Does anyone have any ideas as to how someone working alone can lift timbers from a stack of timbers onto a timbercart, or from a timbercart to a sawhorse, without a forklift or something like a tractor with forks. (I built a "Jim Rogers" type cart, and it works great, but I've still got to move the 450 lb timbers on and off the cart.) I used a chain hoist hung from a header to get the timbers off my trailer onto my timbercart, and my son to help me get the timbers off the cart onto the stack. Unfortunately my son isn't around to help all the time. I've thought about realtively inexpensive shop cranes or engine hoists, but they would only work on a concrete/hard floor. Does anyone else have any ideas? As with any inexperienced rookie, I may be asking for something that's not possible, but I thought I would ask. Thanks in advance.

With levers and rollers you can do a lot, without lifting, if everything is at nearly the same height.
If you need to raise a timber up off a cart onto saw horses alone, then you may need to create a set up where you tip the timber one way and insert a spacer block then tip it the other way and insert another spacer block and keep doing this until you raise the timber up. Of course you'll need to have a good base.

Watch this video if you can it shows what I mean:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lRRDzFROMx0

We use genie lifts alot moving timbers around. Most rental shops have them and the bigger units can lift up to 800 lbs. They can be fitted with fork lift type arms or a sling depending on your needs.

Give me a lever long enough and a place to stand...
Crib, lever and shim, is what I usually do.
You can also make an "A"(without the horizontal) sling a rope from the apex down under the timber and snug it with the A off vertical. push forward and it'll lift the timber. keep pushing forward and the log moves up and forward. Sling near the center,repeat as necessary, you're "walking the dog"

Don, I'm interested in your technique. How do you keep the A from spreading with the weight of the timber. And do you make the A head high so you could push with two people or do you make it higher? The A is perpendicular to the timber right?

I'm building a small gantry crane similar to what this guy made:

http://www.backyardmetalcasting.com/bighoist01.html

We'll see how it works!

I see my timberframe journey is now leading to Las Vegas -- to learn the ancient art of levitation. Seriously, thanks to all for the ideas.

A simple block and tackle will lift it...
You need to lift 450 lbs, so if you get two blocks with two pulleys in each you'd have a 4 to 1 reduction so 450 / 4 = 112.5 lbs of pull. If you weigh more then 112.5 lbs then you can pull up this load with your own weight.
If you want to make it easier, get one block with three pulleys in it and now you have 5 to 1 or 90 lbs of pull.
To reduce the needed pull even more you could create a small winch to wind up the rope.
We saw a thing like this in a workshop at the Shaker village:



This shows a shaft with a wheel on one end. The rope would wind around the shaft and the wheel can be turned by hand or with another rope.
If this shaft is 8" in diameter and the wheel is 48" in diameter you have another reduction in effort of 6 to 1. So 90 / 6 = 15 lbs. So now only 15 lbs of pressure will lift 450 lbs of timber.
(Friction factors may add a few pounds to the load and other weights).

Jim Rogers

That's a familiar sight. That windlass is in the same building as the blacksmith shop I work in. The building is called the Tan House, where the Shakers tanned leather. This windlass was used to lift large crates of wet hides from the vats in the basement to the second floor for processing. I would expect it could lift 1,000 lbs quie easily. (Sorry, my interpreter training kicked there. :))


Dave