[Keith Seymore]

Originally Posted by dataway

How about an I-beam tracked chain fall?

I had one of these at my previous house.

K

[Keith Seymore]

Originally Posted by Keith Seymore

I had one of these at my previous house.

K

(and now - the story):

My friend and I were standing out in the front barn one evening, visiting, and he said "hey, I have this old chain hoist. It belonged to my father (or grandfather, or great grandfather, whomever) and I won't ever use it. Would you like to have it?"

I said sure; I thought it might be kind of cool to have a hoist in one of the barns for pulling engines or any other myriad of uses.

About a week later he backs his S10 up in the driveway and dumps off this HUGE chain hoist - I kid you not, this thing must have been about 3 feet in diameter. It had about a mile of chain along with it, too.

I thought "well, I may as well plant flowers around this thing because it ain't movin' from that spot"....

I messed around with it and through judicious use of ropes, pulleys, comealongs and the hoist itself was able to pull it up into the barn and actually get it hanging from the rafters. It just didn't look right up there, I mean - it looked like I had A HOIST with a barn for a life support system. I thought it might even collapse the rafter that it was hanging from.

I got to thinking and thought "you know, if I had an "I" beam, I could get one of those little trolleys, and wheel this hoist back and forth (increasing it's utility) and that would also allow me to store it away in one of the horse stalls when not it use." Where would I get an "I" beam? - I have a friend that owns a retail steel shop (I highly recommend this).

I gave him call and we set up a date. I met him for lunch one day and while we were eating (he bought my lunch, too) his guys loaded up the "I" beam on my open car trailer: 22 feet of "I" beam. Have you every trailered and/or moved a 22 foot "I" beam? It's not a trivial matter....

So now I have this thing at home, on the trailer, and I have to figure out how to get it up into the rafters. I won't belabor the point but, again, though much figuring, pulling, turning, parking and winching I was able to get the "I" beam turned 90 degrees (so that it went across the short side of the barn) and attached to the posts that supported the barn itself. After getting the hoist hanging from the trolley, sure enough, I was able to pick things up, move them around and store the hoist in the horse stall and keep it out of sight. Exactly according to the plan.

That's cool enough....but here's the REALLY cool part (to me). Shortly after that, Henry Ford Museum and Greenfield Village dedicated their new railroad roundhouse. It's one of only two or three functioning roundhouses in the nation and they had just relocated it and restored it from another location here in Michigan. They were having an open house/dedication and Village members were invited down for a small ceremony, which included a tour of the new facility. One of the features of the building is a balcony type loft, so that visitors can stand overhead and watch the restoration and maintenance work taking place on these huge vintage steam locomotives. As I climbed the stairs and looked out over the repair floor.......what do you suppose I see? MY HOIST!! Yep, another hoist just like the one I had just hung in my barn. That certainly explains the size of the thing...it's an old railroad repair hoist, from the late 1800's.


(photo courtesy of HFM&GF website)

I was pleased to have it but naturally was especially pleased for it to have this historical side. Since I've had it I've used it for pulling engines, picking bodies off cars, picking the end of a vehicle up (instead of jacking) and I even use it for picking up the front of the farm tractor to slide the mower deck underneath it (like a garden tractor!). Very handy!

K

[1965gp]

Very cool story Keith!

[1965gp]

Thanks for the comments on the shop guys. I highly recommend the two post for the most versatility.

I’ve learned a lot since I built this shop- mainly I don’t need my air power at all since everything is battery powered now.

OZZ - that is actually a 68 LeMans that I found in a storage unit a few years ago. It had been there for 22 years and did not come with keys and was on 4 flats. Several oil changes, new tank and carb the car drives great. It took a lot of buffing but the one repaint the car has had came back to life.

I do have some B bodies- this is the 65 Grand Prix I built in high school and gave to my dad a few years ago.

[Tom Vaught]

Way cool story Keith, will have to check it out if I come visit again down the road.

I have the little brother, 14" diameter wheel and chain set-up.

Tom V.

65GP you are one of the few with TWO cars with a similar (yellow?) paint job.

[Sirrotica]

I always have a chain fall in my garages, sometimes it's on an I beam with a trolley and sometimes it's hanging from the rafters.

I'm currently stripping and painting a 5X8 trailer to haul the pit vehicle to Norwalk, I have a chain fall on either end of it to lift it up to 48 inches so I can access the bottom of it. It's sitting on the homemade 24-48 inch jack stands, made from car rims rebar and schedule 40 steel pipe with 1/2 inch adjustment pins.

One of the next projects will be pulling the wrecker body off of the IH chassis for some fab work. I'll use 3, 2 ton chain falls for that project.

I've also found that steel pallet racking can be used to suspend chain falls in the absence of sturdy enough trusses, or outside. I originally installed the wrecker body on the truck in my asphalt driveway with pallet racking because the garage door is only 7 feet, but the truck cab is 7 feet 4 inches...........

Since I do virtually everything by myself, chain falls are an indispensable tool in my garage.

[Formulas]

This isnt extremely expensive to duplicate and none of the typical B/S associated with using a rental or cheap harbor freight units that dont reach back far enough or go under the car,

I had it previously in a typical 2 car garage at first worked fine just had to buy raw material and fab longer down legs in the pole barn

Makes pulling engines infinitely easier

Had an aerospace engineer coworker figure out max load on the center of the beam. 5200 lbs

[OZZIEVILLE 67 2 door]

I'm back on me back again after 10 months away from replacing the unreliable 14y.o. starter motor , the east coastline ozz has been flooded twice in the last 6 months,.
I did read this thread again and was great to read the real world story's with everyone started working on ya back .

So I finally have the exact Powermaster XS torque # 9510. Fits properly.

I always read all the threads on the dreaded Heat Sink.
My Bonneville for few years would not restart at petrol stations.
Cold water on starter, got

I purchased a heat wrap as an easy way to shield from hot headers.
Got new starter in , wrapped in heatproof bandage looking neat .

Connect battery and bang.
We all know the feeling of a oh.

Something blow , all fuses in car ok have power.
No reaction from starter
I have wiring diagram, I rewired whole car with M and H years ago.

Am I looking for a separate fuses. ??
I removed the wrap from the starter, check the wires as best you can.
Reconnect the 2 red and 1 purple at starter, battery and it cranks over like a new one...

I fell for a possible dangerous trap.
The heat shield I put on back the front.
The foil side was on inside and made a short.

But why didn't start smoking after 1st bang , as I did connect the battery and run a test light in car and tried to start with no results.

Design Engineering, Inc. I think have got the Velcro on the wrong side.
It's to easy to make my mistake. Look at photos tell me what I you think.??








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[OZZIEVILLE 67 2 door]

1st photo is foil across connection's
Fits well,
2nd photo with foil out Velcro can't use, I did use 2 big zip ties .

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[BDH79TA]

This kind of scene is going to change in the next couple of years. At the moment I can only wish for something out of the elements.

[redbird68]

My firebird wrenching began in a gravel space at my parents house. graduated to a single car garage and did a full resto of a 68 in there....had to be very creative for many things, but have very fond memories of that time.
I now am finally setup well. 2 post lift is essential for me...I use it constantly. I am turning 60 this year. When I built my house I setup the garage to be more comfortable than my living room. Actually my garage is my living room!

[tom s]

When we built my house here in Long Beach 20 years ago I did 2 garages,one a one car shop,we installed a alu I beam for a dolly and chain fall.The other is a tall two car with 2 Backyard Budy 4 post lifts.The cars actually moved into the garage about 6 month before we moved into the house.Tom