Been out cutting, grinding and drilling. First job was to cut some 3 x 5 x .25 angle iron into two lengths 79 inches long.
These are the main boom arms. They are positioned next to each other in a triangle arrangement, with the base 24 inches wide and the tip end 9 inches wide. In the pic below, the boom is upside down, vs how it is positioned during use.
I cut another piece of angle iron 24 inches long for the base of the boom.
This was bolted to the boom arms with 6 3/8 x 1 inch bolts
Next I drilled the boom arms for the cross members and pulley. I stepped up to the necessary 13/16 hole
I burned up my old Makita 18v drill on that last bit. It was literally shooting smoke out it’s vents.
The first cross member is where the boom pivots on the vertical cradle support, which Is halfway up the boom, or 39 1/2 inches from either end. As you can see from the actual crane pic, this crross member looks to be 1 1/2 rod, threaded on each end.
I didn’t have any 1 1/2 rod, a drill bit that big, or a die big enough to thread it. Instead, I used 3/4 inch threaded rod, inside some 1 inch sch 40 black iron pipe
This gives the look of a beefy cross member, and allowed me to use stuff I had on hand or could pick up at ace hardware. Once bolted up, it looks pretty good, and I think it will be strong enough
I forgot to mention that the performance goal here is to get a model T front axle off the ground using a hand-cranked winch. Since an entire Model T weighs less than 1200 pounds, the front axle probably weighs somewhere around 700 pounds. Just guessing here. My hand winch is a 4:1, and the pulley system I am planning to use has a mechanical advantage of 3. I will fabricate a longer winch handle to give me some more leverage. We will see later if it all goes as planned
The next cross member is where the horizontal arm of the boom extension bolts to the main boom. Here it is on the original crane. Look where that horizontal piece of angle intersects with the main boom arm.
Here is my boom, with all those cross members installed
The last job is to mount a pulley on the end of the boom. I need to fabricate a reducing bushing first, as the pulley ID is two inches, and the cross-bolt is a 3/4 inch grade 8 bolt. Here is where that pulley will go
Later, I will disassemble the boom, clean it up, grind off any rough edges, and paint it with rustoleum hammered black paint. Then reassemble it.
Tomorrow I start on the boom extension arm assemblies