As I wait for the utility people to come out and mark everything for project, I have done nothing but brainstorming my layout. I overplan in the hopes I won't have to do it twice.

I have an idea, taken from a great idea I saw online. But theirs is expensive, and won't do what I want.

It's a moving (vertically) shelf. A large platform the lifts and drops at the touch of a button. Big enough for a motorcycle to sit on. Since my shop will be 14' high, I'm losing alot of wasted air space. This would be a brilliant way to have high shelves, without the insanity of trying to get stuff down.

Plus since I am now in posession of a motorcycle, this would also be a great way to get it out of the way. This below is the idea I'm stealing:

http://www.loft-it.com/images/loftharley.jpg

My idea is similar. Make some tracks that mount to my 6x6's for strength, but have base plates for the weight to rest on. Then use an ATV winch to hoist it up and down on the tracks.

I can build a platform, steel framed, with wood top. The question is, tracks. Can I use garage door tracks? I don't honestly think they'll be solid enough, but I don't know.

Do yall know any strength ratings of garage door tracks? Any recommendations on others? The tracks will have to hold about half of the load since the winch will be holding the most of it.

I'm I insane? Will this work? I think it would be great to be able to have two of these in the garage, one for the bike, and the other for getting the welder and plasma cutter up off the floor, or any other junk.

an insulated 2 car garage door weighs quite a lot and the normal tracks hold them just fine, the problem is, the weight is always perpendicular to the tracks, it is not cantilevered out like the pic you show. You might look into uni-strut and unistrut trolleys, most metal suppliers sell the unistrut, and Mcmaster sells some beefy ball bearing trolleys, it might work for your idea and be affordable.

Later,
Jason

Uhhh. Seems to me that having the winch continuously hold the load is a bad idea. The rest of it is a great idea. You could easily build it with a center post of receiver tube and then use the garage door tracks to be 'outriggers' to keep everything steady.

Put a hitch pin in the tube to hold the constant weight and you would have a fine hoist.

Thanks for the idea!

Get a little forklift? I don't think garage tracks are suitable for your task.

Uni-strut -- couldn't remember the name of that!

Grainger list as "A" or "B" Frame Channels. Took a while to remember that, too.

http://www.grainger.com/Grainger/wwg/catalogPDF.shtml

page 453

Could put in a loft with folding ladder, and ride that bike up the stairs. Shades of Animal House. :flipoff2:

Yeah, that's exactly what I feared, they're not designed for it, but I didn't know what similar systems would be called.

That's great info, UniStrut has some good options, that are affordable too.

I'll keep looking, just saying trolley helped me with my search. Thanks

Put a hitch pin in the tube to hold the constant weight and you would have a fine hoist.

Thanks for the idea!

Actually that's similar to what I would be planning. I'm a safety nut, and not to mention this is a custom chopper that my FIL owns. I'm it's caretaker while he is overseas (:usa:).

Drilling out to large holes and then having the trolleys rest on them is the plan. I am also going to weld a good sized foot plate to the base so most of the weight is supported by the floor as well as the beams.

i'm only saying this because you suggest that you may also put a motorcycle on it. but with those supports in the way, how annoying would it be to put the bike on the shelf before raising it? i don't know because i don't have a motorcycle, just pointing some things out.

i'm only saying this because you suggest that you may also put a motorcycle on it. but with those supports in the way, how annoying would it be to put the bike on the shelf before raising it? i don't know because i don't have a motorcycle, just pointing some things out.

Great question. I'm going to use what my trailer has. Two large steel bars with holes at each end. They will be bolted at the lower section (flat shelf holding the bike). The upper mount will be a round piece of steel with a hole through the side of it for a cotter pin. Remove the pin, and let the support bar lay out. Put the bike on, and lift the bar back up, put the pin in, and lift.

The original design I'm borrowing does this. See the crossbars? The top mount is not permanent and allows the bar to flip over towards the garage to load the bike from the side.
http://www.jesmallengine.com/images/upwego2.gif

Your bike might weigh close to 1000lb so no way would I use garage door track. Your bike though so YRMV. I'd get some channel and then use bearings from a forklift. Any forklift dealer can get Chinese ones for you cheap from SMH. They'll also be able to sell you the studs to weld to the carriage where you'd mount them. I'd also drive it with ball screws instead of the winch but that's me. If the winch ever fails you will have plenty of kinetic energy to dissipate so ratchets in the rails wouldn't hurt. I would look at a two post hoist and build yours about one quarter to one third of the way between your idea and one of those.

If you mount the winch cable near the load center of the platform you'll remove all the load from the carriage and wall and then your garage track would work fine assuming your roof truss doesn't fail. At that point though you might as well make a lifting harness and just hoist the bike up off the floor with the winch.

A good design reference would be the lift system used on the rear door of a big rig race car hauler where they stack the cars at the top of the trailer.

Your bike might weigh close to 1000lb so no way would I use garage door track. Your bike though so YRMV. I'd get some channel and then use bearings from a forklift. Any forklift dealer can get Chinese ones for you cheap from SMH. They'll also be able to sell you the studs to weld to the carriage where you'd mount them. I'd also drive it with ball screws instead of the winch but that's me. If the winch ever fails you will have plenty of kinetic energy to dissipate so ratchets in the rails wouldn't hurt. I would look at a two post hoist and build yours about one quarter to one third of the way between your idea and one of those.

If you mount the winch cable near the load center of the platform you'll remove all the load from the carriage and wall and then your garage track would work fine assuming your roof truss doesn't fail. At that point though you might as well make a lifting harness and just hoist the bike up off the floor with the winch.

I like the idea of a ball screw, but I'm not familiar with them, or manufacturers. That's what the system I'm copying uses. Plus, what's the cost? Ideally it would be perfect for this, ground load, no load on top.
Any recommendations on where to start my research?

As for the winch mount, it would be on the ground with a pulley system above. The cross bar support will be a braced 4x4 mounted on top of the 4x4 posts I would use for the rail mounts. I figure that would be able to disperse the load of 1000lbs at the center.

How about using barn door track and rollers? Stocked at Menards.

Yikes!

Do you have room for a shed in your yard?

Heavy duty pallet racks and one of those electric forklift things you walk with that you see at home depot. Put everything on skids. Put your air compressor on the pallet rack also.

maby some C channel with a carrage that goes up and down in between the two pieces.

Yikes!
Do you have room for a shed in your yard?

Why yikes? I'm putting a 40x30. The city won't let me put anything else on my property.

Heavy duty pallet racks and one of those electric forklift things you walk with that you see at home depot. Put everything on skids. Put your air compressor on the pallet rack also.

A hyster? That's a bit expensive. :laughing:This is for a garage/shop at home. Not an industrial complex.

Use pallet racking for the shelf.It can be 8 ft wide. Put the winch on a trolly and pickup the bike and swing it over to the shelf. Another shelf under the top one can be a work bench.
Nick

maby some C channel with a carrage that goes up and down in between the two pieces.

Thats what I would do. Some heavy C channel frame with some wheels running inside of it connected to the shelf.

I like that idea, but finding some sort of roller bearing or combined bearings that make a trolley or bracket is my problem. Do you know of any? I'm sure I can find some good c-channel. But I wouldn't know where to start to find a good set of trollies/combined bearings.

Your comments make me think you will end up with an economical way to lift your bike and buy a new front end for your car and a fucked up bike. .....EXPENSIVE? This is an item that even the most frugal of people should spend for the best parts and design.

INtj

I would go with a fixed shelf, moving hoist setup, something like this:

http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showpost.php?p=496830&postcount=44

http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showpost.php?p=581397&postcount=15

http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showpost.php?p=583222&postcount=23

http://www.mcmaster.com/#strut-channel-trolleys/=3lnasm

Your comments make me think you will end up with an economical way to lift your bike and buy a new front end for your car and a fucked up bike. .....EXPENSIVE? This is an item that even the most frugal of people should spend for the best parts and design.

INtj

Sorry, you don't know me so I understand, but that's the exact opposite of how I do things. You should see some of my current works. I overbuild the hell out of things just I don't do damage. I never once said I'm looking for cheap. But anyone who builds something without looking at the budget is not a smart person anyways.

Thing is, by the time you get all the bits and pieces and do all the overbuilding you may be very close to the cost of a small used forklift and some pallet racking. The forklift will have a thousand other uses as well.

It still wouldn't suit the application that I need and am wanting.

Basic lift ideas from the Hydraulic Scissor Cart thread:

http://www.fsindustries.com/more_info/512m_multi_purpose_lifts/512m_multi_purpose_lifts.shtml

http://www.wescomfg.com/html/lift_equipment/steel_two_wheel_winch.htm

just a thought from my machine building experence id look at linear shafting, bearing blocks and a gear rack with a gearbox and motor.

I beam and a trolley set up ? Id Imagine you could park your truck on there then

I beam and a trolley set up ? Id Imagine you could park your truck on there then


THIS!

Also like sugested above build a ratchet system for it. Copy a car lift. Your talkin big money (someone elses big money) parked over the top of big money.