How to make a crane beam with your own hands, materials and tools, calculations, assembly and installation. Do-it-yourself crane. Types of lifting mechanisms

Sometimes when working under the hoods of cars, it becomes necessary to promote additional mechanisms that can help pull out or hang out the engine, while leaving enough space in the pit under the car to access all the details of the car. Ideally, such a device, which helps in car repair, should:

do not clutter up the place in the garage;
understand the constituent elements;
be independent of the fixed ceiling eye bolt.

It is such a mechanism that a beam crane is made by hand.

DIY video on making a crane beam:

Do-it-yourself gantry crane construction

1. As a result of all the actions described below, a crane beam will be constructed, which will look like this in assembled condition:

2. In the disassembled state, this garage tool will look like this:

The height of such a crane beam will be 250 cm, width - 415 cm. The base of the racks will have a size of 120 cm. All sizes are designed for use with cars. If you need a crane-beam to work with more massive cars, then it is better to strengthen the design by making A-shaped vertical racks and additionally using scarves to support the bar; the material used will have to be larger than the ones given.

3. As materials for the crane beam we will use:

a pipe with a diameter of 10 cm, which will serve as a transverse seamless rod;
pipes with a diameter of 11 cm, which will play the role of rod supports;
bolts M: 16 for attaching to the rod supports;
a pipe of a square profile 10x10 cm, used as a rack;
corner 10x10 cm for the base and bevels;
cable rollers (you can use rollers from the elevator door drive).

4. The rollers are fastened to a strip of 5 cm, which is overlapped welded to the junction of the rod with the supports.

5. To ensure the mobility of the tool to the racks, rollers taken from containers that are used in warehouses are welded.

When folding, this item takes up very little garage space.

6. The lifting mechanism is constructed from a 800 kg manual worm winch with a steel cable by welding it to a vertical stand.

A mobile and simpler, stationary crane beam in the garage with your own hands is quite feasible if you have a welding machine and two days of free time. For a professional auto repair shop, it’s easier to buy ready-made lifting equipment.

If the need for a crane is rare, then it is cheaper to make a simple and reliable elevator yourself. Such a homemade crane can easily lift the weight up to 800 kg, and this is enough for repair work in the garage.

In order to make a frame for a small beam crane in a standard garage with your own hands, you will need the following materials:

i-beam (4 - 4.5 meters) - the required footage depends on the height of the garage;
pipe (diameter 10-12 cm), length 2.4 meters - 2 pieces;
one square pipe (10x10 cm);
corners (10x10);
manual hoist and hoist;
bolts (M16) with nuts.

If you plan to build a mobile crane, then you need four more rollers and a hoist.

The procedure for the manufacture of a crane frame with your own hands:

we weld the legs of the crane - you need to weld the corners from two sides to the I-pipe;
the location of the corner is at an angle of 45 degrees. We get peculiar stiffeners that will firmly fix the rack, which accounts for the bulk of the load carried by the crane;
we weld two triangles, spacers on each crane stand.

if the crane is a movable beam, then it is necessary to weld a roller on each side of the bottom to the horizontal on each rack - ordinary rollers for metal containers will do, furniture will not support the weight;
on top, as a crossbar, we fix the pipe along which the lifting mechanism will move;
in the center of the pipe we weld an I-beam for fixing the roller, along which the steel cable of the crane lifting mechanism will move.

on top of the I-beam, we weld a piece of a square pipe (to stiffen the frame) - 40 cm. The pipe should protrude on both sides by at least 20 cm. It turns out that the side stand is located in the middle of the crossbar stiffness pipe;
insert the transverse tube of the crossbar of the frame into the square tube;
we drill through holes for bolts of fastenings on both sides of the square holder and in the crossbar pipe itself - you need a rigid reliable fixation on both sides of the vertical rack.

It turns out a U-shaped design of the frame of the crane, which is installed on the hard legs of the spacers, and on the top the crossbar is rigidly bolted.

Installation of lifting gear - manual or automatic

For mechanical lifting of loads on the frame, you need to install a manual hoist - a worm winch and a cable. How to fix the hoist on the frame:

on the side of the rack we install a manual worm winch (carrying capacity 800 kg, no less);
steel cable moves on casters.

Such a mechanism makes it easy to raise the engine or car by the hood on one side.

You can take as a drive a lifting mechanism and rollers from the elevator door. There the rollers are reliable and durable.

An electric drive of the lift can also be installed on the fabricated base. The 300 - 500 W engine will be enough for simple repair work in the garage.

Such cranes are often used for repair and reconstruction of old wooden houses. Building a chopped house will go faster if the logs are laid using a mobile home-made crane. In this case, the width of the frame is along the length of the logs of the log house.

And you can make a simpler lift for the engine, on one support, see the video.

To repair the car yourself, a lift is required. Therefore, a lift for the engine should be in every garage, but it is expensive to acquire professional equipment. In addition, having large dimensions, it will take up a lot of space in the garage. If you make a crane beam with your own hands, then you can save.

Tools and materials

The crane beam consists of a guide, a lifting mechanism and end beams. This is a convenient design that can be used not only indoors, but also outside. Before proceeding to its manufacture, it is necessary to make calculations and prepare a drawing.

Of the tools and materials you will need:

for support rods - several pipes 11 cm in diameter;
for a transverse rod (solid) - a pipe 10 cm in diameter;
hoist and manual hoist;
for a rack - a pipe (with a square section) 10 × 10 cm;
under the base and for bevels - metal corners 10 × 10 cm;
fixing bolts M16;
welding machine.

Payment

Calculation of a crane beam 250 cm high is made for work with cars. The crane is capable of lifting elements weighing up to 800 kg. The width of the structure is 415 cm, and the size of the racks is 120 cm. For larger equipment, the hoisting mechanism is equipped with vertical A-shaped racks. To securely fix the rod on the supports, use scarves.

Assembly instruction

It will take 2 days to assemble a simple or movable structure. The process of manufacturing a crane beam with your own hands:

The main load that the crane will move is on the rack. To securely fix the structure, you need to make a frame. To do this, legs are welded from metal corners under the tap. Corners are welded to the pipe at an angle of 45 ° on both sides of the pipe.
To make spacers, 2 triangles are welded to each rack.
For a mobile structure, you need rollers. They are welded to a horizontal base, located on both sides of each rack. To prevent the rollers from breaking and supporting the weight, use products that are designed for metal containers. Furniture can not be used.
A pipe is installed at the top of the structure. It is designed to move the lifting mechanism.
The roller for moving the cable is mounted on the I-beam. The I-beam is pre-welded at the center point of the pipe.
To give the frame additional stability, a square tube is welded to the beam element. It is placed on top of the beam so that it protrudes 20 cm forward from two sides.
The transverse pipe is inserted into the pipe with a square cross section and through holes are drilled on both sides for mounting. As fasteners use bolts. Home-made frame for the U-shaped crane is ready. The pipe in the form of a crossbeam is securely fixed in the upper part of the product, and the whole structure is stably located on the spacers (legs).
Mechanical lifting is designed to lift parts. It can be manual or automatic. Manual hoist consists of a winch and a cable. The worm winch is mounted on the side of the rack. The movement of the steel cable occurs through the rollers.
The structure can be equipped with a lifting mechanism, which is used in elevators. This mechanism has strong rollers.
Connecting the electric drive of the lift will facilitate repair work. For installation, an engine with power from 300 to 500 watts is suitable. It is mounted on the base of the structure.

Materials for the crane were mainly found in scrap metal. I had to buy only bearings, a winch, and order the turner parts of the rotary mechanism.

And I also had to pay the welder, since I myself can’t do the welding work, due to some vision problems.

In general, this crane cost 5,000 rubles, which can not be compared with the amount of work that I managed to do with it, because the “cheapest” utility room in our region costs 800 rubles a day.

Immediately make a reservation that during the operation, my crane revealed some shortcomings, which I will point out, and advise how to fix them. So your crane will be slightly different from mine.

Let's start with the swivel mechanism.

It consists of six parts that need to be ordered by a turner, and two bearings.

As you can see, there are no sizes in the drawing. The fact is that the exact size, like mine, is not necessary for you to observe. After all, we make a crane from improvised material, and I can’t know what size the channel or I-beam, or what pipe is at your fingertips.

A little more, or a little less, in my design, does not play any role. And you will understand this from further instructions. And having estimated in general what materials and parts you have, determine what sizes to take for the manufacture of the rotary mechanism.

There are two bearings in the mechanism. At the top, between the housing and the base, there is a thrust bearing. Below, again between the housing and the base, there is a simple radial bearing.

Rather, the housing should be mounted on the bearing, and the base should enter it. Thus, both of these details are connected. For a more reliable fixation of the radial bearing, a nut is screwed on the bottom of the housing. The thickness of the threaded and retaining parts of the nut is at your discretion, but not less than 3 mm.

Then this unit is attached to the platform with a bolt (I have M 26), which draws the base to the platform. Thus, it turns out that the platform and the base are the fixed part of the mechanism, and the body with the nut is rotating.

Now a little about what practice has shown. By the end of the season, the radial bearing was slightly weakened, and a barely noticeable play was formed in the rotary mechanism.

But with a boom length of 5 meters, this play became noticeably noticeable, therefore I recommend installing a wheel hub 36 mm wide instead of a radial bearing.

In Kazan, support and wheel bearings, you can buy both for 500 rubles. And to tighten the bolt that fastens the base to the platform, you will need a spanner wrench with an extension cord, and two washers are required - a flat one and a grover.

The next node we will have a rack.

To make it, you will need a piece of pipe (I have d140), and four pieces of a channel. The height of the rack must be estimated so that in the finished form it was for you just for this very thing. Even a centimeter two lower. Then it will be convenient, when operating the crane, to turn the winch.

Since a piece of pipe with an evenly cut end, you are unlikely to send God, you have to cut one end yourself. To do this, take a car clamp, or make a clamp from a strip of tin, and tighten it on the pipe.

When tightening, the clamp will tend to settle as evenly as possible on the pipe, and if you help it a bit (by eye), you get a fairly flat line around the circumference of the pipe, which remains to be drawn, then remove the clamp, and cut the pipe along this line with a grinder .

Then, the platform of the rotary mechanism is welded to this even end of the pipe. Now it’s clear why I did not give the dimensions in the drawing? You still have to order the swivel mechanism. A tube can be found. So the diameter of the platform can be ordered by the diameter of the pipe.

Now legs. They need to be welded so that the rack does not collapse. How to do it? First, they need to be cut into the same length.

Then hang the pipe with the welded platform, passing the rope into the hole in the center of the platform, and substitute the legs to the pipe obliquely, so that in the end, the pipe remains hanging evenly, and legs, from four sides rested on it.

As soon as equilibrium is found, you need to draw an eye on the angles of the channels that abut the pipe, and cut them with a grinder as shown in the photo.

After trimming the corners, again rest your legs against the pipe, catch the balance, check with a rail and tape measure so that they form an even cross, and grab them with welding. After tacking, check the cross again and you can weld.

It remains to make the supporting cross itself. You can make it from any hard profile. At first, the idea was to put it on wheels made of bearings, but time was running out, and things didn’t get to the wheels, and it would actually be nice. The unit turned out to be pretty heavy, and it was difficult to move it.

The length of the shoulders of the cross, I have 1.7 meters, although operation has shown that this cross does not play a particularly large role in the stability of the crane. The main stability is provided by the balance, which we will talk about.

The cross is not welded to the legs, but bolted with nuts M 10. This is done for the convenience of possible transportation. The reinforcement of the legs was made in the calculation of the installation of the wheels, but it didn’t come to them, although there is still an idea to install them.

The stand with the swivel mechanism is ready, now we will take up the crane platform, on which the counterweight, winches, and boom will be installed. On the platform I found a one and a half meter I-beam, 180 mm wide. But I think you can use a channel for it, and even a beam of 150 x 200.

At first, I even wanted to use the beam, but since there was a two-tee, the choice settled on it. The platform is attached to the housing of the rotary mechanism with four bolts with M 10 nuts.

If instead of an I-beam, a beam is used, then for it it will be necessary to make additional platforms, above and below. You can “grab” it with two pieces of a channel, and tighten everything with bolts.

But with the bolts, let's wait, since the place of attachment of the platform to the rotary mechanism, it will be necessary to choose the equilibrium. That is, the arrow of the crane must be balanced by a block for counterweights, and a winch. That is, the crane should stand confidently on the rack, and did not fail.

The next will be a block of counterweights.

I have it made of pieces of the same channel as the platform, but you can make it from anything, and whatever. The main thing is to get a container in which you can install the goods, so that, if necessary, you can increase the counterweight.

Now about the winch. My winch is installed with a capacity of 500 kg, with a brake. And once again, as practice has shown, such power, for lifting a load of about 100 kg, was not enough.

That is, you can lift it, but you have to lean on the handle so that when you climb to a height of more than 5 meters, you get tired very quickly. For such a crane, a winch for 1 - 1.5 tons is needed.

A second winch was also supposed to lift the arrow, but just at that time, having traveled around a bunch of shops and markets, I could only find one winch with a brake, which you see in the photo. Therefore, instead of the second winch, a temporary extension cable was made, the length of which still changes with the help of clamps.

Unfortunately, there is nothing more permanent than temporary shelter. I recommend that you still put a winch instead of it, and preferably a worm. She has a small speed, and the brake, even up or down, is dead. What is needed for the arrow.

It remains to make an arrow, which is what we will do. The boom consists of a mount with a shaft, a beam of 150 x 50, and a tip with a pulley.

First up is the mounting case. It is better to make it from a piece of channel.

Any round log with a diameter of 20 to 30 mm will fit for the shaft. For example, I cut off a piece of the rotor shaft, some old engine. Then we bend in a vice, around this shaft two brackets and fasten it to the channel, into which the beam will then be inserted.

We buy two simple bearings, so that they fit snugly on the shaft, and cut out a seat in the mount housing.

How to fix the bearings in the housing, of course you can dream up. In addition to mine, there are probably a dozen more ways. And I found a 10 mm thick ebonite plate, from which I made these mounts.

The arrow itself is a beam of 150 x 50, a length of 5 meters. It is inserted into the channel 80 mm wide and 2.5 meters long. True, he had to be touched a little so that he went inside the channel. I have a channel with a length of 3.5 meters installed, but this is only because at that time there was not a good beam at hand, with small knots. I just played it safe, which, unfortunately, increased the weight of the boom.

The beam to the channel is fastened with screeds made of a metal strip, 3 mm thick.

At the end of the boom, you need to fix the pulley for the cable. I have it made of a wheel from a trolley bag. For skilled hands, pulley mounting options, I think, is complete. At first, I fastened it between two pieces of plywood, but then I made a fastener from the channel.

Now you can collect the arrow, if not for one “but”. During operation, the brackets with which the shaft is attached to the channel turned out to be rather weak. Therefore, I made an amplification for them.

And one more addition. I have a reinforcing part secured with four bolts. It is necessary to add two more from above, for greater rigidity of the knot. Although mine works fine with four bolts. And I would add it a long time ago.

Now you can assemble the entire crane platform, that is, install a winch on it, under the winch a block for counterweights, on the other end there is a boom lifting body with an arrow. If there is, then the second winch, if not, then the extension cable, like mine.

All this is assembled in a supine position, and upon completion it rises vertically, on some kind of support. For example, I laid several pallets on top of each other, and put the assembled platform on them so that the counterweight hangs freely down.

Then we fasten the rotary mechanism to the rack. All that remains is to install the platform on a rack so that the boom and counterweight balance each other.

Unfortunately, I didn’t have any photographs of the construction that I built for this, well, I'll try to explain it this way.

This design is a tripod with a block at the top. The height of the tripod is approximately three meters. It is made from a bar 100 x 50. As you might have guessed, the crane platform, when assembled, must be suspended and raised so that it can be placed under it.

The platform will be lifted by its own winch. To do this, we pass the winch cable through the block, and we hook on the boom lifting housing, which is located on the opposite end of the platform.

Now, if you work with a winch on the rise, then the whole platform will rise. But during the lifting, the arrow raised up starts to fall, so you need to either call a couple of helpers who will fix the arrow in an upright position, or make another tripod (as I had) with a block 6 meters high, and tied Toward the end of the boom, run it through the block and pull it up when lifting the platform.

By suspending the platform in this way, and bringing the rack under it, you can lower and raise the platform and move the rack to catch the position in which the counterweight will balance the boom.

In this position, we drill 4 through holes and bolt the platform to the rack. So that is all. The crane is ready. You can start the test.

Well, a couple of operation examples:

General view of my crane:

If the article does not answer your question, ask it in the comments. I will try to answer as quickly as possible.

I wish you success in work, as well as the opportunity to lift and move everything you need and where you need it.