Minimum equipment for machinery rigging company

ewlsey · Oct 14, 2015

I've always been interested in rigging and moving machinery. I'm considering getting into that business. I'm working on insurance quotes now, but I wanted to get a minimum list of equipment put together. I'd like to be able to move equipment in the 5,000-40,000 lb range to start.

I figure a 30,000 lb capacity forklift with 8' forks and a boom is pretty much an essential machine. This should handle the bulk of machine tools and equipment that can go down the road with no permits.

A 15,000 or 20,000 lb truck would probably also be essential. This would let me haul roughly 20,000 lbs on the trailer with the forklift.

I would need a truck and trailer. Probably a hydraulic tail unit. I don't intend to haul much besides my own equipment.

I would need skates and toe jacks for at least 40,000 lbs.

There is a bunch of other stuff like slings, cribbing, road plates, come-alongs, and general support equipment.

I used to be a truck mechanic, so I'm already pretty well set to maintain the equipment.

Is there any other major equipment I overlooked? I don't really want to get into huge equipment that requires gantries and other really exotic equipment.

It's possible that I could rent a forklift for a while to see if it's going to pan out. However, I would still need to be able to haul it. If I got some equipment that was decent, I could look into renting out my equipment.

Ray Behner · Oct 14, 2015

ewlsey, PM sent

CarbideBob · Oct 14, 2015

And some smaller trucks to fit down the aisle? Short forks, small lift. Hand moving on pipes or skates is slow and you are on the clock.
This pays a crazy lot per hour but maybe not so good at the end if the month. Billable hours... the one and only thing that counts in the end.
No real special knowledge needed here. A cut throat businesses of pure grunt work and lots of down time with equipment sitting idle.
Maybe even worse than being a detail shop.
Do you know guys in this racket that you can talk to even though you may enter as a competitor?
It can work, and decent riggers that understand machine tools are like gold.
This world is filled with stories of many that did not survive. It also has those that have done very well. There is a reason for both.
It would be fun and interesting and may work out well for you.
I would not try it but I have friend who makes very good money towing cars so I'm not the sharpest pencil available.

If you have a drive, just do it. What's the worse that can happen? Sell off used equipment that you bought at maybe 10-20% discounts?
Bob

Milland · Oct 14, 2015

I've done some ad hoc rigging, and what I've found to be most important is a helper with a decent sense of self preservation. So much of lifting and moving large items involves knowing that you've got a reliable set of eyes who can watch your back and make sure you're not about to run into a building column or other equipment as you're moving the forklift, or similar situations. And at the same time they're making sure not to put themselves in a pinch point!

Aside from that - shackles. Lots of shackles of different sizes, so you can combine chain, slings, eye bolts, and other shackles together. Make sure your eye bolts have seating flanges (not "plain" ones!), although lift rings are better they're much more expensive. Lots with different threads, of course.

Pay attention to the kinematics of lifting with angled slings or chains, de-rate load capacity as the angles go from vertical to horizontal (I never lift if past 45 degrees, I redo my setup).

ewlsey · Oct 14, 2015

Yes, most rigging is at least a two man job. Sometimes you can press the customer into service helping you, but that could be more of a hassle/danger than anything else.

And yes, nothing elegant or sophisticated about moving big lumps of iron from one place to another. I know that. Also, a lot of rigging is just taking out the trash. But, I think it is interesting, and might be a nice change from being stuck in my shop all the time.

I'm not scared of the business side. I've been self employed for 5 years already. This would just be another venture. Around here, we have two kinds of riggers: union and everyone else. The union riggers have all the big jobs sewed up and use their clout to keep the independent folks out. The non-union guys fight each other for the smaller jobs. It's just like construction.

I do know that we lost one large rigging company in the area the year, and there is no independent rigger in my town. The nearest one is a hour drive away, and there's nobody in the other direction. So, I think there is work. Plus, I know most of the other shops around here.

ewlsey · Oct 14, 2015

Too bad the document doesn't explain why the rigging failed.

I watched the Costa Concordia episode on PBS. The salvage cost well exceeded the cost to build the ship in the first place. Crazy. Parbuckling was the technique they used.

Milland · Oct 14, 2015

car2 said:
How about prying out and hauling away a 500 ton stator chunk dropped a few floors onto a hauler:
http://allthingsnuclear.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/FS-181-PDF-File-with-links.pdf . Sad that someone was killed also.

Sad to hear that someone died during that drop, but looking over the pictures it could have been worse. But what a curiously written accident report, it was clearly not an engineer who wrote it. Lots of imprecise phrasing, and little bon mots like: "Like Elvis, the stator has left the building". Not how I would document such an accident...

BR3 · Oct 14, 2015

I don't think it is the original document. Looks more like somebody's hobby of collecting stories of nuclear accidents.

Kind of like the UFO people like to do.

BR3 · Oct 14, 2015

Wes,

Out of curiosity, how do you / would you quote rigging jobs?

ewlsey · Oct 14, 2015

BR3 said:
Wes,

Out of curiosity, how do you / would you quote rigging jobs?

Great question. I know it costs me $250/hour from the time he leaves the shop to the time he's back in his office chair for me to get a 15,000 lb machine moved. And I try to help out and make it as easy as possible.

I'll have to figure out my overhead and set up a spread sheet just like I did when I started pricing parts in my shop.

Heavey Metal · Oct 14, 2015

do you have enough ass to bond?

anybody can lease the iron and buy the insurance

D Bronson · Oct 14, 2015

Wes:

You might also want to checkout Lifting Gear Hire. They have all sorts of special tools for rigging and moving machines that can be rented for those special moves. The Chicago warehouse is the closest to you.

Lifting Gear Hire | lgh-usa.com

Regards,

DB

BR3 · Oct 14, 2015

ewlsey said:
Great question. I know it costs me $250/hour from the time he leaves the shop to the time he's back in his office chair for me to get a 15,000 lb machine moved. And I try to help out and make it as easy as possible.

I'll have to figure out my overhead and set up a spread sheet just like I did when I started pricing parts in my shop.

Cost us $1500 last week for a crane truck and three guys to move two shipping containers and a scrap metal bin about 50ft. They only came from 15 minutes away and were there less than an hour. Sounds like rigging is ridiculously lucrative at times. I bet you could find more work doing picks for building maintenance crews, HVAC guys, signs, etc., than you could actually moving machines.

ewlsey · Oct 14, 2015

There are other industries that need rigging too. Even the smallest printing presses weigh tons.

Probably good to buddy up with a crane company.

BR3 · Oct 14, 2015

That's what they did when they brought my VF-6 in. Had the rigging company out there and they in turn had the crane guys out there. Not sure what that one cost but I do know that they knocked $1000 off for poking a hole in the pavement with the front jack on the crane truck. They didn't put anything down to spread the weight out and went right through.

Zahnrad Kopf · Oct 14, 2015

Wes, Iggy, member ICHUDOV, started his own. It might be handy to write him and start a dialogue.

tdmidget · Oct 15, 2015

Milland said:
Sad to hear that someone died during that drop, but looking over the pictures it could have been worse. But what a curiously written accident report, it was clearly not an engineer who wrote it. Lots of imprecise phrasing, and little bon mots like: "Like Elvis, the stator has left the building". Not how I would document such an accident...

Sounded more like "The Union of Concerned Nuclear Retards" . Do People in Arkansas really call the Crane bay a "train bay"? I don't know about ANO but in most plants the rail service was for construction and no longer in service. And "pegs" ???? How about studs to hold the stator down?
I am told that the failure was due to the floor on one side not supported as well as the other. The floor flexed and the gantry collapsed toward the low side. There were too many people in the area. Pre disaster photos show a crowd like a shopping mall. This is always a problem when we do something like this. Office workers will walk a quarter mile out of their way to see the show. The man who died was there because he had cut a handrail which would not clear the load. If he had left the area then he would be alive.

Ewlsey, if you buy new, you will need about half a million. That would get you the full range of shackles to 1 1/2", lifting eyes to the same range, chain falls from 1/2 ton to 10 ton ( four of each), Hydraulic jacks to 100 tons ( again 4 of each), and synthetic slings ( a sparse selection to get you to 10 ton capacity), and the misc stuff you always need but haven't thought of. Buying used is a sort of crapshoot but the cost drops rapidly enough to make it feasible .

Tyrone Shoelaces · Oct 15, 2015

D Bronson said:
Wes:

You might also want to checkout Lifting Gear Hire. They have all sorts of special tools for rigging and moving machines that can be rented for those special moves. The Chicago warehouse is the closest to you.

Lifting Gear Hire | lgh-usa.com

I've used the British branch of this company many times. I can't speak highly enough of their services. Very, very professional. If they haven't got it, it doesn't exist. They also do riggers training courses. I went on one after about 25 years doing part time rigging. I learnt how to do things the correct ( safe ) way. If you're self taught you can teach yourself bad techniques.

On the subject of fork trucks I'd try and get one of those specialized rigging fork trucks with the short multi telescopic low headroom masts and the extendable counter weight at the rear. I agree a second small fork lift truck is very handy.

Regards Tyrone.

Sorry D Bronson, I seem to have inadventently stolen some of your post.

ewlsey · Oct 15, 2015

tdmidget said:
Ewlsey, if you buy new, you will need about half a million. That would get you the full range of shackles to 1 1/2", lifting eyes to the same range, chain falls from 1/2 ton to 10 ton ( four of each), Hydraulic jacks to 100 tons ( again 4 of each), and synthetic slings ( a sparse selection to get you to 10 ton capacity), and the misc stuff you always need but haven't thought of. Buying used is a sort of crapshoot but the cost drops rapidly enough to make it feasible .

I'm thinking I can put together a pretty decent setup for around $100k. It'll be well used equipment.

Philabuster · Oct 15, 2015

ewlsey said:
I figure a 30,000 lb capacity forklift with 8' forks and a boom is pretty much an essential machine. This should handle the bulk of machine tools and equipment that can go down the road with no permits.

The machinery rigger I used for my big Mazak CNC lathe used his 30k lb capacity forklift for the move due to the large wide gap between the Mazak's headstock and tailstock footings. The big ass forklift is dedicated to its own truck/trailer due to the forklift's unladen weight. The other forklift and machines were on a second truck/trailer. Makes for a more expensive machine move when I am paying for two trucks, but well worth it for how quickly and safely they handled the machine.

Driving two semi trucks to a jobsite is obviously not something one driver can do by himself. Overall weight on the road is just one of the logistics to consider when thinking about starting up a rigging company.

Minimum equipment for machinery rigging company

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