Very good gentlemen. Years ago I wanted to rebuild my small block chevy V8 engine. I didn't have a workshop at the time, so, in the lounge she came! I hoisted it up with a chain hoist that was attached to a 2" galvanised pipe, straddling the rung of a rickety old wooden ladder that my father made which I nailed to the mantle piece for stability! The other end of the pipe was sitting atop the trash can that was placed on the kitchen table (that I'd brought in from the kitchen, in order to give it the desired height!) Needless to say, if the whole shooting box had have let go I'd have a V8 as an integrated part of my living room floor! I might actually have a photo of it hanging if I look hard enough... I know I've got some video footage somewhere of me starting the thing in the lounge! :D
From my experience, next time put the ladder centered above the column ,and Let the beam ride up a temporary placed 2x4 on the side of the column. Then, Once the beam clears the top of the column it will naturally be centered and can just be lowered
I watched this video when I had big steels to lift on my own house extension. I hired a genie lift and overloaded it by 100kg. You just have to do the best with the tools to hand.
Well, we ran the numbers and figured the weight of the beam, the capacity of the ladders, the ratings of the rope and pulleys and everything was within the margins of weight ratings.
All other safety comments aside, I would not have put my body that close to the beam to move it sideways when a 2x4, pole, or rope could have served the same purpose at a safer distance. I mean, if the ladders buckled and failed, and the beam fell, oh well, but if you have your hands and body touching the beam, whether supported by ladders or a crane, and there is a failure...then BIG problem.
+George Vasquez - Yeah George. Also, upon watching this again after a lapse, I see another concern: The lateral pull required on the rope is adding even more torsion to the ladders. Upon initial thought, a person might look at the ladders and think, 300 pound load rating times two ladders, but these ladders are being subjected to enormous torsional stresses they are not designed to handle. And one more VERY IMPORTANT (!!!) thought: Even if these ladders come away apparently unscatched, what has loosened up or fractured that one day might be the 1/8th inch toward disaster for you or a friend working from them? You shouldn't repel from the same ropes you might use to hoist or pull equipment, and that's even using the ropes in the manner they were designed for (tensile stresses). Here you're flexing these ladders in ways that a computer would have trouble simulating, and there is no warning to future users of their mistreatment.
+Patrick Perry I see that you are saying. If you add another pulley up top the back down to a Mobil home anchor (good thinking), with another pulley for directional change, the stress on the ladders would be greatly decreased. The ladders would not be pulled in any direction that was unnecessary. It wouldn't offer any more mechanical advantage to the force of lift but to the whole job yes.
It would have gone much, much better if you reversed the pulleys and put yourself in a position to pull DOWN from the upper pulley. You would have had one extra rope to lift the load - you would have divided the 500 lb load by 5 making the pulling force 100 lbs instead of 150 lbs.
You are right that reversing the setup would make it easier but you are wrong about changing the ratio. They would actually lose mechanical advantage. remember, if you tied the end of the rope to the top and come down to a single pulley then back up you get the 2/1 advantage. If you have the pulley fixed on top it is just a change of direction. 1/1 no real advantage.
+George Vasquez - My memory of figuring mechanical advantage with pulley's is faint, but an observation if useful: The bottom "pulley block" has three courses of rope round. Also, even if concede the advantage to decrease with reversal, it would be very easy to make it back up with another pulley. But (!), if anything, the safest tie point before pull in this situation would be directly below the block and on the ground...perhaps a pre-fab earth-anchor (hoise trailer tie down), or improvised with logs sat on angle into dug and backfilled holes (assuming you were on a deserted island or away from infrastructure).
+Patrick Perry Rule of thumb. If the last leg of rope is coming from the load, that leg counts in figuring the mechanical advantage. If the last leg of rope is coming from the fixed point, that leg is only a directional change.
Very nice! Five questions. How did you know the ladder would hold the weight? Where do you get a steel beam like that? Was it expensive? Is that a 6:1 crank pulley? Is that expensive?
You are right, a 2 ton chain hoist cost about $50, also there are several winches for under $30. Either one can lift weight at 90 degree which is much safer than pulling that rope in angle and can be done by one person.
another way would be to stack pallets on ether side then inch each side up slowly, used this method to lift a one ton girder into position some time back...
Since there is no Part two I am guessing everyone got crushed when you tried lifted the other side? LOL The older guy has a bunch of skill the way he rigged things and it is very educational to show how you can do things with a little creativity but not exactly the safest or smartest way to do things IMHO. Hey it worked and showed some good skills but also could be done a little safer.
I just lift it up there with one hand, while I secure the beam on the column with one hand, I reach over and grab the other end of the beam tchrow it up on the other column...Easy peazy japanezy...:)
:)...Being in Remodeling for 30 years I don't think I ever lifted a beam the same way twice...Site conditions dictate what you'll do...But, the one hand toss up has been working pretty well...yep, pretty well...:)
I think the beam was about 500 pounds. Each ladder was rated around 300 I think. The beam is for an addition on the house, got it at a steel mill in town. The pulley was from a sailboat mast, actually. I don't recall what the beam cost.
Hello, What kind of pulley system are you using? I need to lift something heavy and need a pulley system that ratchets. Is there a specific name for that feature?
It was pulleys from his sailboat. They are kind of ratcheting. You can pull the rope to a certain angle and it'll engage a brake of some sort. But they're EXPENSIVE.
+Anabelle pollard I thought so too initially but it's basically an addition to the house, and it's the size that his architect and the city inspector people said was needed.
So why is the span so great it necessitated that size of steel I beam? It does not look like there is much that will be under that particular addition to the house unless I am not seeing something hidden or planned for under the sun room. More posts/columns would carry the load without using such a huge steel beam. Or is this project in a city with ridiculously overbuilt codes?
