Handling large sheets

So I have a shop and a forklift but if I didnt have the forklift how would I handle heavy sheets? I have 1/2 sheet of 3/16s stainless left over that I can barely shift by hand, it must be 350lbs or so. so now i wonder what everyone else does? Also I’ll have to go the engine on the forklift soon so it’ll be out of commission for a while so it would be good to have an efficient back up plan.

Any chance you can rig up a small electric hoist? I can usually get the stuff out of the car or truck but getting it 3 feet off the floor onto a table isn’t so easy.

Harbor Freight has a decent selection of small electric hoists that can be mounted in the ceiling so you can do a strap under the plate and hoist it up. Then roll the table underneath.

might be the way to go. I have a chain hoist here already I could use on a trolly and A frame I suppose. Or like you say just roll the table under it. How much weight can these tables take anyway?

That’s a question for @langmuir-daniel :slightly_smiling_face:

The casters look to be rated for 250 pounds so that would make it a half-ton table. The steel & the hardware used for the frame should be up to that task as well.

Let’s see what Daniel says though. Be interesting to see how close my guess is.

I have been working with 1/4 sheets lately. I got this tip from my father (old steel mill worker) Weld a large nut to the edge or center of the plate. Then use a chain and a bolt in the nut. With a couple good tacks you can pick up the plate no problem then they can be easily removed with no damage to the plate. Quick zip with a grinder or a whack with a hammer frees the nut. I have an engine host that I use to shift the heavy plates around and onto the machine.

According to the Langmuir FAQ the max weight capacity of the slat bed is 200 Lbs
http://www.langmuirsystems.com/faq

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Oops. Forgot about that - the aluminum water table & slat bed are the weak links. Wonder what the stainless steel one is rated at.

Of course it’d be easy enough to beef up the tray’s capacity with some under table supports linked to the 4 square tubes of the table. Would need some thicker gauge steel for the slats & holder though - someone doing a table expansion had a different design as I recall.