this Board. We discuss things, ask questions, and share experiences.
They have a Unistrut display in the electrical section of our HD. It stays empty, the electricians keep it cleaned out here. Just oddball stuff left over.
Ken, Lowes has it too but it is a different brand (Super Strut). Do not know if they are compatible dimensionally with Unistrut or not? Appearance is the same but the tiny bit of research I did raised questions as to compatibility. Here's photo snippet from Lowes' website. What you notice right away is that the big box stores sell the slotted ones and for a trolley, I would likely use a sold profile.

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Dad used to buy it as "Barn Door Track" from McCoy's lumber 30 something years ago. Still have the trolley laying around here somewhere. He used to use it in his shop as a trolley to load stuff in the lathe or swap out chucks, etc. Really handy. In my shop, I built and installed several small jib cranes for handling lathe, mill tooling, etc.
 
Why not use a 2 ton shop crane with an extension if you need it. If your worried add some weight aft of the neck. Bribing a neighbor with beer works too.
 
I just took down my Unistrut overhead rail and HF electric hoist. I'm packing up the shop and moving. I've had this in service for about five years and it works great without costing a fortune. Never lifted more than 150 lbs. though. Mostly used it to install and remove the hard toneau cover for my truck and my fifth wheel hitch.

I have not verified this but have been told that trusses are designed to support weight from above, not weight pulling down from the bottom members. Might be worth searching this if you plan to attached your rail to trusses.
 
Woodchucker is NOT totally wrong. The secret unistrut depends on to work successfully lies in the fact that it has major support by the brackets holding it up spread out along the way. But, yeah, I have witnessed the 'barn door' style trolleys handle weight nicely for their weight / construction class. As with anything you trust your life to: get the facts & do your math. These days if it's a 100 pounds & falling - I will no longer play the hero................
 
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I bought one of the gantry cranes from harbor freight 2 ton cap. I just roll it around the shop( after much floor cleaning and moving stuff) an use it to lift whatever. for changing chucks ( I have a larger lathe) I use a crane that attaches to my tool post holder ( yes they sell such an item ) I cant remember the name but if anyone wants it I can go and look bill
 
I have successfully used Strut channel AKA, Unistrut, Superstrut, Kindorf, etc. for the track in a trolley/hoist rig I built. The application was to replace a floor in a 200 year old building, the old joists were replaced one at a time with LVL beams, the singles weighed around 120 lbs each but we had some doubles and triples, around a 360 pound lift. Later in the job we used it to lift sheetrock to the upper floors 8 at a time, pushing 600 pounds. The back to back style strut channel, hardware and the trolley were from McMaster Carr, the hoist from Harbor Fright.
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250 pounds over a lathe, no problem.
 
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I bought one of the gantry cranes from harbor freight 2 ton cap. I just roll it around the shop( after much floor cleaning and moving stuff) an use it to lift whatever. for changing chucks ( I have a larger lathe) I use a crane that attaches to my tool post holder ( yes they sell such an item ) I cant remember the name but if anyone wants it I can go and look bill
Here's a jib that attaches to your lathe QCTP that is sold by Sky Hook. I evaluated these and decided that the moment induced on the cross slide was more than I wanted on my PM1340GT which I have dialed into to the gnat's posterior. It also didn't serve my needs for my mill.

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I also looked into one on a counter weighted cart. It eats too much footprint in my shop for storage. I am saving what little floor space I have for another machine I am considering.

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@Eddyde - thanks for the great photos of the system you used in the building renovation. Looks like you used two trolleys to hang the winch from the track??
 
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@Eddyde - thanks for the great photos of the system you used in the building renovation. Looks like you used two trolleys to hang the winch from the track??
Yes, I used 2 @ 600 lb. rated trolleys so a theoretical 1,200 lb. limit which was close to the hoist's (very theoretical) 1,300 lb. capacity. I made a point not to exceed half that. My only worry was the HF hoist might fail, not the trolley or strut channel. I made sure no personnel were anywhere below the lifts. I also added 20' of control cable to the pendant switch, the original one on the hoist was only like 5' long, much safer to be back a bit. All in I spent around $500 for the system, it enabled that phase of the project to be completed with only me and one helper.
 
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