The Perpetrator of the Wooden Bridgeport Trailer Site?

[Keelan]

Does anyone have contact information for the guy behind this site:

Bridgeport in the Basement

It is only available via the internet archive now, and there's no indication of who the creator is on that site.

 

[Scottl]

No idea who he is but his approach to "gettin it done" reminds me of my old friend Russ, now deceased. These old timers, who some locals used to refer to as "swamp Yankees", were from an era where you puzzled it out using what you had or could easily obtain rather than throw money at the problem. They moved some amazingly heavy stuff using crude methods and smaller vehicles such as the Tercel this guy used.

BUT ... they got it done, almost always without anyone getting hurt or property damage.

 

[eKretz]

Don't know the guy, but the "wood" part reminds me of one of my machine moving adventures. I didn't move to the basement, but made a wooden gantry to lift machines off the trailer and set them down on skates. It has so far lifted and held up to 2,900 pounds with no issues. The lathe here is only 2,200. Wells Index 847 was 2,900.

 

[bhigdog]

56 olds

A lot can be done with wood. 1956 olds body

 

[dalmatiangirl61]

So you bought a mill in a basement and are trying to figure out how to remove it?

 

[Keelan]

Okay, 27 steps later, it looks like I have tracked down some up-to-date info for him.

Thanks everyone.

 

[johansen]

It has so far lifted and held up to 2,900 pounds with no issues. The lathe here is only 2,200. Wells Index 847 was 2,900.

i tested the strength of a 16 foot 2 by 4, which was 40 years old, came out of my folks' house we remodeled. I supported it at both ends and see if it could hold my weight, it did. worked out to about 2.2Kpsi tensile. i flipped the board over and put my weight on it again, heard a small crack but that was it. i then added it to my own diy glue-lam beam to hold up a 16 foot roof span.

most people don't know that wood, by weight, is stronger than mild steel. no reason not to use it other than rot and decay. but if you follow the usual 5 or 10:1 safety margin for overhead lifting.. a wooden gantry will probably outlive you if not abused and properly stored in a low humidity enviroment.

 

[john.k]

Wooden bridge beams of 12x12 and 14x14 supporting a train with 100 ton loco and tender over 20ft span.

 

[eKretz]

i tested the strength of a 16 foot 2 by 4, which was 40 years old, came out of my folks' house we remodeled. I supported it at both ends and see if it could hold my weight, it did. worked out to about 2.2Kpsi tensile. i flipped the board over and put my weight on it again, heard a small crack but that was it. i then added it to my own diy glue-lam beam to hold up a 16 foot roof span.

most people don't know that wood, by weight, is stronger than mild steel. no reason not to use it other than rot and decay. but if you follow the usual 5 or 10:1 safety margin for overhead lifting.. a wooden gantry will probably outlive you if not abused and properly stored in a low humidity enviroment.

Yep, I'd guess it probably will. Threw some combo deck stain/varnish on it; should keep it good for a while, maybe throw on a new coat every so many years. Gantry frame will come apart in 3 pieces if necessary. The top beam is double 2"x 12" and the hoist sits on top with a couple pieces of ¼" thick angle iron straddled by ⅜" thick steel bars (all welded together but assembly removable by just lifting off), through all of which the hoist is bolted. Got a 3:1 reduction with the pulley setup to take some of the load off the hoist (and slow it down some). And one of Garwood's dyneema winch lines doing hoist duty.

 

[idacal]

until they don't, costumers can't pay me enough to cross a wood bridge unless an engineer signs off on it before I cross. this one had had a 100 dump truck and pup loads of gravel cross it in the days before me, had to change my shorts

 

[john.k]

Its funny how millenials cant do anything like this.......a millenial bought two old motorbikes stored in an attic of a two storey house......any practical person would simply dismantle the bikes and take the pieces out......nope,millenials hire a giant crane ,have roofers remove part of the roof,and crane lift the bikes out onto the roadway outside.

 

[52 Ford]

Its funny how millenials cant do anything like this.......a millenial bought two old motorbikes stored in an attic of a two storey house......any practical person would simply dismantle the bikes and take the pieces out......nope,millenials hire a giant crane ,have roofers remove part of the roof,and crane lift the bikes out onto the roadway outside.

Millennial, Gen X, Gen Y, Baby Boomer... whatever they are. Some people are just dumb.

People only remember the highlights.

Like how people talk about old tools being far superior. Not really, it's just all the shitty tools got scrapped a long time ago.

Sent from somewhere inside your house using Tapatalk

 

[Scottl]

Don't know the guy, but the "wood" part reminds me of one of my machine moving adventures. I didn't move to the basement, but made a wooden gantry to lift machines off the trailer and set them down on skates. It has so far lifted and held up to 2,900 pounds with no issues. The lathe here is only 2,200. Wells Index 847 was 2,900.

View attachment 346957 View attachment 346958

A lot depends on the quality of the wood. Straight grained wood is often much stronger than people think. Years ago I visited a local sawmill that used a circular saw plus top saw. I was told that originally the owner used steel beams to skid logs up onto the platform but replaced them with straight grain ash after the steel began to slowly take a bend from the weight of massive logs.

Another thing is how they did it in the old days when most every structure was built of wood. The old covered bridges in New England were built on the river banks and then hauled into place over temporary wooden scaffolds. Ship masts and spars, hoisting cranes, bridges, etc. were built of wood, with iron or steel only used for fasteners and hardware.

Also, railroad trestles were wood and supported the enormous weight of engine and cars.

 

[Garwood]

Its funny how millenials cant do anything like this.......a millenial bought two old motorbikes stored in an attic of a two storey house......any practical person would simply dismantle the bikes and take the pieces out......nope,millenials hire a giant crane ,have roofers remove part of the roof,and crane lift the bikes out onto the roadway outside.

You've never done anything stupid?

OK Boomer.

I'm a millennial. I've done plenty of stupid shit. I've done some smart things too. Has nothing to do with when I was born.

I have also learned the wisdom NOT to disassemble things when I buy them. I have had more problems directly related to taking something apart to move it than I ever did by paying for wide load permits and pilot cars. The extra money spent up front often more than makes up for the time and money lost re-assembling on the backside.



Here is saving money by rigging an 18,000 lb 11' tall CNC off a trailer in a gravel driveway using wood. From that experience, I learned that was dumb. I have moved hundreds of machines since then without using much wood.

 

[RC Mech]

Making a wooden trailer is a great idea. Plenty of fatigue strength in wood. Awesome to have on public roads, yep. Guy’s brilliant.

If it’s stupid and it works it’s still stupid and you got lucky.

 

[jaguar36]

I've also used a wooden gantry to lift a bridgeport into the back of a pickup. Works fine, Bridgeports aren't that heavy. I've also made a set of tracks out of wood to lower it down a flight of stairs, that worked less well as the rollers tended to jam against the wooden sides, I switched to metal rails and that worked alot better.

Wood is frequently looked down upon, but it has an excellent strength to weight ratio as long as you are loading it along the grain. The two problems are its poor strength perpendicular to the grain, and its inconsistancy. There is a huge strength difference between a piece of wood that has nice tight growth rings and one that grew very quickly, even of the same species. In adidtion you have to avoid all of those pesky knots.

Remember one of the largest aircraft in the world, the poorly named Spruce Goose, was made of birch.

 

[drcoelho]

The task sure would have been easier and safer with a rented fork lift, not even sure that a fork lift might not have been the same cost as all the lumber, etc....

 

[eKretz]

The task sure would have been easier and safer with a rented fork lift, not even sure that a fork lift might not have been the same cost as all the lumber, etc....

If you're talking about my lift, I don't think it would have been any safer, and not *much* easier. I have rigged and lifted plenty of things WAY heavier than 3,000 pounds, so I know how to safely rig and lift. I did the calculations for the ultimate strength of the 2" x 12"s and using the specs for the weakest wood from the SPF group a pair of 2" x 12"s at just under a 10' span shouldn't break until somewhere around 18,000+ pounds, so there was a 6:1 safety factor there - of course there's some fudge factor involved - if the structure isn't built squarely it can fold up or tip over. I saw no indication of any problem in that respect. The dyneema rope should be at a MBS of around 8,000 pounds for a single strand. And obviously at NO time was anyone allowed near or under the lifted items, just in case. I also get to KEEP the gantry, which trumps a forklift rental by far for me. I've got a trashed back so I have in the past and will continue to use it frequently for loading and unloading truck and/or trailer.

 

[boslab]

A trailer is just a cart, they’ve been about quite a while, I’ve seen photos of 40 tons and more being hauled by horses, no problem, chassis on Morgan cars is wood being made today, wood is a remarkable material imho
See some of the roofs of cathedrals, 1000 tons of stone and lead held up by wood, however we don’t have carpenter bees! Who calibrates them to 1/2” or 3/8
Miraculously round hole, like little flying reamers
Mark

 

[52 Ford]

A trailer is just a cart, they’ve been about quite a while, I’ve seen photos of 40 tons and more being hauled by horses, no problem, chassis on Morgan cars is wood being made today, wood is a remarkable material imho
See some of the roofs of cathedrals, 1000 tons of stone and lead held up by wood, however we don’t have carpenter bees! Who calibrates them to 1/2” or 3/8
Miraculously round hole, like little flying reamers
Mark

Dave at EnglesCoachShop on YouTube has a series where he remade the old Borax wagons and the water tank. Those wheels are enormous!

Edit: the picture I posted is of the "twenty mule team" pulling Borax wagons. They'd also pull a large iron water tank behind those wagons.

Sent using Morse code on - .- .--. .- - .- .-.. -.-