Antique Engine Crane

C

CPDSarge

Junior Member
vintage-industrial-steel-crank-engine-hoist-getbackinc-mainw.jpgWe are looking for a crane like this for the period garage display we are creating at the Model A Ford Museum on the campus of the Gilmore Car Museum in Hickory Corners, MI. We would appreciate any leads you can supply to help us locate this item. John M
 
From the era when skilled labor was inexpensive compared to materials. Look at that reinforcing strut framework!
If you find two, I’ll take one.
 
That appears to be steel tubing and bracing it doesn't look like there's any castings on it so that would be fairly easy to replicate for a welding and fabricating shop
 
oldspert said:
A good welder/fabricator, about two days.
Ed
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Ha! It would take more than two days. It would also be astronomically expensive to replicate as well.

Around here welders and fabricators make their money in structural welding/fabrication, or ornamental welding/fabrication.

To make the engine crane, they'd throw out a high price and lengthy timeline to discourage this kind of work. In reality, that's more than two days work.
 
Hitman said:
Ha! It would take more than two days. It would also be astronomically expensive to replicate as well..
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First you'll need to find the original drawings or one to reverse engineer. You could do it with photos but there needs to be more angles and clearer that what's posted. It looks like the winch is some type of gear box - where you you find that? Arching the upright tubes is fairly easy. Anyone got a tubing bender for that 4" bottom tube?
I'd wager $6-10 grand for something that looks similar and at least 25 if you have to make everything exact from scratch - winch, wheels, etc.
 
A muffler shop could bend up the bottom tubes. Or pre pent tubes could be bought at an automotive parts store. If it did not have to be functional and just decorative then the gearbox could just be welded up from simple parts. How accurate does it have to be?
 
Gone are the days of bevel or worm gear hand crank winches. It likely has a ratchet and pawl type locking mechanism. The hand crank trailer jacks are still around but most small winches are made for boat trailers. There are still a few with substantial weight load capability if you can suffer the modern manufacturing and materials. It's hard to say what type of tube was used and that warren truss bracing was the cat's meow for light weight but rigid construction back then. I like how they added the pulley block with a swivel hook to make some mechanical advantage. Nice big cast iron wheels but the fronts don't appear to caster so that might make it a bit harder to maneuver with only steerable rear wheels. Overall, it's still a heavy duty unit with good construction.

The Hill Acme No.3 Canton Crane wasn't the only one of these and others are similar. Folks evidently like to use them for the Egg type hanging chairs.
https://www.1stdibs.com/buy/engine-hoist/
 
We found the engine crane for the museum! Come and see it at the opening of the expansion the third weekend of September!
 
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