Thoughts you may already have considered: You will need some sort of heat shield to keep the radiant heat off the hoist. An aluminum sheet metal rectangle with a smallish hole for the cable would do the trick. Another option would be to offset the actual winding motor and mechanism and use a snatch block to direct the cable to the crucible. I'd have the beam as high as possible. One problem with the trolley is that when you push on the crucible to move it the trolley will want to move in a start/stop fashion----roll a ways, slow and stop and repeat. So, using a pusher on the trolly will minimize the start/stop action. (Maybe the unit shown has a drive cable for traverse) Getting something without a pendant could be nice. The pendant cable will be vulnerable to heat itself. A radio control would be a plus. (I used an R/C control and servo to wirelessly control my hoist. I love it) Denis
Thanks for your thoughts! It won't take much - I have a plastic exhaust hood way closer to my induction furnace than the hoist will be so should not be an issue (the hood is covered with reflective insulation though). Side note: The plastic hood doesn't get more than warm with molten steel below, but I do plan on replacing it with metal at some point - but mainly because I want a bigger hood. But yeah, it will be high as possible. Heh I know what you mean by start stop. Hoists with a little motor for the trolly are quit reasonable, but then I suppose the problem would be in reverse. I'm not really worried about the pendant - it will be where over where I am standing so that's a safe place - a little reflective insulation wrapped around the wires would be plenty. I personally preferred wired - I don't want any chance of any radio interference when I've got 30 pounds of molten steel hanging in the air right next to me.
I have started building my crane already, It will not be any GS model but I hope it will function. I am using some heavy RHS that was left over from building a houseboat, they where basically big trestles I made to put the pontoons on for painting from over a decade ago. I will add pictures as I proceed.
Maybe radiant heat from the 30# crucible is not so great. But you are talking 200 pound lifts, right? And parking above an open white hot furnace to make a lift will result in intense radiant heat exposure to the hoist. (I have to wear a welder’s hood to skim or risk singing my eyebrows and I’ve had some small minor facial burns from radiant heat using my little diesel furnace that holds an A25. Not since the #3 welders hood. But, yup before that I did. A little bit of a shield solves that (stupidity-related) problem.) The hoist will be more resistant than my skin. But, I think a shield maybe a good idea. Denis
I know what y0u mean about radiant heat!! I've pulled a 20# white-hot crucible out of the furnace and won't be doing it again - my fireproof gloves instantly began to smolder, but my hoist will be considerably further away than my gloves where. In any event, doesn't take much for a little reflective shield. But I'm mostly talking about using it for a ladle - that is how I will use it - can't be pulling white crucibles out of the furnace ^. Also, I think the larger the crucible, the more dangerous it is to lift out of a furnace too. You can make a ladle far more safe to use IMHO. Really the only downside of a ladle, is just like a crucible, the liner will need replacement at some point and needs to be preheated for many things. I think I might make crucible warmer with a couple silicon carbide heating rods that I have lying around to make that part easy.
Here are those pictures of heavy crucible handling tools I promised... Crane operated liftout tongs: Crane operated pouring shank and a plinth with built in shank holder: 2-man manual liftout tongs: 2 man manual pouring shanks: Edit - are these really grainy? I'm on my phone right now and using an unfamiliar photo shrinker app. Let me know while I can still edit this and I can try to fix it if these pix suck on a bigger screen as I suspect they might... Jeff
Those crucible lifts in the top 3 pic I see they have no stops, is that ok? or should you really have adjustable stops?
I personally think it is ok. The weight of the tongs and crucible themselves provide all the squeezing force, and the crane chain attaches close enough to the pivot point to not pinch as hard as say the manual liftout tongs where the lifting and pinching happens from the far end of a couple of long levers and stops really are needed. I don't think these will squeeze harder than necesaary to not drop the crucible. And I don't think I would want anything stopping them from closing as much as they need to to accomplish that. The handlebars are for steering and letting go once the crucible is set down in the shank, not for squeezing. Just my opinion though. They did get used for many years. Jeff
So far I have turned the scrap into something that is starting to look like a crane. Next step is to make a trolley hoist for it.
It's finally functional. I found that I had too much flex from the base of the upright. So I beef up the base by drilling into the footing and extending reo rods and another RHS across the front, then encased it all in concrete. I don't think I will put to much weight on it until the concrete has had time to cure well.
Looks good. Just remember the amount of weight it can safely manage will be vastly less with the hoist positioned near the end of the beam than the post. It's surprising how beefy and relatively short the arms are on a commercial 500lb jib crane. Best, Kelly
