Vacuum Crane

[john_hartman]

Hi all,

Having recently become a new bot owner I have had to deal with a couple of new challenges on how to handle ply sheet goods. Prior to the bot I used a panel saw so they could be loaded vertically making things a lot easier. Being limited on space (had to post-pone a move out of the house) My bot is located in the garage, which leaves just enough room for an 8ft piece of ply to rest between the bot and the wall. Anyway long story short there isn't enough room to get behind the ply to lift it up and trying to do from the side is just too awkward. So here's my solution... I tapped into the existing plumbing I set up for the vacuum table, added a valve, an electric hoist, and made a suction base. I can't believe how well it works! Check out the pictures here: http://picasaweb.google.com/JeanChristopheHartman/VacuumCrane#

[Gary Campbell]

John...
Good Job! Better watch out, they will be calling it the Franken-crane! Nice to see someone else bit by the McGuyver gene.
Gary

[zeykr]

Very neat. Tell us a little more about how you made the suction fittings please!

[john_hartman]

Thanks guys.. It was pretty fun to build! I added a few more pictures to the link above. They should help clarify things a bit better. The system is running off of two Fiens, however I just got the 2nd Fien today so it does work with a single Fien.

As far as the fittings; everything is 2" PVC. The "suction housing" is a 2"x3" PVC Reducer and the "suctions cups" are 4" plungers with a small .75" hole cut at the top. They are just siliconed in to the reducer. I originally tried the foam-rubber couplers used to seat the toilet tank the toilet bowl. I could only pick-up 1/2" ply with those; the plungers grab 3/4" ply with ease.

Currently the suction-assembly is in it's mock-up state. The PVC fittings are just dry-fitted together. Yeah, I couldn't believe that worked! I plan to install a 3/4" ply cross support under the PVC to keep everything perfectly seated. I'll also rework the way its attached to hoist hook with cable.

[myxpykalix]

very cool idea....good job. Do you think you would have a problem trying to hoist mdf because of its pourous nature?

[john_hartman]

Jack, I honestly don't know. 3/4" MDF would be 10-20 lbs heavier than 3/4" ply? I never use MDF so I really can't say. With both Fiens running they might be able to overcome any pourousity issues. The way I currently have the suction base built, which is pretty much just thrown together, I can lift a 3/4x4x8 piece of ply lower it real quick and suddenly snap it back up and it will not let it go!

[wberminio]

I'm impressed John.
I like your straight forward,no nonsense approach.
Thanks for inspiring us.

Erminio

[angus_hines]

WOW now I gotta have a Vac Crane.....

And Gary...."Franken" is all you.....LOL

[john_hartman]

I'm happy that I could contribute something to this great forum which has helped me so much! I hope someone will build on this idea to improve it further. Angus sounds like you're up for it!

[scott_smith]

This is my lo-tech solution to the same problem. If you don’t put it down you don’t have to pick it up. The cart is just a little lower than the SbopBot table and my pickup bed. I roll it over to the garage door, slide the panels off the truck onto it, roll it to the end of the shopbot, and slide the panels on the table.

I have 2 rigid wheels in the center and 4 casters on the corners. That cuts my turning radius in half. The wood blocks you see around the center wheels are to keep it from rolling while sliding the sheets on or off.

Quite often it also gives me an extra 4x8 workbench for large assemblies.

619

[thewoodcrafter]

I still like the vacuum crane.
It doesn't take up any room in the shop.

[scott_smith]

Don't get me wrong, I love the crane idea. But it takes 4 foot by 8 foot if the wood is on the floor or at a useable height.

[scott_smith]

And I have storage for cut-off sheets under my stack.

[jerry_stanek]

you could store your 4x8 sheets on a drywall cart and lift the off with the crane and it would take up less space.

[cutitout]

love the plunger suction cups -- I could have flip this setup to hold/clamp material for shaper cuts and not destroyed my spoil board.

[john_hartman]

When my veneer ply is delivered we unload it directly on to 4- 4/wheeled dolly's. I then push the entire stack of ply to front of the bot. There's still just enough room for me to get around it or I just walk right over it. (I do put down a 4x8 piece of card board when I do this) The other thing is to unload the ply in the order you want to use it.

An update on the crane: the photo's show it in its prototype phase. Once I was happy with the function I decided to pvc glue all those joints, make a 1.5" thick brace to support the pvc and replace the nylon rope with rubber coated cable. Go figure that after all that "improving" the design that the suction cups wouldn't even pick a sheet of 1/4" ply! I figured it doesn't like to be too rigid and needs enough flexibility to conform to however the sheet wants to bend. So once again "KISS" takes affect...

[carlcnc]

JOhn
I have used pvc for vacuum plumbing for several years
instead of glue I use a good quality elec tape, a few wraps on the pipe then press it into fitting then a few wraps around the joint. never had one leak.
CArl

[john_hartman]

Carl,

Actually there weren't any leaks prior to gluing everything. My first set-up worked great with all the pvc parts just dry fitted together. PVC fittings are already pretty tight. It seems that even with only one turn of the electrical tape that you wouldn't even be able to sweeze the fittings together...? This is what your saying right?

[carlcnc]

John
as soon as I hit post I realized my mistake,
you are correct 1, possibly two turns on the pipe max, and it probably isn't needed, as long as you wrap the joint after assembly.
another trick is to brush the elec tape with a small amount of abs glue, keeps the end from unraveling over time.