Pulley blocks

[Chris Hogg]

I'm looking for a small sheaved pulley system with maybe two or three pulleys per sheave (if those are the right terms), capable of lifting a max of say 250 kg. I guess the sort of thing used for lifting engine blocks out of cars would be OK. Anyone point me to a supplier?

[Dave Fawthrop]

|I'm looking for a small sheaved pulley system with maybe two or three |pulleys per sheave (if those are the right terms), capable of lifting |a max of say 250 kg. I guess the sort of thing used for lifting engine |blocks out of cars would be OK. Anyone point me to a supplier?

First check that whatever the pulleys will be attached to is sufficiently strong.

[Brian Sharrock]

You haven't stipulated where you're posting from; - But, any yachting chandlers will be able to supply you, different blocks, different sheaves, selection of cordages, etc. etc. How much 'pull' do you want to exert? How much length of cordage are you prepared to handle/purchase? _If_ you're posting from Unst, there's a chandler in BaltaSound. _If_ You're posting from Devon, there's plenty in Plymouth .... (You get the idea ) :) _If _ you're posting from somewhere in between these places, try your 'Yellow Pages' for chandlers.

[Cicero]

=============================== The trade name for those small engine hoists was 'Haltrac'. Try 'googling' for 'Haltrac engine hoist' and Ebay will show one or two for sale.

Cic.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Seems strange these are no longer - apparently - available new. Mine has given sterling service.

[The Natural Philosopher]

Yacht places (ships chandlers) or a decent hardware shop are the best bet.

beware of the '1 ton rating' - we DID lift an engine out with these years ago, ..actually we lifted the front of the car as well till be got it freed, and our 5 ton block bent alarmingly at about a ton and a half. Didn't break though..

[Gordon Henderson]

The "problem" with pulleys is that they will back-run when you let go of the rope, so you might want to consider a block and tackle instead, if you are lifting heavy engines, and the like.

Gordon

[Dave Plowman (News)]

My Haltrak has a lock to prevent this.

[adder1969]

What do you *actually* want it for?

[Andy Dingley]

I really wouldn't do this. Whatever it is you're lifting, if it weighs

250kg I don't want it supported by a free-running pulley. I wouldn't even use a Hatrack for this. If it's that heavy it's dangerous -- hang it under some sort of inherently self-locking lift, like a worm drive block. If you don't want to buy it (eBay, farm auctions, MachineMart) then hire one.

Personally I bought a crude MM engine crane a few years ago. I don't lift many engines with it, but it's always coming in handy for lifting heavy stuff like machine tools. The wheeled trolley is more use than my fixed position lifting gantry was, even if I don't have the same headroom.

[Chris Hogg]

Thanks for the replies and the caveats.

The problem is that I have a pottery kiln that weighs 110kg (the 250kg figure was so that I wasn't working on the limit of the pulley system), that I have to raise about 60 cm into the air to get a stand under it, and do this more or less single handed (possibly with help from 'er indoors). Methods considered so far are

1. pulley system.

1. Sliding a couple of strong girders under the kiln, and raising it bit by bit, lifting each pair of girder ends a little at a time and supporting them on concrete blocks slid in, until the desired height is achieved, when the stand can be slid underneath and the kiln lowered onto it be reversing the process.

Other suggestions gratefully received.

[Clive George]

Is this outside? Do you have anything to pull from above (eg rafters)?

cheers, clive

[normanwisdom]

Northern Tools do chain hoists - bit more capacity than you need but cheap:

[The Natural Philosopher]

Can you get a trolley jack under it?

[somebody]

In message , Chris Hogg writes

110kg? If this is just a one off, surely a mate giving you a hand would be cheaper/easier.

Even a metre or so of 4x2 as a lever would help.

If this is a regular occurrence though, well, I'll just slide slowly and quietly back to the bar with a humble expression ... :-(

Hth Someone

[Andy Dingley]

Assuming you don't have a gantry above it, then I'd go for jacking from beneath. That weight is more than most roof timbers would appreciate.

I'd probably use a load of small jackings and repeated stacking with wooden packer blocks. OTOH I have plenty of timber to hand (there are always pallets though). How many trolley jacks can you borrow ?

[Huge]

It weighs less than I do, and I was up in my loft at the weekend ...

(Installing the cluster fly killer)

Chris, can you really not muster 3 or 4 hefty blokes to lift it onto the stand at one go? How about sticking your head in the local fire station and offering them a donation to their Xmas beer fund?

[Aidan Karley]

This is towards the upper end of what small yachts would probably require (would you fancy manually hauling up 250kg of sails?), but is well within the safe load rating of mountaineering equipment (strength of human pelvis ~1800kg ; weight of human and gear ~100kg ; one set of equipment needed to work between these limits). You can get the same sort of equipment designed for more industrial uses from "Roped Access" suppliers, e.g. Lyon

have a relevant catalogue. Other people have asked about alternative ways of doing it - lever and block ; trolly jack ; what beams do you have above the work site to pull on? There's a lot more than just getting the right tackle. I know what I'd look at to assess the job, but I don't think one could assess the job safely from written descriptions.

[Andy Dingley]

That's a loft in a house, I'm assuming this is a shed. I wouldn't walk on my shed roof...

[Huge]

Good point. Although I'd walk on my shed roof, but then my shed isn't a GBP29.95 B&Q special.