Beautiful little complex you got going there! Nice job.
Beautiful little complex you got going there! Nice job.
This whole project started off with one of those "Wouldn't it be cool if" idle talks. Who hasn't wanted an overhead trolley hoist running the length of their shop? Well, maybe it's just me. I had a bunch of free (heavy!) steel angle, a couple of welders, a buddy who could cut widgets on the waterjet for me..
4 of these gadgets welded. Stylish neck collars? Who knows..
Got this sign from a friend as a retirement gift.
Let's weld 10' of angle to the end of a 20' section, twice.
Maybe it'd be good if we had some widgets to lift it up with..
Let's weld a tab on the side of each rail in 4 places.
Now line up the rails back to back with the tabs between them. Use the widgets from the first pic to align the tabs.
Weld. Lots. Paint. Also lots.
Up in the air it goes..
Nearly there.
Trolley!
I have an action video but it's on FB and I'm too lazy to find it and convert it right now.
Oooh nice hoist setup! Jelly of your setup.
In reply to 84FSP :
I was originally going to put an electric hoist on it; I have it sitting on the bench right now. Trying to decide if the chain hoist is fine or if I need to buy two more trolleys and mount the electric one also. The electric one would be much much faster but lower capacity. I don't think I want to try and run electrical power for it down the shop 30' and make a cord routing system to keep it from snarling. Maybe keep it at the loft end only for putting moderately heavy stuff upstairs.
You already mentioned engineering so I hope to be embarrassed for asking this.. but did your shop designer know you'd be hanging that rail from the roof trusses?
OHSCrifle said:You already mentioned engineering so I hope to be embarrassed for asking this.. but did your shop designer know you'd be hanging that rail from the roof trusses?
You probably know the answer to that one already. The readily available steel buildings, to include this one, are cookie cutter designs. They meet wind load and structural requirements and the designer of this one certainly did not take my add ons into account. I am actually planning some structural reinforcements to the trusses, just for overkill.
In reply to Kendall Frederick :
Your fab skills are excellent. I don't think you want the answer from an engineer.
Be safe out there.
Sort of, kind of matters how much weight you think you are going to lift with those hoists.
I'm pretty sure the company that built it would say "no". YMMV
SV reX said:In reply to Kendall Frederick :
Your fab skills are excellent. I don't think you want the answer from an engineer.
Be safe out there.
I am an engineer.
Purple Frog (Forum Supporter) said:Sort of, kind of matters how much weight you think you are going to lift with those hoists.
I'm pretty sure the company that built it would say "no". YMMV
Not even sort of kind of.. that's the crux of it. The rail is much stronger than the trusses it's hung from, but it's hung from 4 trusses to spread the load. And yes, I am an engineer, but no, I haven't run a full stress analysis.. so I'll limit what I lift with it to sensible loads pending truss reinforcement. No cars dangling in the air.
I'll take a stab at it and no I'm not an enginear I would add knee braces from your trusses to the wall columns at those locations you have the trolley supported from said trusses.....g'night
In reply to 759NRNG :
That's essentially what I'm planning. On the loft end I'm going to put one column under the center of the loft floor truss, then tie that truss diagonally up to the roof truss on both sides for additional support. The other end will get diagonal braces from the wall.
Right now I'm getting ready to pull 150 feet of 4/0-4/0-4/0-2/0 cable through underground conduit for shop power. I have never done this, and I'm anticipating it being a giant pain in the ass! I have to get FPL to come out and do a "stand by", unlock and safe the transformer so I can pull the cable. I'll update this thread with my progress, or lack thereof..
I used a commercially available metal/mesh "Chinese finger trap", a length of cable and a hand winch mounted vertically to pull mine through. It was about 120' pulled through a conduit JUST big enough to fit in and it worked a treat.
In reply to chandler :
I bought the finger trap gadget already.. along with lube. :-D
I like the hand winch idea, I actually have an electric one and I may very well rig something up where it can pull vertically. I was planning on using the flat nylon pull rope through the conduit.. did you use the cable through the conduit?
Yup, slow and steady with lots of lube
I'm not working on much on the car front, with so many house and shop projects on my list, so what the heck.. here are more shop pics.
We got the cable pulled through 150' of underground conduit, installed the meter can, service panel, and one circuit. I have an inspection scheduled for tomorrow. If I pass, I can call FPL and get on the schedule to have the meter installed and the feed hooked up in the transformer. I'm stoked to be getting close to power in there!
4/0-4/0-4/0-2/0 cable split, looped, wire tied, and taped to pull rope. I had an electrician friend come with his helper, and he preferred to do this instead of the finger trap gadget.
13.2 kV, 50 kVA transformer open. Since it only feeds our house, the FPL guy just disconnected the feed at the road and left the transformer open for us to do the wire pull. If he'd left the house live, he would've had to stay there the entire time to make sure we didn't fry ourselves. That empty conduit is where we're pulling the feed to the shop.
Poured an entire bottle of lube down the conduit, two of us feeding the cable and one pulling at the transformer, and less than five minutes later, it was through! Very relieved it went that smoothly and thankful to have skilled help.
Mounted the service panel back to back with the meter can and put the feed through the wall. 200 amp panel, we ran one circuit and outlet, now it's ready for inspection (I hope).
"No inspector, I'm not planning to add a bunch of stuff after you're gone, why do you ask?" :-)
I saved approximately $4k going the DIY-with-help route, and it was fairly simple in the end. Glad I did so.
Aluminum wire?
Looks like it, but I could be wrong.
I am getting ready to do the same thing with 230 feet, 200 amp service to my shop.
lownslow said:Aluminum wire?
Looks like it, but I could be wrong.
I am getting ready to do the same thing with 230 feet, 200 amp service to my shop.
Yes, aluminum wire. I don't know what a run of 3/0 copper that length would cost, and I'm afraid to find out! 180 feet of aluminum direct burial wire was ~$900. I'm at about $1800 in parts and wire for this install so far.
Aluminum service entrance wire is not unusual.
Yep. Coming from the commercial/industrial world, my first inclination when installing a sub-panel for my ex's addition was to get copper wire... until I looked at aluminum and the $ difference. The ex- who was writing the checks said, "Aluminum it is!" I haven't worked on a lot of residential panels, but the ones I have opened had aluminum service conductors.
I'll be quite honest here - that trolley set up scares the crap out of me. Please be careful.
45 years in construction... I don't think I've ever seen copper residential service wire used.
Ian F: I agree with you about the trolley. I'm glad to know the OP is an engineer and is probably perfectly capable of designing it well, but that type of structure is a major no-no most of us to ever hang weight from.
chandler said:Yup, slow and steady with lots of lube
quote of the day...
Well, how does it look these days?
In reply to P3PPY :
Pretty much the same until the first week of February, when I'm supposed to get the metal building crew out to enclose the rest of the walls. Then more wiring, insulation, and the lift! It's taking me a while..
Question on the flood vent. Couldn't a hinged piece of siding that swung out be just as effective as that big hole? Fishing boats use them to let water that comes over the bow to flow off the deck back into the ocean. Being you are a engineer, I'm going to guess you could design one that would be a better solution than that governmental stupidity that is pictured.
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