Elevatoring

[wroughtn_harv]

Check out this elevator!

 

[wroughtn_harv]

Yeah, I know. It looks a lot like a Cat 953 crawler loader. But trust me. It's an elevator.

Maybe I'd better start at the beginning. /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

 

[wroughtn_harv]

Once upon a time there was this twenty four foot long piece of six inch schedule forty pipe that wanted more than anything else to be a cross bar over an entry way.

All that separated it from this lofty goal was, well, just sixteen and a half feet. It needed an elevator.

First a Ford 540 tried to be enough elevator for the job. Then a Cat 953 crawler loader tried. Neither could, just not enough, well, elevating ability.

Enter Iris, a little small as far as elevators go, but a lot of heart. /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

 

[wroughtn_harv]

Iris did it!

 

[wroughtn_harv]

Then I got to climb into the Cat 953 elevator for a little hot glue work. /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

 

[wroughtn_harv]

Actually I used the Cat for a lift to saddle cut the posts. Then after lunch Iris and me put the cross piece up. It's been a cool windy day and ladder time wasn't appealing. I called bud back with his crawler, his entry way btw, and he was an elevator operator for a bit.

Here's a side by side of Iris and the Cat. (Iris is wearing the elevator trailer)

 

[dieselsmoke1]

Is that a winch on Iris's mast I see?

 

[wroughtn_harv]

Yup, it's a three thousand pound twelve volt winch.

The way it works is the mast extends via tube in a tube or in reality, pipe in pipe and a locking pin. The cables for the winch go over the tractor to the battery. And the remote goes into the grubby little hand of the operator.

When the lift on the tractor is all the way up and the mast is fully extended, the shiv is twenty six feet off the ground.

The way I place a piece of pipe like this by myself is I put the winch line about three inches off center. I also put a tag line on the short side of the pipe. Then I lift with the winch and use the tag line as a control method. I place the long side in it's saddle and then guide the short side into it's.

It's neat to take a heavy piece of pipe like that and place it in such a precarious position by oneself, safely. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[DaveNH]

What is the purpose of the "cross bar over an entry way"?

 

[dieselsmoke1]

Very neat, indeed. Looks good in the "what I did today" pile.

 

[wroughtn_harv]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( What is the purpose of the "cross bar over an entry way"?)</font>

I suspect the original reason was to support a gate. Now I do it a lot for ranchettes and ranches as a decoration. The thing most folks don't consider is to have them at least fifteen feet high above the driveway. Cement trucks, hay trucks, etc.