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Spent some time making my shop more geezer friendly today

841 views 10 replies 8 participants last post by  RealRed70 
#1 ·
I have a 12'x30' loft, and it's great for storage, but getting stuff up there is a royal pain in, well, everything. I just ain't got the strength I used to, and the thought of hauling heavy stuff up steps results in stuff being piled in corners all over the work area instead. I came up with a simple and cheap solution, and it works great. So far I just used it for a 42" mower deck, but it was effortless. Next up is an electric winch so I can lift from below. This is as useful as my lift table. struggling is for suckers. It's just a Harbor Freight truck bed crane. I have unistrut under the joists, and a steel plate up top with some angle, and bolted through the whole thing. It's more than adequate for my use. I won't be lifting anything over 350# with it. Getting old sucks, but I ain't ready to throw in the towel yet.

 
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#7 ·
Just in case anyone would be interested, this is how I mounted it. I have two pieces of unistrut running across three joists, (48" across.) I sandwiched in a 24" piece of 1-3/4 angle to help spread the load on the joist. Up top I made a mounting base that reaches the I beam, and that is on a piece of 1/8" thick 24x24" aluminum just for good measure. I don't know if it helps or not, but it already had a hole in the center. :D I figured most of the load will be pushing down on the beam in front, and pulling up on the rear unistrut from below. I used 5/8" bolts in the back, and 1/2" allthread in the front. My full weight (250#) doesn't even budge the thing. It's probably a good idea to keep it to one end instead of near the center too.



 
#8 ·
The problem I see is the wood beam may crush and cause the bolts and all thread to loosen and allow the whole thing to loosen and twist causing it to fail with an extremely heavy load.
 
#9 ·
Nice I’m doing this tomorrow if I have time what a great idea thanks.
 
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