I have just ordered the last major purchase for the new shop. I must be going a bit crazy, but at 70 plus years young, I can afford to be that way. Ain't taking any thing with me when I check out and am leaving my son and two grandsons a well equipped shop that will last them their life times and I will enjoy it for as long as my health holds up. After doing a lot of research, looking at a multitude of displays and talking with several professional mechanics, I had narrowed my search for a 4 post lift to Bend Pak and Worth. I looked at 12,000 # capacity, 4 post and trolleys with air jacks. What swayed me to the Worth lift was the chain drive, vice cable of the Bend Pack, plus the trolleys on the Worth had a much better pulley system. The Worth was a Charlotte/Carlisle Show special that featured a $500 discount and $150 freight bill, which put it at the same total cost of the Bend Pack, which was about $500 cheaper than the Worth. It will be here in about 2 weeks and should not take more than a couple of days to set it up. I was originally thinking of a roll around installation, but consensus said I should anchor it in. Will core drill and epoxy 5/8 threaded rod into the concrete. The lift requires 230 volt, 30 amp circuit and since it has air jacks on the trolleys, an air line will be hung from the ceiling. It is stubbed up in the wall so it is a matter of running the hose that I have ready to go.
My bud and I replaced the transfer case in my Daughter-in -law's SUV Sat and I hope this is the last time I ever have to "woller around on the floor like a hog in mud" !!!!
I recently helped a buddy install his 4 post lift, I don't recall the name, it's chain drive and hydraulics. He's only 74 years young, I can use it when I need to.
Keep us oldsters busy in the garages, it saves on Ma's nerves.
I prefer Redhead wedge anchors. The harder the pull, the tighter they get. You'll pull a chunk out of the floor before they will pull out. I would be concerned about anchors that are just glued in.
I used to prefer the wedge style anchors as well...until I had a chance to try to remove those 3M epoxy anchors. I don't know what kind of special magic they came up with for that epoxy but we couldn't pull those suckers out with a hollow hydraulic cylinder and a porta pack. The wedge anchors pulled out once the lead/pot metal threads slipped but those epoxy anchors we ended up cutting them off flush with the floor because we couldn't budge em. I still use wedge anchors around the house etc mainly because I want to be able to remove them later. I hear its very important to brush the holes as well as blow them out for the epoxy to work properly but all we did was blow them out.
Edit: I just found the testing data for the 3M anchor adhesive we used, no wonder we couldn't pull those 3/4 anchors!
We have the dyno at work held down with the 3M glue and like most I was a little scared at first but we have had some 600 HP cars on it with no problems.
On the lift you will get a bunch of use out of it. The only safe way to pick up a one ton in my opnion.
Typically it is not necessary to core drill for a epoxy anchor until the diameter gets prohibitive for a hammer drill bit. Usually 1/16" to 1/8" over the size of the threaded rod is required.
Modern day construction techniques and materials are unbelievable to old guys like me, but when an old guy that has been into building metal buildings for 37 years (mostly commercial) says that the epoxys are the way to go, I am going to trust his knowledge and experience. His insurance and bonding would not back him if it were not a tried and proven method, nor could he pass the picky building inspectors. He claims the concrete will break out before the epoxy lets go. The garage, which is engineered to with stand 95MPH winds is anchored with 5/8" coarse threaded rods, 4" deep. I am using a core drill for a couple of reasons: Rental of the drill is cheap, I have the 3/4 bit for the drill, The drill is water cooled and makes a clean hole, There are circulating water tubes 2" below the surface and I need serious control of the depth, And the core drill will not cause any cracking in the surrounding concrete.
I just received the invoice on the lift. Seems as though Worth no longer offers the 4400 pound air jacks on the trolly (these were "foreign made") so they are sending the US made 8000 pound jacks for the same price ($350 difference). Maybe I should make a fast run to Vegas?
Epoxied 3M anchors have been used in industry for years to anchor high HP electric motors and pumps. I have also witnessed their tenacity at holding fast. I would have no problem whatsoever using them to anchor a 4 post lift.
I have just ordered the last major purchase for the new shop.
My bud and I replaced the transfer case in my Daughter-in -law's SUV Sat and I hope this is the last time I ever have to "woller around on the floor like a hog in mud" !!!!
Congrats on the lift, you're really going to enjoy having it. :thumbup: Got mine last summer & have saved a lot of wear & tear on the body since then. Being able to get something to a comfortable height to work on it really makes a difference both in how the project goes & how you feel at the end of the day.
Modern day construction techniques and materials are unbelievable to old guys like me, but when an old guy that has been into building metal buildings for 37 years (mostly commercial) says that the epoxys are the way to go, I am going to trust his knowledge and experience. His insurance and bonding would not back him if it were not a tried and proven method, nor could he pass the picky building inspectors. He claims the concrete will break out before the epoxy lets go. The garage, which is engineered to with stand 95MPH winds is anchored with 5/8" coarse threaded rods, 4" deep. I am using a core drill for a couple of reasons: Rental of the drill is cheap, I have the 3/4 bit for the drill, The drill is water cooled and makes a clean hole, There are circulating water tubes 2" below the surface and I need serious control of the depth, And the core drill will not cause any cracking in the surrounding concrete.
I just received the invoice on the lift. Seems as though Worth no longer offers the 4400 pound air jacks on the trolly (these were "foreign made") so they are sending the US made 8000 pound jacks for the same price ($350 difference). Maybe I should make a fast run to Vegas?
There is no pull load on the epoxy anchors. I use to install free standing freight lifts. There is some side loading but for the most part its all down load.
The thing with wedge anchor or red heads it there only as good as the concrete is. I did a computer floor in California and being earth quake zone the anchor had to have the old "pull test". Need less to say half the anchor pulled out. Where you really need to sweat it is doing over head and vertical anchoring
OK, it took 3 weeks for the lift to arrive and one week to put it up. I got another bonus when I checked the invoice. They sent me a wide runway lift vice the standard for the price of the standard. The runways are 20" wide vice the 14" I had ordered. Now I don't have to move the runways in and out when loading for my old stuff vice new stuff.
The entire lift shipped at 3200+ pounds and I am going to put this thing up?! We used the tractor with front end loader and fork lift tines to unload it and move into the garage. It was packaged in three bundles. Bundle one was the motor and pump package. Two was one runway with the big beam and hydraulic ram and the two approach ramps. Three was the other runway and the 4 posts and the boxes of bolts etc. The packaging was designed to lift the ramps from the end with the forklift tines narrowed down. It was all the tractor could do tho keep the nose up and back wheels on the ground!!! We got them into the garage on Fri evening. There was nothing I could do on the week end because I took the grand sons to Norfolk to visit their Dad on his ship. They got the grand tour and we spent the night on board.
Monday, Tues and Wed, I worked by myself because JB had gone fishing. Monday was uncrating, reading the instructions, and arranging the steel where it would be the least in the way. I did do the rough layout, thanks to a good tape measure and a laser line I bolted the top beam to the two side posts before going home. The cherry picker, floor jack and me had a big work out!! Tuesday, I was able to stand the main side up and get it on the spots I had laid out. I then rechecked my rough locations of the other two posts and they were a lot rougher than I thought. When I went home, it was starting to look like a lift was being raised here. Wed was spent locating epoxy, cutting the anchors to the length I wanted, and looking for the double barreled caulk gun. We had borrowed one for the construction of the garage, but it was being used out of town on another job. Ended up finding a epoxy that was in a split single tube so bought it and will return the double tubes. JB came in late from fishing and could not believe what I had done by my self. Thursday, we drilled and epoxied the anchor bolts on the main side. While waiting on it to dry, we ran the conduit to the motor and wired it up. I installed the nuts on the front post base and called it a day. This morning, I tightened down the nuts on the front post, rechecked the plumb on it and the rear post. I then installed the nuts on the rear post to finger tight. I located the off side posts and then installed the cross rails. The first one took me a couple of hours because a spring got away from me and hid inside the cross rail for quite some time before I decided to look for it in the least likely place it could be inside the cross rail. Then installed the other cross rail which only took about an hour. JB got back from another job in time to hoist the 5 gal can of hydraulic oil. We then ran the lift up about 6 inches and checked for level on the rails and plumb on the posts. Looked good so we went all the way up without the runways. We check level and plumb again and still looked good. We brought the cross rails down and then installed the run ways and ran it through again. Still looking good. Now all I have to do is drill and epoxy the anchor bolts for the off side posts, install the trollies and recheck all the bolts and fasteners. I am running an air line down from the ceiling but that may have to wait until I get back from Kansas.
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