Tooling challenges.

[Thee Awbade™]

Those of you guys such as myself who deal with bigger fixtures/parts to cut, (Mine are anywhere from 2-600 pound fixtures.) 

 

How do you guys move them on/off your machine? 

 

Currently we place our Fixtures upon the table with a Forklift, then we use an overhead gantry crane to lift/roll it around the table into position. Our new machine is proving to be a bit more complicated as it's much lower and is enclosed, so moving a forklift into it is not really an option and I'm looking at what we'll do to get our tools in/out and moved about on the machine itself. 

[The Cathedral]

If you're interested in an articulated jib crane with load assist end effectors, I know this really awesome company in Toledo, Ohio that manufactures them...

 

We have them scattered throughout the shop, especially by our big bore and multi-tasking lathes to help move about bars and shafts.

[duckdogers]

we have a gantry over our machines,we just put the part on the floor with a forklift and the crane does it from there

[Pilot Plant Supervisor]

Jib crane next to machine.

[jlw™]

We run a massive variety of part sizes. Quite literally everything from the size of a golf tee to roughly the size of a four wheeler. Smaller parts, obviously hand loaded into vise/fixture. Parts starting at about 80lbs to 6000lbs get lifted with overhead crane and straps or a magnet. I love the magnet where possible. Above 6k things get proper rigging. not to make the magnet sound unsafe... I trust it more than some people's rigging. Cranes have north, south, east and west directions and make large or awkward parts much easier to handle and what would be a 2 or 3 man job with a tow motor becomes a one man job with an overhead. However a good crane will cost. Your company will have to decide if it's worth it, but in machines that run big costly parts... how fast does long timely setup turn into the cost of a crane that could get the load done in minutes.

 

We do have jib cranes for some of the smaller machines but they are very limited in weight capacity and lift height.

[Thee Awbade™]

Some good information here guys, I appreciate it!

 

I'm going to look into a Jib crane pricing today, possibly an overhead gantry if we can't fit a jib that works 

[mc since v3]

Take a look at this site. Most of these units bolt right to the floor if its thick enough.

 

https://www.gorbel.com/

[civiceg]

Beam trolley over our gantry mill with electric chain hoist. Engine hoist to put tombstones on horizontals and indexers on verticals. Engine hoist are great for tight areas. Also we have large suction cups that are used on large aerospace chassis. Each one supports 300 pounds. We have three connected on a rail, just in case one fails, two will still support the part. I still wouldn't camp under it. But for large chassis or fixtures that you don't want to slide or get damaged its awesome. 

[Sticky]

Beam trolley over our gantry mill with electric chain hoist. Engine hoist to put tombstones on horizontals and indexers on verticals. Engine hoist are great for tight areas. Also we have large suction cups that are used on large aerospace chassis. Each one supports 300 pounds. We have three connected on a rail, just in case one fails, two will still support the part. I still wouldn't camp under it. But for large chassis or fixtures that you don't want to slide or get damaged its awesome. 

 

 

Totally didn't spend last week loading 300-500lb blocks of steel into a horizontal through the operator door with an engine hoist... It also didn't have the forward legs up and 1000 lbs of ballast on the back...

[The Cathedral]

Aimco jib cranes are the only cranes worth buying. Plus the end effectors can be custom built to exactly your specifications, whatever it is you need.

[Tinyfxds]

We cut the roof in half on our Kuraki boring bars and made one half able to slide over the other half.  This allowed us to position our parts on the table with an overhead crane.  It works great, just remember to put a stop on the end of the track or there's nothing to stop the roof from sliding right off onto the floor....not that it has ever happened:)