In the early stages of buying the official restoration-mini garage

[Merlin]

How tall are the wheels?

4klbs would be on par with the 2 ton rating calculated for that gantry. Besides, you are going to need wheels on it anyway for it to be useful. Once you pull an engine from the car, you still have to move the engine out of the way...

[94touring]

True.  Though the little cart I have with the casters I initially was going to use will probably be what the engine sits on to move it around.  Worked great on the last car for that purpose. 

[94touring]

Have I mentioned how much I love all this space?

[Willie_B]

Who needs a place to live when you have this much room! :D

[94touring]

Lol exactly.  At some point you need to bring your car back by. 

[Willie_B]

Lol exactly.  At some point you need to bring your car back by.

I want to see the pickup back on the road first...

[MtyMous]

If I was single, this would be the perfect pad. I'd add a loft upstairs and that would be my home.

[94touring]

If I was single, this would be the perfect pad. I'd add a loft upstairs and that would be my home.

No need for a loft, there's an apartment attached! 

[Jims5543]

If I ever ended up single that would be my ideal setup, a small apartment with a huge garage attached.


Mrs.5543 wants to eventually get to a small 2 bedroom cottage style home in downtown Stuart, I actually found one now but the asking price is too high. It was a early 1900's home on a pretty deep lot, like 70' wide by 150' deep, there is a crappy tiny old garage out back that is being used as a art studio. I could see tearing it down and building a nice size shop space out back maybe an apartment in it too for a guest house. Everyone would be happy.  It is a shame they are asking so much for it, it needs a complete remodel inside and being an early 1900's house plumbing and electric are suspect as well.

It is nice to dream, I need to hit the lotto.

edit

This is the house, price is way out of line and it is not worth the "zestimate" price either, mostly because it is going to need to be gutted and completely remodeled and updated (electric / plumbing) and I am not sure his has central AC either.

http://www.zillow.com/homedetails/22-SE-Seminole-St-Stuart-FL-34994/54561961_zpid/

[94touring]

400g's eh?  I could buy many shops in Oklahoma for that much. 

[MiniDave]

Casters for the gantry crane.....the swivel casters have brakes on them. Don't forget, you need to gusset or brace those vertical legs, the first time you get some weight hanging from the cross beam and try to roll it and that weight gets to swinging those welds will not hold I don't care how good they are - it's just basic physics. It's also easy to get a twist or rack with them unbraced. The best way is to weld/bolt some legs from near the ends of the bottom beams as far up the sides of the vertical legs as you can go......like this, note the gussets at the top too.....

[94touring]

Yeah it's on the to do list.  I figured I'll just weld on something.  Even if it's a length of angle iron, I imagine it will keep it stable enough. 

[Merlin]

Welds breaking is basic physics? Ill agree to disagree. For the load that the gantry was designed for, the 4" square tubing 1/4" thick isn't bending and the weld, done by an ASME code welder, isn't breaking over some 600lb side load. Beam load calculations show that it is rock-solid for the requested 1 ton design.

[MiniDave]

I disagree....sorta.

It depends on the load and where it is - how high up, and how the "problem" happens.....wheels get stuck on something on the floor as the load is being moved or whatever.....with the length of those legs the bending moment will exceed the weld strength IMHO.

At any rate, it wouldn't hurt to add gussets or legs, even bolt-ons.....I always try to overbuild everything, JIC.

I haven't seen it, and I thought he welded it with his 110V flux core.

[Merlin]

No, I built that bitch. I built that bitch in my gas compression equipment shop.
The legs are 3ft long on each side so toppling is nearly impossible. having it "rock" on a 10deg angle with 2000 lbs at the very top of the crane would result in a 1215 ft/lb torque which would result in a .053" deflection and with a weld effective area of 1"  (aka 1215psi) for the single weld on the tension side of the beam, the weld wont even break a sweat.

[94touring]

Ha speaking of gantry crains... the dolley came in.   The sex swing is ready Jim!

Yeah Justin had the materials and heavy duty welder at his place.  He was kind enough to get it together and we somehow managed to assemble it with just the two of us.  It weighs as much as a mini as is lol.  Here's pics.  I definitely wasn't going to weld this monstrosity with a 110 amp flux core job.  Though I will say my poor man rotisseries have held up great with a tiny welder and rather small steel. 

[MPlayle]

I hope you pre-drilled the bolt holes for the casters.

:-[

[94touring]

I hope you pre-drilled the bolt holes for the casters.

:-[

This has occurred to me.  I think I can jack it up and put it on blocks to drill out some holes.  Or possibly get a good enough angle from the top down.  We shall see. 

[MiniDave]

Just tip it over with the legs vertical......

[Merlin]

I hope to be by tomorrow, so we can try to tip the bastard.

[MtyMous]

Just build another gantry crane for your gantry crane... problem solved. (don't forget to pre-drill holes for the casters on the gantry gantry.)

[94touring]

Just build another gantry crane for your gantry crane... problem solved. (don't forget to pre-drill holes for the casters on the gantry gantry.)

:D. That was funny. 

I imagine tipping this will require several people.  A Cessna 152 that crashed and flipped upside down comes to mind.  A group of us never could flip it over.  Took a crane to do the job.  This is where the gantry gantry is required. 

[MPlayle]

I'll just sit back and watch the "Benny Hill" episode this is going to turn into.   :D

[94touring]

The big ass air compressor is running.  Though we have to fix the pressure switch.  So almost there. 

[MtyMous]

I'll volunteer to help out with this. Or you could always go gantry gantry. Either way,  I want to see what happens. haha