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Canton Portable Crane

enginebill

Stainless
Joined
Feb 17, 2005
Location
Plymouth Meeting PA
Since there was interest in seeing my portable crane I decided to start a new thread about it. It is a Canton Portable crane built by the Hill Acme Co in Cleveland OH. It was made in the mid 1940's after the Hill and Acme companies merged. The size is a No.3 and it is rated for 2 tons.
 

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I have a similar "Simplex" crane by D. Round & Sons of Cleveland. No weight rating on it, and Round declined to give me one when I called them (no big surprise).

I used to have a fairly modern Hill-Acme Canton crane that was all welded steel and had a cable hoist instead if a chain. I think it was rated for two tons.

Andy

simplex01.JPG
 
Andy, Bill -
From the photographs, Andy's looks like it has larger diameter front wheels than back wheels (crane tilted back) and Bill's like it has larger diameter rear wheels than front wheels (crane tilted forward). Am I imagining this? If I am not, and there really is a tilt, I would guess that one would want a tilt backwards, to provide perhaps just a bit of counterweight to the load on the hook.

-Marty-
 
Bill,

I would have thought that by the mid '40s that big old chain would have been replaced by a cable of some sort. The whole machine looks much older in design than something made in that era...the mid '40s. Thank you for sharing it with us..it's cool for sure.

Stuart
 
I just found this ad for the Canton Portable Crane Co of 1937. It shows my crane was available with two heights for the tops of the legs, 6.75" or 12". Mine has the smaller wheels at 6.75" high. Also an option was the safety friction clutch which mine has for an extra $50 for a total of $200, a good sum of money at that time.
 

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you'd think that with all these different styles of cranes, more would have survived, but they don't seem very common.

Here is from a 1931 McMaster-Carr catalog.
I wonder how fast their shipping was back then?

McMaster shop cranes.jpg

and if you needed to hoist with .001 precision..

McMaster shop crane 001.jpg

Mike
 
Mike,

Those catalog pages are interesting for several reasons, one of which, I had absolutely no idea McMaster-Carr has been around that long...wow, 88 years.

Stuart
 
Marty, the legs on my crane are level. ...


Thanks, Bill. In your post showing the No. 4 from the Crerar, Adams catalog, the front wheels seem clearly to be larger diameter than the rear wheels yet the legs appear level, as they are on your crane. Perhaps the wheel business had something to do simply with ease of rolling around the shop floor, and nothing to do with offsetting the download on the hook.

-Marty-
 
Thanks, Bill. In your post showing the No. 4 from the Crerar, Adams catalog, the front wheels seem clearly to be larger diameter than the rear wheels yet the legs appear level, as they are on your crane. Perhaps the wheel business had something to do simply with ease of rolling around the shop floor, and nothing to do with offsetting the download on the hook.

-Marty-

I think that is correct, large wheels for ease of movement or low profile to get under things.
 
Really interesting to see some of the other cranes out there. McMaster catalog as well, anyone know where a PDF of one of those old ones could be found?

Here is a picture of my Hill Acme No. 4 Canton Crane:
i-JZCqRbX-X3.jpg


I picked it up about 6 months ago - looking to get it operational again after my shop is finished. It's rated at 5000 lbs. Uses a wire rope instead of chain. The chain in this old picture was the previous owners stuff hanging on it.

The plate on it is pretty faded, this is a quick attempt to filter it into something readable. Shows the capacity and different configurations for lifting loads over/under 2500 lbs.
i-rf4mBLg-X3.jpg
 
I think I recognize that crane! Is it in Tulsa? I used that last September to load a grinder I bought if its the same one? Funny thing is when I got home I went to see one of my customers and he had one just like it? Only two I have ever seen?
 
I think I recognize that crane! Is it in Tulsa?

It was – crazy. I was interested in that grinder too. But that ole mill and lathe did make it home with me. Soon after I got home with some of the literature on the mill I noticed a manual for that grinder, I took it back to the guy that sold me the machines. I hope it found it's way to you!
 
Wow, small world I guess? I recognized the location in the picture and the crane. I was there just after you got the mill. Jd did get me the manual for the grinder, thank you for finding it! I am glad you got the crane and the other stuff, I was afraid the crane might get scrapped? I am looking for the collets that went with the grinder ? By chance they weren't mixed in with with the mill stuff? Wasn't it amazing the amount of stuff stashed into that two stall garage?
 








 
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