Just curious what people are using to move heavy plates (or in general heavy equipment) in their shop. I’m looking at the 2 ton engine hoist at Harbor Freight. I’m always interested to hear people’s solutions on moving thousands of pounds around the shop!
for sheets of 1/4" and 3/8" I weld a big nut onto the sheet and chain them to my HF 2Ton Shop crane wheel them over and set it on the table. I will also cut the sheets down to 4’x4’. For thinner gauge sheets I use 2 people or just manhandle them with a little yelling and steel toed boots.(light stuff stays 4’x8’ till cut)
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I am real man…I lift many sheets with one hand…strong like bull…smart like fence post…
Actually I scream for my wife when all hell breaks loose…
to be honest there are some threads here on the forums on this exact question… @Cletus modified a what looks like an engine hoist to be the super lifter… and some guys have ceiling mounted gantry cranes…
Moving steel sheets around can and will get dangerous fast as the weight increases. A simple 4x3 sheet of 1/4 plate weighs a tic over 120 pounds. When you are maneuvering sheets or parts around it’s not IF but WHEN you drop it you will damage something. The damage will be in proportion to It’s weight and what it lands on. I/E Fingers ,Foot, Toes, god forbid your body. And even worse the machine. You hit that and you may spend the rest of the day realigning or repairing it.
I worked 25 years in a fab weld /machine shop and seen some STUPID accidents with industrial equipment engineered for lifting. 99 percent of the failures were operator error.
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