Thread: Home made jib crane with photos

Hi Dave
Yes they replaced it. Just turned up on Friday so I quickly reinstalled it. It is still not as smooth or as quiet as I would have liked and certainly louder and rougher than the You tube one would make you think but MUCH better than the original. I no longer am in fear of it suddenly giving up and crashing my 100Kg index head to the floor with me or my foot underneath it.

Thanks for your help and concern

Bill

At least you have it back and it's running. Mine is a little bit noisier than the video not much. One thing I noticed when I lifted the lathe was the lifting speed stayed pretty much the same, and I could hear the motor straining only a little, which surprised me lifting close on it's capacity.
You could try running the cable all the way out, letting the motor cool (because of the duty cycle) then running it back in. It might bed the teeth in and make it a bit quieter. As for the big clunk when it starts I think we are stuck with that.
What seller was that you bought yours from? My wife bought mine when the auctions were starting at $0.99 and not going for much, she won it for $52 and $50 postage from Ozauction I think it was. I have had bad dealings with Soldsmart and wont buy again.
What do you think about the speed of it for putting things down on the mill table?
I think it needs to be slowed down about half of what it is. Sometime in the future I will add another set of pulleys top and bottom to slow it down. I have been thinking of changing over to rope instead of cable, because when I tried some old pulleys I had here, I found the bottom pulley didn't want to come down unless you had heaps of weight on it to keep the cable taught, because it is so stiff.
I just saw the other day on ebay, they rate the blue and yellow Telstra rope at 560kg, that would be good enough for lifting a max of 100kg. I only want it for the 10" rotary table with the 10" chuck on it, or the mill vises and lathe chucks. I have a heap of it here and it would be a lot more flexible than the steel cable that comes with these hoists.
Dave

Bought it from Princess Trade Australia. They did not believe it was faulty to start with but changed their mind after a terse email. I don't think they ever did test it under load but took my word for it. I paid $100 + 25 postage (unfortunately paid that twice as I paid to send it back). I have seen them go for around $80 and up to $130 (plus postage).

It is a bit fast even with the pulley hook so I put a bit of wood on the table to lower the rotary head or table on to then slide it into the groove if you know what I mean. My winch is mounted at this stage on water pipe within a reinforced roof battern (metal cap type) next to a strut - yes it flexes slightly under the load which will never be more than 100Kg. A more permanent mounting will come with time - maybe even a boom like yours. I move the mill table away, lift the rotary head or table, then move mill table back under the head then lower. My rotary head and table live on small roll around wooden bases on the floor.

The rope would be OK I guess as the load would be shared across 4 pieces as long as you keep an eye on wear. Their may be a problem with capacity on the drum although in your case you probably only need room for about 10-12 metres (4 x 2.5 metres) of rope. If the yellow/blue rope is what I think it is I beleive it deteriorates if exposed to UV. There are probably stronger and more flexible UV stable ropes in the sailing world - more expensive of course but you don't need a lot.

Bill

HI,
Here is the Photos of the Overhead Gantry that I promised about two months ago.

The Shed was a bit Messy when the Photos were taken. As I had just moved stuff around to get My New AL-960B Metal Lathe in.

All The Best steran50 Stewart

The shortest way to do many things is to do only one thing at once.

That video sounds just the same as mine does...
I am so happy with mine I am going to set up 3 more of them.
1/ Over the mill drill 1/ over my big mill and 1/ over my lathe
Matt