Takedown of overhead bridge cranes
 

Overhead bridge cranes, at auctions, sell either for outrageous money,
or for next to nothing. The reason is that, while expensive to order
and install, they are difficult to take down and built to suit a
particular building. So, unless there is an auction bidder who needs
this crane, there is no one to bid on them.

And here comes my thinking, I want to be able to bid on them and and
remove, economically and safely, for scrap metal.

I am talking about the "big ones", say 30 ton capacity and 60 feet
sapan, not little ones.

The $64,000 question is how to take them down.

I have a 30,000 lbs capacity forklift and a 11 foot boom for it, that
can be raised by forklift to about 11 feet, giving me about 22 feet of
vertical reach. I also have a number of smaller forklifts like 15,000,
18,000 etc.

What do you think, can I take down biggish cranes with it, if they are
say at the height of 20 feet?

I am not stupid and I can think of various possibilities and
attachments, however I also see that things can go very wrong at such
great heights and leverages.

Anyone seen this done?

Maybe add outriggers to the forklift?

i

Takedown of overhead bridge cranes
 

On Sat, 01 Nov 2014 18:18:27 -0500, Ignoramus3507
wrote:

Overhead bridge cranes, at auctions, sell either for outrageous money,
or for next to nothing. The reason is that, while expensive to order
and install, they are difficult to take down and built to suit a
particular building. So, unless there is an auction bidder who needs
this crane, there is no one to bid on them.

And here comes my thinking, I want to be able to bid on them and and
remove, economically and safely, for scrap metal.

I am talking about the "big ones", say 30 ton capacity and 60 feet
sapan, not little ones.

The $64,000 question is how to take them down.

I have a 30,000 lbs capacity forklift and a 11 foot boom for it, that
can be raised by forklift to about 11 feet, giving me about 22 feet of
vertical reach. I also have a number of smaller forklifts like 15,000,
18,000 etc.

What do you think, can I take down biggish cranes with it, if they are
say at the height of 20 feet?

I am not stupid and I can think of various possibilities and
attachments, however I also see that things can go very wrong at such
great heights and leverages.

Anyone seen this done?

Maybe add outriggers to the forklift?

i

If I were you.,.Id abid on a couple decent sized Hydrocranes

Even 1 would be of great help

http://www.asburytrans.com/images/hydroc3.jpg

Gunner

"At the core of liberalism is the spoiled child,
miserable, as all spoiled children are, unsatisfied,
demanding, ill-disciplined, despotic and useless.
Liberalism is a philosophy of sniveling brats."
PJ O'Rourke

Takedown of overhead bridge cranes
 

Ignoramus3507 fired this volley in
:

Overhead bridge cranes,

Another option besides Gunner's is to rig 'keeper' tackle on both ends, to
the masts, before you start trying to fork the beam down. With adequate
strength of cable and some 'snubbers' to cushion a short fall, you could
fork down in increments, adjusting the rigging each time you want to go
lower.

LLoyd

Takedown of overhead bridge cranes
 

On Sat, 01 Nov 2014 21:23:12 -0500, "Lloyd E. Sponenburgh"
lloydspinsidemindspring.com wrote:

Ignoramus3507 fired this volley in
:

Overhead bridge cranes,

Another option besides Gunner's is to rig 'keeper' tackle on both ends, to
the masts, before you start trying to fork the beam down. With adequate
strength of cable and some 'snubbers' to cushion a short fall, you could
fork down in increments, adjusting the rigging each time you want to go
lower.

LLoyd

Good idea. Hope the on the job training goes well the first couple
times.

"At the core of liberalism is the spoiled child,
miserable, as all spoiled children are, unsatisfied,
demanding, ill-disciplined, despotic and useless.
Liberalism is a philosophy of sniveling brats."
PJ O'Rourke

Takedown of overhead bridge cranes
 

Ignoramus3507 wrote:

Overhead bridge cranes, at auctions, sell either for outrageous money,
or for next to nothing. The reason is that, while expensive to order
and install, they are difficult to take down and built to suit a
particular building. So, unless there is an auction bidder who needs
this crane, there is no one to bid on them.

And here comes my thinking, I want to be able to bid on them and and
remove, economically and safely, for scrap metal.

I am talking about the "big ones", say 30 ton capacity and 60 feet
sapan, not little ones.

The $64,000 question is how to take them down.

I have a 30,000 lbs capacity forklift and a 11 foot boom for it, that
can be raised by forklift to about 11 feet, giving me about 22 feet of
vertical reach. I also have a number of smaller forklifts like 15,000,
18,000 etc.

What do you think, can I take down biggish cranes with it, if they are
say at the height of 20 feet?

I am not stupid and I can think of various possibilities and
attachments, however I also see that things can go very wrong at such
great heights and leverages.

Anyone seen this done?

Maybe add outriggers to the forklift?

i

Three forklifts makes it sort of easy. Position one forklift mid span,
and two on either side of it some reasonable distance away. Make sure
all three are adequately supporting the load, then torch/plasma cut out
the middle section and remove. Move the mid forklift over to one side to
support the span from the track and cut the section that the other
forklift is supporting loose. Repeat as necessary. If you throw four or
five people at this you should be able to play musical forklifts and
have the whole thing down safely in an hour or less.

A lot of resources at it, but not a lot of time, so you need to do the
math to see if it makes sense. Obviously for lighter spans you could
support with two forklifts near the ends, chain the ends to the tracks
and cut out and lower the entire span in one shot, then just grab the
ends with the forklifts, unchain and lower. Either way, you have enough
equipment to attack the project with overwhelming force and just get it
done quickly.

Takedown of overhead bridge cranes
 

Hey Iggy,

I don't recall seeing an overhead crane removed, but I've seen 5 that
I can recall being installed. Each of those was done with a crane on
the ground outside the building lifting the cross-beam from the floor
of the building through a 4' X 4' access cut in the roof for the
purpose. The beam is most often (still) on a semi-trailer, so there
is no need to have it off-loaded beforehand. After installation is
complete, the access hole is then made into a sky-light.

Take care

Brian Lawson.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX


On Sat, 01 Nov 2014 18:18:27 -0500, Ignoramus3507
wrote:

Overhead bridge cranes, at auctions, sell either for outrageous money,
or for next to nothing. The reason is that, while expensive to order
and install, they are difficult to take down and built to suit a
particular building. So, unless there is an auction bidder who needs
this crane, there is no one to bid on them.

And here comes my thinking, I want to be able to bid on them and and
remove, economically and safely, for scrap metal.

I am talking about the "big ones", say 30 ton capacity and 60 feet
sapan, not little ones.

The $64,000 question is how to take them down.

I have a 30,000 lbs capacity forklift and a 11 foot boom for it, that
can be raised by forklift to about 11 feet, giving me about 22 feet of
vertical reach. I also have a number of smaller forklifts like 15,000,
18,000 etc.

What do you think, can I take down biggish cranes with it, if they are
say at the height of 20 feet?

I am not stupid and I can think of various possibilities and
attachments, however I also see that things can go very wrong at such
great heights and leverages.

Anyone seen this done?

Maybe add outriggers to the forklift?

i