electric hoist track.

I need some muscle in the workshop for lifting , just large chucks etc. There are plenty of cheap electric hoists on the bay etc - 250 , 500 Kg. Some of them seem to be run on scaffold poles but I m not sure that they would slide very well?. Also I am aware of weight/length considerations. Does anyone have any recommendations ?, more for track. The workshop is basically a double garage about 5x5metres.

Edited By capnahab on 11/06/2015 08:34:12

Good Morning

I have one of these hoists I think it is the Clark unit single rigged for 250kg my track is a piece of 50 x 50 x 3mm box with a 100 x 6 flat plate welded on forming an upside down "T" shape I then have a carriage hanging from the flange. The one thing I would say is to a) make the wheels that run on the flange ball bearings b) provide extra ball bearings to keep the carriage away from the edge of the flange otherwise it makes the hoist carriage assembly very difficult to move when under load. My track length is around 2 mtrs and I use it to lift my 5" gauge loco's from the floor onto the bench.

Peter

A pipe trolley is a compact, light weight trolley that would be suitable to support your winch. The track is a piece of pipe. Can be stiffened by welding a flat on the top of the pipe, Trolley could easily be fabricated to hold 4 ball bearings for wheels.

Paul.

Thanks chaps, Paul where do you get a pipe trolley ?.

They are called Pipe Trolleys in Australia and available from Pacific Hoists, Beaver, Bomac and a few other suppliers but not sure who makes them in UK,

It would be a simple project to make your own using standard ball bearings as wheels. The one which I have runs on 2" pipe.

Paul.

Edited By Paul Lousick on 11/06/2015 14:55:45

I use a heavy duty door track (barn door?). This has got balls to run on. This is bolted on to a bit overhead suspended light track, sort of 2" square X 16 SWG with a 1/2" bit cut out of the centre on one face. Its for lifting the various heads on to my Deckel mill, sort of 40/50 KGs? This set up allows me to lift the head and potentially move it eight feet forward, though the width of the shed does not allow the full length to be used, however it gets the head out right in front of the mill where it is then dropped (!) on to its trolley and stashed away.

Frank

Alan,

A friend of mine has just used this for a hoist rail https://www.dpbuildingsystems.co.uk/p2950-308.html

Martin P

Alan, the reason that they are a two man lift is because the devils have no lifting point, dynamo bolts, tapped hole, only smooth surfaces that when oily are like a bar of soap and knife edges on their ways! i am away from it at the moment, pics next Wednesday.

On a general note, I am using a one tonne trailer ratchet winch (OK so its overkill, but a tenner at a car jumble !). The problem is manoeuvring it the last few mm, that ratchet is too coarse.

Frank

Well, the pipe trolley seems to have suffered at the hands of H+S in the UK because none are available. Martin , the Unistrut stuff looks ideal. The heaviest trolley is up to 500lbs max so that should do. Also plenty of it on ebay. ideal, just need a few curves and it would cover the entire garage.

I made a track for my home made hoist by welding two lengths of angle iron back to back, You can see two of the ball races that it runs on just above the shiny bit of steel with the weld across it. The hoist is above my lathe, the chucks are stored on a rack to the right, and 8" chucks are quite heavy. The motor is from a garage door opener