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Cutting down a Wallace tri-adjutsable crane to lower height.

I don't see why not. I did the opposite, turned a fixed height steel wallace gantry into an adjustable height in order to fit under my 10ft door.
 
Is it possible to cut down the legs of a Wallace tri-adjustable crane to reduce the over all height a few inches. I know manyy will tell me not to buy it but wait for one of the right size. But I may have a lead on a good Aluminum one at a good price.
Bil D.

Tri-Adjustable Aluminum 1/2 To 3 Ton Gantry Cranes | Wallace Cranes

HOW "few"? Replace the casters with skidplates, you have several inches.

Replace the casters with side-wheelers or underslung roller-bearing skates, you have almost as much.

Either approach is 100% reversible, no damage, if but done even half-way sanely.
 
The one in the link can adjust down about 4 feet. How much is a "few"?

Thing is.. once down TO that 4 feet, other than the easy stuff of pulling the caster wheels, yah cannot cut only the inner, simpler telescoping tube. The outer tube and its collar to deal with the pins have to be modified as well.

And then the travel for the telescoping bottom rails that HOLD those wheels have hit their limits, so those two bits need work, too?

Worse, I don't see any practical USE even for FOUR feet, simply because your tackle then eats-up the same chunk of vertical daylight as it wanted at any other height off the deck, not leaving much for lifting a load.
 
Worse, I don't see any practical USE even for FOUR feet, simply because your tackle then eats-up the same chunk of vertical daylight as it wanted at any other height off the deck, not leaving much for lifting a load.

Yup, my rule of thumb for a standard trolley and chain fall is simple.
The highest the hook will go is 3' under the bottom flange of the beam.

YMMV and you may sneak it a wee bit more (or less) but 3' is quick and dirty.
 
I worked with a wallace aluminum 2ton years back & it was too cool for school! It would go from 7ish to 10’ish high.

They don’t weld anywhere on them so sawing some off the legs a bit could be done. Simply clever how they are built.

Good luck,
Matt
 
Yup, my rule of thumb for a standard trolley and chain fall is simple.
The highest the hook will go is 3' under the bottom flange of the beam.

YMMV and you may sneak it a wee bit more (or less) but 3' is quick and dirty.

Too quick and too dirty for those among us who knew we had the limitation.

I get by up to 3-Ton with One foot just shy of double-blocked. "Store bought" and 1 1/2 T, 16 inches.

I don't put the taller 5-ton chainfalls up unless I'm adding a pair of jack-columns to shorten the span. Heavy bastard needs lifting gear to lift.. the lifting gear!

:(

I say again - my stingy ration of drop eaten out of the vertical budget is scant only because lifting tackle was specifically selected to maximize usable lift under a 10 3/4" built-in and NON moving BEAM only 7-foot one-inch off the deck.

Even, then the gear is less common/conventional, more expensive.

Or BOTH!

No surprise that machinery skates are my preferred go-to. LOTS of skates, four types. Two Northern styles, two Vestil SKU.

2CW
 
The one I am looking at is 8'1" high or maybe it is just over 7'. the model is no longer made or listed. So it needs to lose just over one inch to work in a 8' garage ceiling. I guess I could replace the wheels with ones 2" smaller. It seems like cutting the legs down would narrow the leg spread and allow the lower braces to work.
Bill D
 
The one I am looking at is 8'1" high or maybe it is just over 7'. the model is no longer made or listed. So it needs to lose just over one inch to work in a 8' garage ceiling. I guess I could replace the wheels with ones 2" smaller. It seems like cutting the legs down would narrow the leg spread and allow the lower braces to work.
Bill D

Smaller wheels, harder material and MORE OF THEM and you have your winner.

Those casters in the photo will NOT stand side-loads. They are the weakest component in the whole rig.

Even if you did NOT need to reduce the height, MUCH better to get down to roller-bearing skates or pallet-jack style urethane rollers that WILL stand side loads.

Even if one has to manually align them before moving the rig.
 
Too quick and too dirty for those among us who knew we had the limitation.

I get by up to 3-Ton with One foot just shy of double-blocked. "Store bought" and 1 1/2 T, 16 inches.

I don't put the taller 5-ton chainfalls up unless I'm adding a pair of jack-columns to shorten the span. Heavy bastard needs lifting gear to lift.. the lifting gear!

:(

I say again - my stingy ration of drop eaten out of the vertical budget is scant only because lifting tackle was specifically selected to maximize usable lift under a 10 3/4" built-in and NON moving BEAM only 7-foot one-inch off the deck.

Even, then the gear is less common/conventional, more expensive.

Or BOTH!

No surprise that machinery skates are my preferred go-to. LOTS of skates, four types. Two Northern styles, two Vestil SKU.

2CW

Trying to relate or xfer 30 years worth of experience here, and you've gone and shot me down....

What part of "rough rule of thumb for quick and dirty" did you miss sir ?

When dealing with management, walking thru a shop, and with tight height & budget requirements, my ROT has kept me in good steed ( and out of trouble with a blown budget or solution that cannot be made to work)

Many times (most times) people don't take into allowance what goes under the hook either.

if it's a bridle, keep the angle greater than 45, and your using up even more space.

Keep the rarified, expensive, and unique solutions in your back pocket, to be used "in case of emergency".

Not right from the start.

Why I even try to help anymore is beyond me.....
 
The one I am looking at is 8'1" high or maybe it is just over 7'. the model is no longer made or listed. So it needs to lose just over one inch to work in a 8' garage ceiling. I guess I could replace the wheels with ones 2" smaller. It seems like cutting the legs down would narrow the leg spread and allow the lower braces to work.
Bill D

How about this?

Replace the casters with skid plates AND add retractable casters just for moving the unloaded crane.

OR ... Replace the casters with skid plates and make low slung dollies/skates with multiple casters.

Either way it sounds easily doable and worth buying that crane at a good price.
 
Why I even try to help anymore is beyond me.....

Don't let the self-inflated narcissistic tendencies of another stop you from helping other people with practical advice. We live in an imperfect world and there will always be someone trying to pee in your Wheaties just to convince themselves how smart they are - just ignore.
 
Price went too high for me and the distance involved. I realize the Wallace design eats into the clear span. A longer beam is required to obtain enough width to straddle a truck. I would guess a 12 foot Wallace would have equal clear span to a 10 foot vertical leg design.
Bill D
 
Trying to relate or xfer 30 years worth of experience here, and you've gone and shot me down....

Well you are a little more than 30 years behind me, and I started-off third generation at it, so surely.

Rules of thumb for a major-maker industrial facility is it?

Bays prolly have ceilings higher than some low-lying clouds, hooks you got wouldn't strain to left my whole quarter-acre lot.

BillD and I have residential / smallholder shops almost the same height. 8-foot ceiling, 10 3/4" beams under. Even lower roll-up door. my case

Everything yah do has to keep those same limits in mind so yah get to know and use the "cheats".

WHICH rules of thumb are likely to be of use outta his experience I can use or outta my experience HE can use?

We ain't dealing with no hundred-tonners, here.

Now.. anybody in the room have any experience with Quadruped or four-post rolling lifts AKA mobile "bridge" cranes, for low overhead - 'stead of an A-frame gantry?

Making use of an adjustable height H-F "scaffold" for now, but it ain't rated for more than about 750 lbs.

Where the gain comes from is lifting from underneath, or at least lower-down attach points, one attach at each side.

There CAN be, but need NOT be, EITHER of beam nor any tackle at all ABOVE the load. Some setups, top of the fully elevated load can actually extend above the structure of the rig.

Store-bought goods exist. Spanco is but one of several, but gives-away the advantage.

Shouldn't be hard to fab, either, the H-F scaffold basic layout were simply scaled-up with larger square tube, wider stance.
 
Is that how a boat lift is designed, so the mast sticks up well above the top of the crane.
You are correct about rules of thumb and safety margin. I figure my heaviest lift will be 1750 pounds or maybe 2,200 if I buy a full size Mill. So my plan is to buy a 2 ton crane for some wiggle room on capacity. 3 tons or higher the price rises steeply and so does the empty weight to push around out of the way.
Bill D
 
Is that how a boat lift is designed, so the mast sticks up well above the top of the crane.
You are correct about rules of thumb and safety margin. I figure my heaviest lift will be 1750 pounds or maybe 2,200 if I buy a full size Mill. So my plan is to buy a 2 ton crane for some wiggle room on capacity. 3 tons or higher the price rises steeply and so does the empty weight to push around out of the way.
Bill D

Boat lift and that coffin-lift some wag posted for humour are right useful goods. They have in common that they work strap or cable around long, but small-diameter rollers from along each long-axis side. The attachment to a load is passed UNDER, not from tackle above the load.

The concept has value here, because my ATTIC has too low an overhead for sane use of a 120 V electric hoist I also harbour.

It's the load of workpieces - or in my case, heavy transformers, Dee Cee motors, MG sets that run from 200 to 500 Avoir that the 750 lb max scaffolding plus a 1200 lb rated folding ramp - used like a drawbridge - manages - ground (off machinery skates) to truck or caravan deck height.

"Full size mill" ain't no 2,200 lbs. That only gits you a tiny BirdPort, if EVEN. ISTR they run about 2,400, Avoir?

The upper turret of my Quartet - a light mill at 5205 Avoir - was too much for Adam's 3,000 lb electric FL to get to truck-bed height. We had to add help from his jib crane.

Putting it back together, here, I used a rented 8,000 lb FL. THEN it was mated to a sort of "hand truck" fabbed for the purpose, laid over on its "cleaner" side, pushed unto place with a long timber.

Re-erecting once past the door and overhead simply Old Skewl rigging work, one-man show.

4,400 Avoir or so of rectangular-table Alzmetall AB5/S column drill had gotten exactly the same treatment, same "Paul Bunyan hand-truck", 3/8" X 7" X 6-foot steel Ell as toe rail had two sets of holes drilled before I started is all.

The Drill press, too, had been hauled-home with the top separately palletized from the base.

These tasks only need doin' once a year or every FIVE or more years.

So the point is that unless you are a DEALER yah do not WANT to carry the all-year overhead of lifting gear for a "heaviest" lift used only once in a great while at all. Lybarger's Corollary sez when you need the capacity, it will be the wrong type of gear for the tasking, anyway!

You do a bit of planning ahead, then rent what you need every few years.
Or even engage a pro operator who uses that equipment every day, all day, all year, for many years.

That way, one has better, newer, and more appropriate gear for the seldom-needed task. Also smaller, more convenient, less "always in the way" gear for the day to-day tasking you actually DO more often.

Helluva lotta furniture dollys, machinery SKATES, three types, plus a "steerable" 10k Avoir Vestil swivel-top, a pair of toe-jacks, other jack types, my easily stored goto. Other folk use a pallet jack as "mostly" universal jack of all trades.

Scaffold I needed for home renovation anyway.

One of the nicest and handiest recent additions is a hydraulic die cart. Ignorant H-F one has been more useful that a better-built one I don't have at all. Considering adding its bigger brother, and for the larger table more than the lift. BOTH are due DIY upgrade to better wheels and casters is all.

Same again, the 2-T "folding" engine hoist that has paid for itself a dozen times arredy. Though I'd RATHER have the wide-legged K-D (knock Down) take-apart "Bluebird", I can rent those cheaply enough.

And do, when on a go-fetch run.

Bottom Line?

MANY among us are already too DAMNED short of space to be wanting to house an awkward gantry when timbers, skates, jacks, die-cart, or a folding 2-Ton hoist can be easily put away in far LESS space between needs and will cover whatever ain't worth a forklift rental or a boom-truck callout.

2CW
 
Well you are a little more than 30 years behind me, and I started-off third generation at it, so surely.

Rules of thumb for a major-maker industrial facility is it?

Bays prolly have ceilings higher than some low-lying clouds, hooks you got wouldn't strain to left my whole quarter-acre lot.

BillD and I have residential / smallholder shops almost the same height. 8-foot ceiling, 10 3/4" beams under. Even lower roll-up door. my case

Everything yah do has to keep those same limits in mind so yah get to know and use the "cheats".

WHICH rules of thumb are likely to be of use outta his experience I can use or outta my experience HE can use?

We ain't dealing with no hundred-tonners, here.

Now.. anybody in the room have any experience with Quadruped or four-post rolling lifts AKA mobile "bridge" cranes, for low overhead - 'stead of an A-frame gantry?

Making use of an adjustable height H-F "scaffold" for now, but it ain't rated for more than about 750 lbs.

Where the gain comes from is lifting from underneath, or at least lower-down attach points, one attach at each side.

There CAN be, but need NOT be, EITHER of beam nor any tackle at all ABOVE the load. Some setups, top of the fully elevated load can actually extend above the structure of the rig.

Store-bought goods exist. Spanco is but one of several, but gives-away the advantage.

Shouldn't be hard to fab, either, the H-F scaffold basic layout were simply scaled-up with larger square tube, wider stance.

Nope, for simple jib crane trolley on a beam.

ROT can be (and is) used anywhere.

If your going to debate my ROT please show your math.
 








 
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