RSJ, hoists and winches

[Renaud]

Hi,
In the course of discovering the splendid Parazine's "Restoring a Top Hat" I thought I could open that not strictly Seven subject.
I hed always longed for an RSJ in my workshop. Unfortunately my old one had a really very low framing.
So when I draw my new workshop some years ago I planned that RSJ which is nearly 6 m high and also allows me to store engines and other heavy parts on the mezzanine:



I have both that electric winch and a chain hoist on it. Even also another carriage to keep the odd chassis out of my feet.
Here's the rest of the workshop by the way:




Thanks to everyone here for your unvaluable posts and experience.
Renaud

[David Stepney]

I always envy people who have a nice, large, airy workshop with plenty of room. I have to make do with a damp hole of a 25' x 12' garage with just about 7' of headroom. However, I have a 'Haltrac' hoist that I was given as a Christmas present over 50 years ago. It consists of four poles that bolt to a short beam that goes to the top with a loop welded to it to take the hoist. The hoist is a clever device that uses wire rope and has a complicated catch to stop it from coming down unless you want it to. It's surprisingly sturdy: I have used it to remove and replace Landrover and 6 cylinder Jaguar engines, and neither of them is exactly light!

[Renaud]

Hi David,
Eight year ago llike you I deeply envied those kind of fellows. Then I had the opportunity I would not have dreamed before to build that one.
My old one was very large too, even larger in fact but dark, very, very damp and with that low ceiling like yours.
That said I'd like to work on Landrover and Jaguar engines!

[David Stepney]

It’s funny you should say that. The other evening, my Landrover blew a coreplug at the back of the cylinder head. So I am going to have to get the head off to do the job. The trouble is that. The Landrover is too tall to go into the garage!

[Tony Griffiths]

Some very useful machine-tools as well; always a great help in getting jobs done. How anyone manages without at least a lathe and drill press I cannot imagine.

[Stuart Giles]

Renaud, That looks a super building. I have put a travelling hoist  in each of the garages and workshops here.  This is the first one I made for my original garage here;  the rollers on this setup are all used Austin Seven Wheel bearings:



The budget ran to using 'proper' girder trolley rollers on the hoist setup when I built the 'new' garage on the other side of the garden.



Then I installed a new hoist setup in the 'clean' workshop. you can see that the main beam is cantilevered in the same way as one of those old fulcrum style weighing scales that doctors' surgeries used to have. This allows the girder trolley to cover more of the workshop area. My days of just grunt lifting up a 12" chuck up to mount it on a lathe spindle are long gone now.



In fact lifting the travelling beams up to mount them can be an interesting job, This is lifting the most recent one, I built a fair bit of temporary reinforcement up there in the workshop's shallow loft area before hooking up this chain block.

[Reckless Rat]

I haven't got a chain hoist but I have a girder mounted 250kg MWL electric hoist which is more than adequate for my current needs, but on the other hand I do have a nice view from the garage...

[Ivor Hawkins]

Seeing that Valentine poster takes me back to shooting refinish training days down at West Drayton and a curry before heading back to Oxford, happy days!

[Stuart Giles]

Seeing that Valentine poster takes me back to shooting refinish training days down at West Drayton and a curry before heading back to Oxford, happy days!

Yes, well spotted. I have had that poster on the wall across three house/garage moves. That young lady whose state of undress is hidden by the green lifting strop is probably a grandmother these days....

[John Mason]

I am possibly a little late on viewing this thread as others have already made comments about your garage Renaud. All I can say is that is not a garage it is a PALACE.

John Mason.