Hi all, Shimmy1's shed photos prompted me to send in some of my own photos of my workshop that I have just finished. some quick details 20 meters wide x 30 meters long x8.5 meters high with separate office and crib room of further 60 square meters all done to code as built in an industrial area of Ballarat Victoria which I designed myself. All the steel frame work and portal I drilled ,cut, and welded my self. I also assembled the frame and directed the lift and installed the wall cladding. I also with the help of my son designed and built the office area including the installation of the dry walls. whether this was cost effective is debatable, over the 6 months it took a lot of personal time which could of been billable hrs Regards Mark
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May not be as big as Shimmy's, but still impressive nonetheless. l've not seen the whole thing lifted in one piece before... is that a common method? I hope to start on a 15x35m portal frame soon, but don't have access to that amount of crane power. Congratulations on a job well done, Greg
Looks good. Have you wondered yet how you managed before without it? We have been hauling a little grain and to be able to hit the button and drive a 75' long truck inside like you're driving your car into the garage is pretty neat.
Except you can turn around inside and drive out the same door you drove in! Beautifully done!
Nice looking shop, never seen one raised like that before either, sure looked slick though, thanks for sharing it with us, the more ways we all get to see things done, gives the rest of us ideas as how to save time and money on doing out own projects. How are you heating and insulating the shop?
Randy, did you see he's in Victoria, Australia? It looks like he has a radiant barrier in the roof, and those mini split heat pumps in the office. Maybe AC only? I like the crane/lift tractor, ingenious. Is that style common in Oz, anybody seen one in North America? Is the front axle a drive axle also?
Yair . . . Delmer That style mobile crane was once very common and could be found holding up traffic as they wiggled their way around all our major towns and cities. They were mostly based on Ford or Chamberlain Industrial tractors . . . we had an ancient International with a petrol engine. I haven't seen one on the road for years . . . some were equipped with a winch and running rope. Over here I think their niche has been filled by the Franners which still hold up the traffic but not so much. Cheers.
Thanks every one for there comments, as I haven't figured out how to multi quote yet I will try and respond to each comment. regards Mark Greg the way I lifted the shed is reasonably common in built up areas.I did the math and even though there are 3 x50 tonners and 1 x75 tonner(had to reach over neighbours property) it was a lot better than doing the roofing in the air with all our red tape and cash cow safety inspectors around
Hi Shimmy1,i have been a field tech for more years than I care to remember. to be able to work inside and not travel so much to faraway job sites is heaven on earth
Thanks Doylex its all worked out OK but a divorce was very close to the horizon Mark
Hi Randy88. it was more cost effective for me this way and quicker and I did not have to rely on outside contractors as much Ballarat has a rep as being cold and windy but I have lived here most of my life except for stints on bogan island and the out back so I handle the cold pretty well but I do have portable gas furnaces if needed Mark
Hi Delmer, thanks for your comments we seldom see temperatures below -3C so it doesn't get that cold in my opinion. As scrub said the tractor cranes are oldies but goodies and once were very popular. I still have one and use it quite a bit, but also have access to more modern stuff Mark
hi Scrub, there are still quite a few of the old girls left mine is based on the chamberlain mark 4 and will go where a franner cant Mark
Yair . . . Gotcha Mark250. They were/are good manoeuvrable cranes and no doubting their ability in the rough stuff . . . as mentioned, most I ran were a bit giggle headed in the steering (big grin) . . . nice building by the way. Cheers.
Wow! nice job. Here in Texas most people go to a manufacturer like Mesco or Mid-West and give them the size and loading. They engineer and fabricate a complete package with the skin.
Nice shop and great ingenuity in setting it up. That Chamberlain based lift is so cool. Does it have 3 winch drums? If someone has a picture of a Franner could you post one? A half a world away I am curious as to what they might look like. An extending boom forklift perhaps? Edit: Upon closer look at photo it appears that it has hooks only and lifts from the cylinders. A cool machine regardless.
Yair . . . old-iron-habit "Franna" is now a generic term used here for "pick and carry" cranes . . . like "Jeep" is used to signify a small 4x4. As I understand it "Franna" is an amalgamation of Fred and Anna the folks who started a small operation hand building small cranes based on truck components. Such units were characterised by having dual wheels front and back, no stabilisers and articulated steering providing some limited swing. They are quite nimble and have become a common rig in hire fleets. Because they can cover so much ground, in some areas, they can become a good one man business. I thought they had been bought out by Terex but I saw what looked to be a fairly new one sporting the Franner logo so I am not sure. No doubt you have the same units running around only you know them under a different name. Here is (I think) about a twenty ton version, they articulate just behind the cab . . . . Cheers.
Has to be a down under thing. I have never seen such a machine in my life. Looks like it could be handy for certain things though.
I was picturing Old Iron Habit on one of those tractor cranes back in the day, built from a B or 50, but I'm sure I've never seen a Fred and Anna articulated crane. We have deck cranes like grove and pettibone and lots of others I'm sure, but nothing articulated that I've seen. Funny how precedent can make whole industries get "stuck in a rut". Like the American pickup fad, still popular 100 years after the model T took over the road.
Hey Scrub, Thanks for the information. We have the small carry deck cranes (Groves in our case) that we use mainly inside paper mills and iron processing plants. 4 wheel drive, 4 wheel steer, straight frame machines with tucked in outriggers. They have a swinging boom. They are like a minature hydraulic all terrain crane and do not articulate like the one shown. It is amazing how things evolve in different directions in different parts of this increasingly smaller world.
You got it Delmer, Probably an unstyled B at that. LOL
This was the limit of our crane capability when we stood our shed recently. Our 950 loader has a jib that can lift to 8 metres, but it was away working and our nearest town is 75 miles away, where there are plenty of Frannas, so we just used what we had. Needed a few minor modifications but it did the job safely and efficiently.