Mike Henry wrote:
"gradstdnt" wrote in message
oups.com...
I figured someone would notice that I cheated a bit. Yes, there is
a
ratchet strap lifting a portion of the load. I do realize these
are
designed to tie down, not up. The straps are indeed10,000 lb rated
and
more than capable. The little strap you see is only holding the
skid
on. I did ensure my setup was capable beforehand in the garage by
actually lifting the assembly with the knee and saddle in place.
The
final move was lighter minuse those items. The biggest lift was
from
the sidewalk to the porch. The rest of the trip any failure would
have
meant a drop of about an inch. If I had to do it again, I would
definitely make use of rated lifting straps just for piece of mind.
The heavy ratchet straps did allow fine tuning of strap legths to
get
the load properly balanced.

It looks like you used "anchored" the gantry against the doorway at
the top
of tyhe stairs. Did you notice any movement or give of the doorway
while
lowering the heavier components? Did you use (or consider) 4x4's or
similar
to support the stairway?

Pretty impressive move! My wife and I moved a 300-500 lb grinder
base down
a stairway a few months ago with a bit different approach and that
seemed to
me to be the practical limit - until now.


The doorway provided a very solid backup structure for the gantry with
no deflection, creaks, groans, or cracks in the drywall. It is just
the horizontal component of the load that is being acted here, not the
full load. I did wedge two 4x4's under the stairs mid span to ensure
rubustness and piece of mind.

Some have mentioned my wifes toleration of my hobby. She didn't have
to lift a finger and no damage or abuse was done to the home. The
bigger challenge was maintaining my position that the basement is my
shop space and not misc/junk storage. This was actually my second big
move. If you look at 2003 archived files under Lathe Move, you will
see how I moved the bed of a 13 x 40 Clausing Colchester lathe. The
base for the mill is bigger but in general the process is old hat now.
From my wifes perspective it's just her husband and a few friends
moving some stuff into the basement.

The crane does fit into the basement. Main beam goes through window
opening and the rest down the stairs by hand. I designed it to clear
all beams and ductwork in it's lowest height. It will enable me to
move and assemble everything by myself.
The move took about three hours including some prep like removing
basement door and handrail and putting down the hardboard to protect
the floor.

We started around 4:00 PM and it gets dark pretty quick around 5:00 PM.
Total move was around 3 hours. The slowest part was lowering the
items down the stairs with the lever hoist. Very slow and tiring on
the arm even though there isn't much effort. The three of us worked
shifts on the hoist. Power hoist would have made the whole move much
quicker and almost effort free