Crane
April 27, 2025
I’ve been working on a shop renovation on my parent’s farm. We added concrete floors, framed 2x6 walls, added power, and AC. There was, however, no crane. I decided to learn to weld by building 2.
Setting up
I purchased a welding table and a bunch of square tubing. I started by making a small crane for the welding tables itself. Jib cranes use a main post, then a suspended cross boom. They look similar to construction cranes you’d see on a city skyline.
This early crane directly mounted to the holes in my welding table. I used an annular cutter to drill precise holes in the crane base, then could bolt the crane to the table.
I gave it a coat of “don’t bonk your head” yellow, added a chain to the top that I could tighten, and put it into service. This was overall a low tech prototype for a much larger crane to be built.
Upgrades
I decided to make an even bigger, 1/4 ton crane for the shop. This was built by sistering 2 I-beams together, welding the seams, attaching a large 3x3 foot baseplate, and anchoring directly into the shop floor.
I started by modeling this in Solidworks, and running FEA to tell how strong it would be. I scaled up the webbing supports and I-beams that I wanted to use, to fit the 1/2 Ton limit I was aiming for.
The Jib Crane kit came from McMaster Carr, including the threaded rod for the top that takes the place of the chain from the earlier crane.
I used the annular cutter again to cut the holes in the baseplate, as well as the holes for the boom and post brackets that go through the I-beams.
A cable hoist is installed, along with a aircraft cable raceway to keep the power cord out of the way.
Due to the height of the shop roof, it couldn’t be taller. Still useful for reseating anvils, moving tables, and arranging arbor press and other tools on my welding table.
