Cordless drill powered lifting device.

Cordless drill powered lifting device.

The only rotary table I have weighs 168lbs. / 76kgs. 12 stone in old money. It was a dangerous struggle to get it on & off a machine alone so I had to come up with some mechanical help. I could visualize several different approaches but the question was - how to power them? I thought about what prime mover I had available & realised I had a cordless drill. The photos show the result. I made this one year ago & have used it often, was a bit reluctant to post a lifting device because of safety issues but it has been well tested now.

Basic principles - 12mm threaded rod threaded through a 1”/25mm dia. Aluminium Bronze trunnion.
Lifting eye free to swivel via a standard deep groove ball bearing.
Base plate & lifting arm are separate parts; the base plate can be left in place on the machine.
Very easy to make spare base plates & simply put the arm wherever you want it.

Finally, a portrait of the artist as an old man:

Workshop hoist - YouTube

Ray

Elegant in it's simplicity. One shop I worked at we powered a 1/2 ton chainfall with a cordless drill too, also worked well.

Nice one Daredo ... permission to nick the idea guvna?

The years are catching up with us all mate

Other photos:

Other photos:

Limy,
Feel free to use it, hope it helps some people.

Couple of points: The box section I used has a wall thickness of about 2.5mm / .1" so I reinforced it where the trunnion passes through.
I gave the threaded rod a light brush with some moly disulphide grease, wiped off the excess, it took away that dry feel it had.

Ray

I've done the same thing. I had a mill that weighed 500 lbs (Barker AM). I needed to move it from the bench to the floor by myself, and I had no lifting equipment at this shop. I loaded my wheeled hydraulic press up with ballast and put an arm on it with a short chain on the end. I had a piece of all thread that connected to the pivoting arm and the top of the press. Had a captured nut on the arm (captured by a wrench that i held on to) and welded a nut on the end of the all thread, then used my impact to raise and lower it.

i pity the people with forklifts....they rarely have to think about how they are going to move something, they get to save all of their thinking energy for real work!