[rescue] Q: moving medium heavy things

[James Lockwood]

On Thu, 11 Jul 2002, Jay West wrote:

> Speaking of moving heavy things, but with a bent towards rackmounting....
>
> I'm looking for a small platform lift to use when rackmounting heavy gear,
> like 1/2 tape drives & such. I have found some of these in various catalogs,
> but they are all extremely heavy duty units (and very pricey).

Try not to laugh (too hard).

We needed something much like this at a previous organization I worked
for, but our budget was tight.  I found a cheap automotive
transmission/differential jack with lockable caster wheels and up to six
feet of lift.  The transmission lift head was a flat-topped platform with
lugs on the sides to attach tiedowns.  I think the whole thing was $150 or
so from Harbor Freight and rated to handle 500lb+.

The problem with this unit was that it had about 30 inches of minimal
lift, you couldn't get anything lower than that.  This wasn't too big of
an issue, for really low items in the racks we just kept a small stack of
20" long 2x4's and 1x2's and stacked them log-cabin style to get the
needed height.  It wasn't high-tech but it was an extremely effective and
cheap solution.

Another idea is to use an engine hoist style jack and a sling, but this is
far more bulky and can have issues with ceiling height.

We did get more than one visitor asking why we had a bright orange
hydraulic jack and a small lumber pile in the corner of the computer room.
The ones who correctly guessed why were automatically hired.  :)

-James