[rescue] Server lift: rent, borrow, or buy?

[Mauricio Tavares]

On Mon, Jun 27, 2011 at 4:23 PM, Carl R. Friend <crfriend at rcn.com> wrote:
>   On Mon, 27 Jun 2011, William Enestvedt wrote:
>
>>  We just got in three new Sun servers (an M4000 and two M5000): yay!
>> But they are very heavy (almost 300lbs.): boo! And they need to be lined
>> up juuuust right so as to attach the rack arms and engage all these tiny
>> pins: boo again! And we don't have a lift, only three strong guys:
>> thrice boo!
>
>   You *absolutely* want mechanical advantage for this task.  Trying
> to manoeuvre a 300-pound *anything* with any sort of precision is
> asking for wholesale trouble if one is trying to free-hand it.
>
>   You *might* be able to do the trick with a jerry-rigged automotive
> transmission hoist (which have casters and hydraulics for getting
> trannies out of, and back into, cars on hoists, but that'll likely
> be suboptimal for this, and still need bodies to get the device onto
> the lift, stabilise it while it's there, and you would still risk
> damaging the kit because the tool is wrong..
>
>   I would recommend calling companies that specialise in moving
> computer gear and getting ideas that way.  Also, make use of your
> buddies in Sun Field Engineering -- they may well know somebody in
> the area.
>
>  Finally, while a $2K expenditure is probably not worth it in the
> short term for a one-off job, recall that these devices will need
> removal at some point when the inevitable "forklift upgrade" happens
> (and it probably won't happen all in one go) so that $2k may amortise
> a bit better than you might think -- and that's one Hell of a lot
> cheaper than having some poor bloke put his back royally out.  (Your
> school's HR and liability departments will vouch for that one.)
>
>   Cheers!
>
> +------------------------------------------------+---------------------+
> | Carl Richard Friend (UNIX Sysadmin)            | West Boylston       |
> | Minicomputer Collector / Enthusiast            | Massachusetts, USA  |
> | mailto:crfriend at rcn.com                        +---------------------+
> | http://users.rcn.com/crfriend/museum           | ICBM: 42:22N 71:47W |
> +------------------------------------------------+---------------------+
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>
      I was picturing 2 triangular pieces bolted to the top of the
rack (using the normal holes), one on each side, a few pulleys (to
have work advantage), and a platform to sit the server on (and slide
it to/from).

Level optional but cheap enough.