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A bridge crane sure is living large in the shop, hard to beat a one man scribe shop. I have quite a few cast end trucks, if any one is interested.

@Michael: Nice one! I love that it supported by TF trusses!

@Will: I had a home-made rig very similar to that in my first (one-man) professional shop. The bridge in the current shop (in the photo) is good for 10T, but I only have 2T of hoist capacity.

@Tim: Mine does have two hoists wired in parallel, so they go up and down together. Makes things a lot easier for one person to operate.

I appreciate the great response form other guild members. To my query about designing my first one man operation. I have been wondering how to hook up a cheap hoist that is safe in my first shop. The costs of a bridge crane are almost out of reach for a new guy. But these other ideas from the various folks are of help to a newbie like me. It is a challenge to get started without breaking the bank. Would a hand power hoist that could lift two tons be enough to handle hardwood timbers?
Thanks-Eric

If you have a 2 ton timber, you will need a very big shop to put it in or it will have a huge section.
The weight of green hardwood is in the 60lbs/cubic foot range, that would be 5lbs/board foot.
So, let's say you had a 3000 lb timber(1.5 tons)
At 5lb/bd ft that would be 600 board feet
6x12x100 for example, or 12x12x50 or 1ftx2ftx25ft
at 8 ft long, the timber would be a 24x36
or 13 pcs 8x8x8

I've also been designing my shop, and if all goes according to plan, it'll be up this fall.

The current plan is a 32x60 barn, 5 bents, bent 2 is a clear span truss giving about 32x30 clear, 10' stick frame sheds off the long sides. Superinsulated 12" stick framed walls, SIP roof. Go big or go home I figure.

I've been looking online and on ebay at bridge cranes. I'm thinking of keeping the crane isolated from the frame on it's own steel posts, the trolley runs over the runners then. Any comments or otherwise? I've seen quite a few on auctions and ebay, usually way to big, but could I rig something like this up with a little engineering and some steelwork? I like the idea of the parallel hoists.

Any other comments on workflow, or shop layout or other good stuff?

Thanks,
Brad

Brad:

I like the idea of keeping the bridge on it's own steel posts. The original crane was certainly designed that way. You can definately make these things smaller. Regarding workflow: 98% of the time, the timbers in my shop are oriented North-South, which is also the way their oriented on the truck when they arrive. Stacks and sawhorses oriented the same way. You don't need to leave aisles for forklifts or timber carts. Try to set things up so that you can drive a truck under the bridge, or easily move the timber with a forklift from the truck to where you can pick them up with the crane. CB.