Derrick rigging and redneck cranes

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Roger that on welcome...thanks for jumping in. I am loving what you posted...cool stuff moving rocks like that.

I was part of a commercial diving project in Columbus, GA...we were making a whitewater venue in the Chattahoochee River. You moving rocks like that is part of what we did.

The topside guys used excavators on barges to move VW sized rocks (and smaller) to produce certain flows good for whitewater craft. As divers, we went down to find voids between the rocks, mark them with long pvc pipes and the dry guys would pump fiberglass reinforced concrete down into the voids.

You moving rocks around water like that is awesome...love that creek flow you have to work around.

Cool moving/constructing that bridge, too. We'd love to see picts...those posted so far are excellent.

Rock on!
 

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This is where we did some diving under a temporary bridge that the excavator put in place. The white pipes are where we found voids and they pumped crete down thru the pipes.
The water flow was going to be so high they had to concrete it all together. The dry guys pumped the concrete from this bridge...made quite a mess for us in the water...there were strands of fiberglass all over everything we had when we got out of the water.

The water was only about 4 feet deep there...seems safe enough. That is one of the places where I came very close to catastrophe. I was at the far side of the bridge and transiting back and forth under it searching for voids. As they pumped concrete the water had less places to run...that meant the velocity of the current was slowly increasing as the day wore on. Also, the water level was slowly rising...they had released some water from an upstream dam. At one point a bolt was sticking down from the bridge (we had already ID'd it as a possible hazard so knew it was there). As I transited under the bridge that bolt snagged on one of my air hoses. No problem...settle down, maneuver to unsnag it and carry on.

But the current had increased enough that when I turned my head to facilitate getting unsnagged the current started ripping my mask off my face. That's OK, too. You can breathe without a mask on, just keep the regulator in your mouth, have done it plenty. But snagged, mask ripping off and in a confined space...still plays with my head sometimes when I think thru it.

I wasn't smiling a lot when I came up after I get it all sorted out.:lol:
 

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Yep...things can seem simple and all of a sudden they are not.

Treework is certainly way up on that list. Shat can go south real quick.
 
Kneejam, thanks for sharing that, and welcome to the treehouse!!! If you were looking for rigging nerds, you came to the right place :rockon:
 
I am planning a boom derrick for lifting heavy floats out of the water, pivoting over land (180 degrees) and lowering/stacking the floats. Heaviest float is maybe 1 ton.

There is a conveniently located tree right at the shoreline, thinking to use it as a mast. Plenty of decent logs to use as boom, but I'm stuck figuring how I'd attach the boom to the tree. Anyone have a clever idea how to interface the lower end of the boom with the tree to prevent damage?

key issues are ability to pivot 180, and not bash up the tree trunk

I promise sweet redneck crane pictures in exchange
 
A heavy stainless bolt with a heavy stainless hinge welded to it if only swinging with a fixed angle boom. A stainless u-joint design if the ability to adjust boom angle is desired. My father basically did the same thing when we were kids so we could dip a stream that was in a deep ravine and inaccessible.
 
How many are you planning on picking? A strap choked to the tree and then choked to the end of the boom works really well for 180 degrees of swing, and a chunk of carpet could be used to pad the trunk. The bottom of the boom simply rests at the side of the tree, this is how i usually rig one because it's the quickest and easiest. If you can, rig it so where you want to unload at is where the boom wants to swing to, then you just need a friction device to control the swing. If you have a ton of these to do, damage would likely occur tho. I would recommend using guy lines to stabilize the tree, 1000 pounds way away from the trunk is some serious leverage.
 
Lifting 7 floats 2x a year, thinking carpet might not be enough. Current plan is to temp remove bolt on pintle hitch, bolt it to a pair of 6x6 blocks, back that with a few junk tires and ratchet strap to trunk a la GRCS. Lag pintle ring into boom with sling 1 foot out to 8/10 feet up mast. Few months left in the season, but early brainstorming never hurt.
 
That should work amazingly!!! Good thinking!!! I might have to copy that!!
 
I can see it, but maybe it will be a little difficult to swing fully loaded. It seems that's about one square inch of contact on rough casting to slide on, not an actual rotation on a single point, so you need a good lever on the boom to move it. It lacks a trust bearing:/:
 
Guy lines at the end work well... sometimes with a pulley setup or even a come along
 
Elevator constructors use these every day to hoist rails and whatnot up the shaft during new construction. Mine with my 2200watt Honda powering in beats the pants off manual sailboat winches. Tower guys use these too.
 
Have you priced a grcs? I bought my capstan for $250 from offerup.

I get all the used new England 3/4" 12 braid from elevators when they are done. Often 1000' spools. Free!

I can find 5 capstans of varying size right now around $eattle
 
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