48lb Lift (front view)

James Simpson
(the witness)

Lucy inspects a zip-tie

This shows the maximum load lifted by the crane (August 3, 2002).

I originally intended the crane to use water as ballast, and I purposely built the counterweight boxes a little big to accomodate a large amount of it. I discovered at Brickfest that the water was not enough. The crane tipped over too easily.

After the fest, I used steel for a ballast and increased the load the crane could lift. During the lift shown here, the counterweight boxes are filled with steel flatbar, nuts and bolts, nails, and anything else that was metal and could fit!

I used all the sheaves on the lifting block, and parted the line 16 times. I did not have any problem with the winch during the lift, it seemed to have enough strength to lift the load.

James Simpson was present to witness the lift, as well as my cat Lucy. James came over to hang out and watch some video I took at Brickfest.

Load Radius
· 4" (10.2 cm) from load center to heal pins of boom
· 9.5" (24.1 cm) from load center to center of crane (i.e. center of rotation)

I added a plastic bag containing 2 pounds of water to the 48 pound load and attempted to lift 50 pounds. However, it was not to happen.

The crane base started to give, and I realized I had reached the ultimate strength of the structure. The boom was almost vertical, so I couldn't reduce the radius any further.

45lb Lift

About a week ago, I had lifted 40 pounds in a quick test. I wanted to see if this crane would at least match my previous record. It picked up the two 20 pound exercise weights fairly easily.

I started off today's lifting tests with this 45 pound lift. It seemed right at the capacity of the crane. It tilted forward, but was caught by the rear frame that extends down and "hooks" over the lip under the rollers.

I then pushed it by adding a little more weight, but you've read that part already ;-)

While I was at Brickfest this year, I lifted my R 996 excavator model. It weighs about 9.5 pounds (4.3 kg).

Although this looked somewhat impressive (I suppose ;-), it was only a fifth of what the crane could do. I couldn't lift anymore at Brickfest because the water ballast wasn't heavy enough to keep the crane from tipping over.

If you're wondering why I'm having so many problems with proper ballast, the counterweight boxes do not have a good mechanical advantage. The distance from the center of the crane to the center of the ballast is relatively small. This is typical of most marine cranes, as they are made to minimize the space they take up on the vessel.