Good on you Keith for showing how to do a safety-critical modification with an honest and fair safety warning.

Like myself, looks like you are alone most of the time.. I spent most of a lifetime figuring out how to do things by myself when I needed another set of hands....Great Job! Cheers. Mike in Louisiana (Ramsay 1)

I have a similar gantry with an electric 1 ton host I installed along with a power outlet mounted to one of the uprights.. I went to tractor supply and got 2 110v winches, mounted them to the sides of the gantry and attached the original lifting cables directly to the winches themselves, wired the winches into push button switches which I mounted above the electrical outlets and it works great. Yeah it cost me a lot over 300 bucks but I can adjust it full up to all the way down in less then a minute.

Well the safety sallys had fun with this one. We know there will be improvements as needed, this video is more research and development than final assembly. Thumbs up on this one. This is why we watch.

It's always easy to criticize a finished project, so please don't take this a negative on Kieth's solution. But I think there might be a more effective way of dealing with this for anyone dealing with the same problem. You can do this with a single trailer winch. Mount the winch on the inside face of the A-frame with the strap exiting downward. Run the strap under the post via a pulley, back up the outside of the post, over the I-beam with pulleys at the corners, back down to the bottom of the other post, wrapping around a final pulley under the post and back up to the inside face of the A-frame opposite the side you started. That way you lift or lower both sides at the same time with a single winch. I have a similar setup for lifting the table on a hydraulic press I built and it works great. The only issue I can see with doing it on this big crane is that for every foot of lift you need to recover 4ft of strap to the winch. Which on one side is nice because it gives you a force multiplication, but if the posts have 10 ft of travel you would need a which capable of holding 40ft of strap.

Keith, they make an electric trailer tongue jack that has 3500 pound capacity and 22 inches of travel. They cost about $110.00 on Amazon and run on twelve volts. You could wire a switch anywhere you like and could control both sides with the switches located beside each other. I know everybody has a different way of doing things and they think things should be done the way they want, but this is a comment section for throwing different ideas around. That gantry crane is a real handy tool to have!

I did almost the same thing with 2 boat trailer wenches. works like a charm and all the work is down on the ground, and faster. Great video.

Your fabrication work on the hoist is nothing short of fine art.

I put a 2 foot long piece of 1/2” pipe in my hydraulic press for the pump handle. I drilled and pinned it in place. No more dropped handles. I’ll post a picture when I get back to my shop. Thanks for the valve handle tip. Thanks, John

Cool stuff, always like to see that you are working on

A ram system for lifting the cab on a old cab-over truck would work perfectly for that application... They have 2 long reach hydraulic rams with one remote pump controller.

Nice modification. Thanks Keith.

Thank you for sharing that bit of modifying your gantry

Great idea and great work. When you were discussing the original problem I imagined a wireless winch mounted to your ceiling. I thought you might just hook the winch cable to the top cross bar, and winch up and down from the safety of the ground. I guess you needed a portable solution. I appreciate your work and your channel. Thanks for posting.

@Keith Rucker 2 trailer hand crank winches one on each side with the cable attached to the bottom of the uprights and the winches attached to where the bottom of the rams you have now would have been less than 1/2 the cost of 1 of those rams and you wouldn't spent 10 hours pumping those jacks each time

Man everyone is a backseat fabricator! Nice work making it functional for your needs. I love seeing you do some Fab work.

Nice improvement to the crane ! To get rid of a lot of pumping strokes you can make a modified pump with longer stroke and/or bigger bore.

I built the same crane and I used cable hoists on each side to solve the same problem.

Great I allways follow you. great machinery and work. Thanks from Buenos Aires, Argentina.

I appreciate that you’re not made of money, and I thank you for sharing all your very interesting projects with us. On this one, though, you went to a lot of effort to make something 20% better, instead of committing just 10% more investment to make it 90% better. If you had used pneumatic cylinders you could lift both sides simultaneously. Put in a metering valve to balance to movement on each side. Then when you need to raise or lower it, you just hook up your air supply, remove the pins, and push a button to move both sides at once. It’s easy to be an armchair quarterback, though. Thanks for sharing.

I am amazed at the size of your gantry crane. I would love to have one that size along with a building to use it in. I noticed everyone and their brother has suggestions and I want to offer mine. Mounting a length of all thread to so there is a nut on the bottom of the upper beam and a bearing point at the bottom of the A Frames. The thread would be enclosed inside of the uprights to keep it clean and protected. When the all thread is turned it would raise or lower the upper beam. Off set the mounting of the nut and bearing point so it clears the pin. Powered or hand operated it would allow the beams to be raised or lowered completely without having to do more than remove the pin and crank the thread.

pretty ingenious Mr. Rucker!

Drain the oil, remove the pump and connect a air line. You can connect the two clynders together so they go up at the same time. Something light duty like this should work fine with occasional oiling.

THANK YOU...for sharing. Watched and very much enjoyed.

Great work. Like your design. Thank you

Hi Keith, I sure love your vids. Learning a lot about machining in general. Also enjoy the vids having to do with the Vulcan loco. Northern Calif had a whole slew of narrow gauge logging operations back in the day. Got most of the DVD's on them. Seemed dangerous working on them in those days b4 OSHA and FRA regs. Safety always seemed less important than getting the logs to the mill which ever way was the fastest. They had a lot of accidents. I also have a Vulcan, Harbor Freight Vulcan ProTIG 200. Excellent machine. I also grabbed an Everlast MTS211Si multi-process welder, and I love my Hypertherm 30XP plasma cutter. Kinda wished I got the 45XP, but couldn't afford it at the time. Great machines, but a little pricey. Wish I had your shop, what a beauty that is. The cat seems to like it too, LOL. Take care and stay safe with all this COVID19 stuff. I'll be glad when things get back to normal. I just hope it doesn't bankrupt the US first. Cheers!

Nice idea Keith great job!

Good improvement, good video. Thanks for sharing

nice mod. well done Keith.

keith i would wrap your welds around the corners! it makes your weld a lot stronger . keep up the good work

Yeah, you will be swapping those out for air over hydraulic soon.

We need a month by month bicep measurement to keep track of this setups progress. I had a really nice 2 speed trailer winch that would have been great here. Another cool solution would be a chain pulley that plugged into the bottom of the riser tube, take winch chain through the pulley and back up to a fixed point on the leg. Use the existing chain winches to move it up and down. What you built looks really safe and great for your anaerobic health. ;-)

Someone's been practicing welding. Nice job Keith.

I believe if I had as much invested in equipment as you do I would go a step further and use a coordinated, pneumatic assisted jacking and de-jacking system, but to each his own. Good presentation.

Nice solution. I think you could put the top of the ram in the bottom welded mount, and then move movable pin below the weld. This way you shift the ram down and can use it without a ladder

Useful and innovative! Very good Job!!!

Kieth I don't know if it has been mentioned but instead of pumping the ram up you can pull it by hand. I do this on my engine hoist all the time to get it quickly into position. Great project, thank you for the inspiration.

When you're lowering, I'd hook the chinfall hook onto one of those straps you welded on so the chainfall doesn't come blasting over side to side and slamming into the vertical.

valve handle: I use hydraulic jacks in a piece of equipment I build and I use a large cast wing nut from McMaster Carr. I turn the end of the valve rod round and bore out the wing nut and braze them together. Works great.

Think I'd put a retaining loop to hold the chain hoists steady. Came crashing across 1st time. Ingenious.

Awesome work sir.

That was a great idea and I will have to do this mod when I get my Gantry crane. The only thing I can see to be a hazard is if you forget to put the rams top retaining pin in the ram it could be a real head knocker. Nice work. 👍 🇺🇸 🗽

Great job Keith you could use a single pump on the rams ,just have to plumb it into where the small pump on the side is and run the line over the top to the other side. The value you lower the ram down with needs to be blocked off as it returns the oil back into the outer case . Using the hand pump with a larger tank to hold the oil you requite . You can buy just the pump and build a tank to hold the oil. To make it easy use a hydraulic tipper used on small trucks and trailers that have a 12volt system.

I LOVE your shop!

Keith, A number of years ago, I can't remember why or where I visited a tug with a raised wheelhouse. The support structure that held the wheelhouse aloft had a large open space on the inside. The crew fabricated their own elevator so they could ride up to the wheelhouse without having to climb the outside ladder. The elevator wss large enough to carry two people if they were small or only one if they were our size. What was different from any elevator I have ever seen and which you may find of use was the mechanism for raising and lowering the car. Instead of using pulleys, counterweigts, or hydraulic cylinders, they used an acme threaded shaft fitted with a bearing on one end and a reversible motor on the other. The car had a threaded sleeve attached to the side. Like the screw that drives the carriage on a lathe or moves the jaw on a vise, the car was raised and lowered by turning the threaded shaft. If fitted on your gantry by using a screw and motor on each side you could raise and lower your gantry using electric power. I was amazed by the simplicity of the application. I realize it is too late for your gantry. But, it is worth considering if you have a need to raise something in the future. I should mention, the regulatory agencies had no requirements for inspection of the tug's elevator. My guess is the tug and it's elevator are still in operation. Another thought, like the traveler used on a sailboat for adjusting the boom for trimming the mainsail you could use a set of blocks and cleats to move your chain fall from side to side. If tou attached a line to each side of the traveler to a block at the sides of the gantry and then down to a cleat. This can also be done with a small winch and blocks in what amounts to a loop. Bob

My guess is that a guy in China is now designing a crane which uses 2 air over hydraulic long reach cylinders to raise the column which utilizes spring loaded locks which click into holes in the column as the hoist moves up- like a car hoist- this also acts as the lifting mechanism and the all that is need on the top is a simple trolley with a chain for side to side motion. Soon available from Harbor Freight as a bolt together kit for 399.00

That is a nice solution to the problem.

It seems like a couple of pieces of all thread with nuts and some brackets, and you just stand on the ground with your impact driver and buzz each side up a little at a time, put pins in, and no jacking. Like ed norton would say, zip zip zip and it's done. Course this is best for an un-loaded situation.

Wow... looks like you turned a pain in the ass procedure into a pain in the ass procedure. Think I would have opted for a cable lift with a Harbor Freight Badlands winch.

Keith, To quickly extend the ram on my engine lift and save time pumping I open the valve and lift the boom. Once past the height I need I close the valve. In your case you will simply pull the ram out. If you can swing the ram down, it would be easier to pull than trying to lift it while on a ladder.

Hey, Keith if you loosen the valve on the ram, you can pull it out. That’s how we raise our cherry picker quickly.

my solution would have been to put a small chain hoist somewhere on the ceiling so you can attach it to the i beam when you need to move it up and down.

Keith, if you happened to have some kind of hydraulic pump around the shop you could use quick disconnects and two regular cylinders from salvage. A wrecked car hauler would be great. Thanks

Looking forward to part 2

VERY useful. Another possibility is to attach a sheave at the bottom of each column that needs to be raised. Then attach the end of a steel cable to the top of the A-frame on one side, run the cable down around the column sheave, up over a stationary sheave on top of the horizontal I-beam to another stationary sheave at the other end of the I-beam, down around the other column sheave, back up around a stationary sheave on the A-frame and back down to a hand winch attached within easy reach on one leg of the A-frame. Preferably, the winch should be a worm drive but winches with a built in automatic brake are also available. This sheave arrangement provides a 2:1 mechanical advantage added to that of the winch and would allow one to raise or lower both sides equally at the same time.

We cut out a daisy shaped handle, drilled a center hole, welded in a 1/2" piece of rod, drilled the rod the same diameter as the release valve, drove the roll pin out of the release valve, cross drilled the rod to line up with the hole in the release valve, attached the handle and then drove the roll pin back in. We got a cute little handle that won't come loose and didn't have to make a trip to town.

Great idea as part units

just a thought, wrap the chains around a hook added on one side or the other and they won't run away. Love your videos.

With this basic design (which I probably would not have used, but others have already suggested myriad other designs), rather than welding the lower bracket to the gantry crane, I would have made it clamp over the existing cross-brace. Then there would be no worries about the modifications weakening the crane in any way, nor would the warranty be voided. You could also remove the accessory completely if it would be in the way.

Nicely done ✅

Nice addition to the crane. Maybe the next update can be a pin-lock for the cross-slide holding the chain pulley... drill some holes in the beam and weld a spring-loaded pin onto the cross-slide. Putting a rope on that and pulling would extract the pin from a beam hole and allow the cross-slide to move. Letting go of the rope would allow the pin to pop into the next hole it finds on the beam and lock it in position. I still think motorized drive wheels on this thing would make moving it around single-handed much easier as well... Cheers,

Gday Keith, definitely a brilliant upgrade, it’s a shame they don’t come like this from new, I like your disclaimers, if people just used good old common sense, sadly some people don’t nowa days, the gantry crane has a good to range of height which if really handy, great video as always mate, thank you, Matty

Northern tool sells 3 ton jacks with a double pump for $70. You could put a gear and bicycle chain on the release for the jack so you could operate it from the ground. Also a setup to pump the jack from the ground. Build a crankshaft that you could turn with a cordless drill or impact to pump the jack faster.

Just. A small point, where spacing is critical ALWAYS weld the INSIDE First. You can easily tap it inward after but difficult to spread outwards. ( 40 years a welder) You can add a air powered pump ( like the museums) later. PS air powered rams might not be strong enough, a 2" dia air ram on 120 psi will only lift 400 pounds.

Keith, I would put a hoop about the level of the name on the jack to keep it from flopping outward when you have the jack pin out to move to the next hole. Keep the jack from nailing you in the head and having to hold it all the time.

Keith, You can manually pull these to full extension. Nice modification!

Nice mod. worked out great.

those rams you can open the valve and pull out the ram and shut the valve i made a knob for the valve

Pretty good on freehanding the taper.

Keith, if you would hook the loose chain hoist to side it would not slide from side to side. Also it you would like easier up to go to the next hole you could either pull on the ram and it will draw oil out of the reservoir through the jack. or pressurize the reservoir the fill plug with about 5 psi of air pressure.

Pulley on the bottom of each column- looped up over the top and a simple manual cable winch would raise and lower both sides equally while standing on the ground. Like moving the support plate a big press. Or just a piece of 4X4 laid across the forks of your forklift and under each column to move it up and down.

You might put an eye on bottom of upright to hook hoist to, stopping it from running the rail. We had those on ship to stop hoists from swinging & running side-to-side.

I like what your doing I did the same but used air rams no hydraulics it works great> I ran air hose to both sides so I can move both sides at the same time.

Keith you could use one crank up or even electric hoist with a cable going over the top like some shop presses have to raise or lower the work platform , no climbing, no going from side to side,

Since today is comment day I will have to give you the best one I think, buy some land next to me, redo a new shop and house, you will have the extra set of hands because I would be there watching. Love your videos. Thanks.

Not air over hydraulic but air cylinders would be an option too. However If it works that is 90% of the game. Very well built. looks like a professional built it.

Love your videos

Nice work! An other way is to use the chainfalls on the crane to lift itself. 2 sheaves at the bottoms of the vertical columns. A steel cable dead manned to the frame, threaded under the sheaves with the other end looped onto the chainfall hooks, and you won't need a ladder at all, and the chainfalls will behave themselves. My nephew and I came up with this solution independently. Maybe somebody could operate both chain falls at the same time.

Dang! Finally some good CLANGS on this channel! Move over AvE!

I Actually use the effect of an un-level make shift "scafolding gantry" to move massive boulders a few feet at a time in places where machinery nor multiple men can accomplish safely for waterfall building and moving and releveliing things like brick colums and mailboxes. I just set the Jacks an inch off and lift just till it clears and slides in the direction required.

If you bolt a metal ruler to your cutoff saw, right of the blade, behind the work in line with the rear vise jaw, you can read off piece length directly without marking.

From here, of course, one can give wise advices. But I would have solved the problem differently. We work often with genie lifts. I would have taken two of these winches, and those mounted on the same side of the gantry crane. Then of course you would need a few pulleys. But as a result, you could lift and lower the crane from one side. You would only have to turn two cranks at the same time.

Nice fix

Keith, spray a little anti splatter on your squares, it keeps the weld splatter from sticking to them. Keep smiling.

Good solution. Same deal with an acme screw would have worked too but this is probably cheaper and easier.

Most of us lesser mortals would have fitted a couple of $20 hand winches......................

Hello on my engine host the Ram pump in both up and down its pretty cool. I have never seen one before.

Thanks Keith

Hi Keith ! I think I would have done it with a kind of wire and ONE handle to raise and lower both sides at the same time - it wold have been cheaper AND easier to use I think !

great video !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Use a porta-power jack hookup to those cylinders. Can plumb both cylinders into one line, can easily "mount" the "jack" to the side of the frame of the crane. The issue of using air is, unless you have a sensitive control valve, it's either going to be full open, shooting the cylinders upward out of control. Don't have an issue with what you've done like a few other comments seem to be having. Just saying, it's a bit easier with long reach cylinders tied together plumbed to a porta-power jack system. Cheers :)

Since you don't have a lot of weight to lift, perhaps long-stroke pneumatic cylinders plumbed together might be a more user-friendly option. You could pressurize and release both at a common valve. A really quick ebay search showed a 40mm (1.57") bore x 800mm (31.5") stroke cylinder in the $50-$60 range. If you can get 100 psi to those cylinder each would lift just shy of 200 lbs.

You could use a pair of cheap 12V electric actuators. They would run at the same speed, and all you would need is a toggle switch to get them both up and down at the same time. For instance, search for this guy on eBay: "2000N Electric Linear Actuator Cylinder Lift Stroke 50-600mm DC12V 24V 36V 8mm/s" This is a 24" travel actuator that will lift 400 pounds, so 800 for the pair. That is probably about four times what the top of that gantry weighs, so should be fine, as long as you don't lift it with a load on the gantry.

Taking a page from the CNC world, you could use a pair of synchronized stepper motors running acme threaded rods attached to the sides vertically to raise and lower the whole thing at the push of a button. Probably would cost about the same if not much more than what Keith did.

thanks for the video Kieth, The welding try spray transfer instead of short circuit you will get more penetration. just look on the Internet.

Nicely done, Keith. As an alternative, a couple of cheap hand cranked cable winches would have done the job easier, more compactly, and quicker. You could have even added a couple of pulleys and a "Y" harness and done it with a single winch so that both sides raised/lowered at the same time. I wouldn't recommend it for working under a load, but just for adjusting the beam height it would work perfectly.

Make an adaptor that goes in a battery-power reciprocating saw, that will connect into the shortened crank handle, then it would be super fast to raise up.

No earplugs Keith... Keith, are you listening? Kei... oh right. 😂

Tie the blocks off to one end, for Pete's sake.

Nice work! I have alot of channels that I look at, but I think you are my favorite! Thanks for good videos! Mvh from Sweden!