Thread: OT: I need a device to spool #60 roller chain

Has anyone seen a something like a airline hose reel for #60 single row roller chain? I have to keep tension on the free end of a chain hoist that uses roller chain. It will need to hold about 12' of chain. If nothing else, I need to find a fairly stout clock? spring.
Any ideas? I'll post some SW jpegs of the project later.
thanks
i_r_

All of our chain hoists had a bucket that was just a wider than the chain, and the bucket was kinda shaped like a tear drop.

Notice he said ROLLER CHAIN. A bucket is not going to do it for roller chain. Need some kind of spring loaded spindle for that and 12' of #60 is going to be a pretty good sized roll when it gets wound up. Probably going to need guided also.

My 1/4 ton ROLLER chain hoist has a bucket just wider than the ROLLER chain and collects 14 feet of chain at the max lift and works just fine.

can you hook a cable to the end, string the cable out in a gravity tube and just hang a window weight on it? hundreds of tube bending machines used this method for many years.... gravity is somewhat reliable.

gravity is somewhat reliable

I once told a co-worker that I was thankful our maintenance men were not responsible for gravity, else we'd all be floating in the bar joists.

Originally Posted by bridgedog

My 1/4 ton ROLLER chain hoist has a bucket just wider than the ROLLER chain and collects 14 feet of chain at the max lift and works just fine.

I was imagining the round can like some chain falls have...

This chain has been spooling into a 1" wide bucket for 25 years with no problem, until the chain got rusty and kinked while feeding from the bucket to the sprocket and broke the guard. They used it for several years with the guard broken. Someone wrote it up as a safety violation. It landed here and we put new chain on and welded the guard up. Works great.

Oversight committee came back and said we need an "engineered solution".

Not enough room for a weight on the chain.
having fun
i_r_