How to build moving/lifting devices to save my back?

I just signed up to this site. Hi, everyone! I will go by "wardbob."

I've injured my back several times and need to make devices that will allow me to move and lift heavy things by myself. (1) Want to make a cart to support my auger and let me crank it up and down with a manual boat winch so I can put in 40 8" holes for fence posts this summer. I'm thinking of starting with a $29 on sale Harbor Freight cart. (2) Then, I want to make another cart that I can use to crank heavy objects into my van and to take them out. Maybe it could be done with the same base. (3) Also need to make a temporary ramp to crank a couple big window AC units out of the basement. I built an electric winch-based shingle lifter last year to lift shingle onto a large garage, but the roof is low so I carried the shingles up in small batches and never used my lift! A bit heavy and too long for the basement stairs, though. I can mod it to work.

Seeing and reading about other folks projects will get me moving on my jobs. It's been a cold, wet, muddy, and windy spring here in northern Ohio and I want to get going on my outside projects!

Hi wardbob - welcome to HomemadeTools.net :welcome:

You only injured your back several times? Then you're probably one of the healthiest guys on here!

I'll move this discussion into our Tools in Progress subforum so that you can gather some ideas. Agreed on the possibility of a multi-use tool here.

Meanwhile you might enjoy these related builds:

Weber gas grill back saver
https://www.homemadetools.net/forum/...0847#post92298

back saving devices are under rated here is a concept that I drew up for you, based on a manual forklift I did not draw in the boat winch but there is is a top sheave
basically it is little more than a channel iron mast with a sq tube carriage with 20 inch diameter tires.
My reason for those is they roll easier over sand and rock on rough terrain Also I use them because I can buy the doughnut spares for little to nothing and sometimes get them free.
this lift would serve a triple purpose it could be used as a two wheel hand truck although a little heavy it could be used to load and unload items from the back of your van but most importantly for now just strap the handles of the auger to the forks then raise and lower as needed
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Hi wardbob,
Jon said it 'several times', could you perhaps list the fractures/breaks/displaced disks? ;) Just the spine though.
Levers and pulleys can acheive wonders, aside from a couple of pry bars I regulary call into use a 2-ton 'come along',(cable winch), and something that gets overlooked a x6 meat pulley. The rope can be tied off easily, does not mar finishes and the whole thing wieghs about 1 pound and can store easily. I recently removed an Onan gen set from a boat that is going solar wieght 375lbs, was an easy job and pulling a rope is quicker than a ratcheting winch, just have to be sure everything done safe as if you let go uh oh! Jib clinches as used on yachts are good if you can secure them.
We've just had a lick by the tail of a cyclone here and I found a water issue with the garage. I knocked up a Thein seperator from a couple of paint pails and dug some holes deeper than what my borrowed manual hole auger could do based on this:

Worked beut.https://holeymoleydigger.com/product...e-core-digger/

Hi wardrob,
I've constructed a 4 roads lift for heavy small parts of milling machines etc…
It's specially made for charging them into my car or for the assembling revised parts, if you're interested i can make some pictures, the major interest is the maniability and the security when working, totally made with trash material the ida is not mine but the modification for specific use yes.
Have a nice day.
Pierre

Thanks for the feedback! I think I've run into the right place.

First, the back. Normally, I don't tell too many health stories, but this back injury caused permanent damage and I want to tell people how it happened so they can avoid it. If you want to skip this part, go down to ##### below.

I herniated disc 18 months ago while lifting one end of a bundle of shingles on the ground and swinging it way to my right. Blam! I went down on all fours. Couldn't move for several minutes. Eventually crawled to a fence and managed to stand up. Hey, not too bad. No major pain. Until three days later. Three days of pain down my leg like nothing I've ever felt with weakness in my right leg. They found the herniation plus three older bulges. Probably caused by lifting my portable Dewalt table saw from the ground. Another caused by lifting one end of a fold-out bed.

Had surgery for it but the nerve damage leading to the right front of my leg remains still. When standing, I can't rotate the front of my foot up off the ground. If I stand on my right heel, it slaps down. When I walk, the front slaps down. It's a mild form of foot drop. I've learned to walk to minimize it and strengthen the leg. Do 2 to 3 miles a day fairly quickly.

Last year, I was putting a piece of PT 2x4 at the base of a fence. It was on the ground and I tried to push it to my left, but since I was leaning on it, I lifted my weight off it and jerked it to my left. I got a little zing in my back on the left. No big deal. Three days later, more pain almost as bad as the first time. Doc said, not too bad so no surgery since they might have to fuse two vertebrae. Pain slowly went away.
Did it another time on the right while kneeling on the floor and twisting to one side while leaning over. It didn't hurt much but I felt instant increase in numbness in my leg that went away in a couple days.

How I avoid repeating this - You probably have gotten away with it many times, lean over and lift an object, right? Heavy object, NO, of course. No light ones, either. Do not twist your upper body without rotating your hips, too. While kneeling, as in pulling weeds, always have one hand on the ground. Don't lift both hands while kneeling. I can no longer get away with any of these without bad results. I can't lift anything unless I keep it right against my body, otherwise the leg front goes numb and weak, which affects walking for a few days. Balance while walking is not good. Several times I've twisted my head to check traffic. I feel a tiny 'crack' followed by the numbness. I get a lot of those little 'cracks.' It is SO hard to break old movement habits. Now I have to think through every move. But, hey, it could be MUCH worse. Be careful!

#####
Now, I've spent too much time on the back story and advice. Sunny day. I have to get out and pull up a 20' spruce that blew over in a heavy wind. Use a come along or two and put some augers in the ground. Tie it up on four sides and it will survive. I did it with a 35'er and it's still good 3 years later. Most people just cut them. Too bad.

Got to go! I will respond to your ideas and suggestions later.

Thanks for the story of your back, I'm sure a lot of peoople have similar stories and hopefully call out anyone they see doing something that can cause injury, at least attitudes towards workplace safty are changeing at long last.
I'm not goig to list what I deal with but can recommend Chiropactic and Accupuncture, I wouldn't be walking today without them.
Back to your original query. On the U-tube there is a fellow showing how to move huge weights with simple apparartus. I now have the mind set that I know I have limitations so anything I do has to be done within limits I set. If I get tempted or cajoled to "Man-up and just get stuck in" I say stuff-it and walk off, have a think and come back with a plan of attack. No job is worth your health aye?
Nice to hear about saving a tree I hope the Moon is waning so the roots take hold, you said augers in the ground. Do you mean putting a post in to pull against or an auger wound in and left as an anchor? Sometimes groung anchors are quicker, easier and stronger. We used to use them to recover things that had 'fallen over', (bulldozer sideways down bank into river fallen over :D),log buried 3 - 4 feet down sideways to load, sometimes run over a log with one end in a trench and a notch to guide cable to give lift as pulled.
I like to read and find a lot of fixes to problems in what are called 'Farm Journals" from the late 1800's - 1950's. Internet Archive is a great source.
We have bigger and better toys now so should be able to do anything if we think about it.
Enjoy the Sun.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by NortonDommi

On the U-tube there is a fellow showing how to move huge weights with simple apparartus.

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I wonder if you're referring to the legendary Wally Wallington, construction worker and pseudoscience-debunker, famous for the "How Stonehenge was Built" videos:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uYQBDhkBfr0

We have a LOT of folks with various disabilities on this forum. Our demographic is not exactly twenty-something young men. :) I believe back pain is either the #1 or among the top reasons for disability worldwide. It's a huge contributor to doctor visits, missed work, and significant economic damage to our entire civilization.

I have to agree with Jon and others when it comes to back injuries. herniated disks are among the worst and most common it seams.Followed by pinched nerves
normal age related degeneration can begin to occur at around 40 years of age in some or may not become noticed until a person is in their 7th or 8th decade and most asuradly by the time a person reaches their 80's even the most active are going to experience some spinal related problems, even if they have led a very active healthy fitness regime through out their lives.
Not all injuries that occur should ever involve surgery as often times the repair becomes worst than the injury
In 1987 while modifying those D10 dozer blades a 1000 lb hunk of metal pinched me out from under the blade like a teenager wold pop a pimple on their face. I knew I was hurt pretty bad as I felt a pop in my lower back I managed to grab hold of a welding table and stretch myself across it while letting my lower body go limp I stayed that way until they took me to the hospital. x rays and colored die reveled a compression fracture to a lobe on the T12 vertebra. given a back brace prescribed pain killers sent home to await evaluation for surgery called 3 days later to discuss options. Fusion recommended I declined never had the surgery stopped pain pills after 2 weeks returned to work light duty with helper to do any lifting more than 10 lbs Started doing physical therapy 2 months of that quit going never regretted my decision
Friend of mine 5 years younger than me had similar injury year later by falling off a truck bed had surgery year later had another surgery kept on morphine pain killers had more surgeries by 1997 had a morphine pump installed been through 7 surgeries by year 2002 died 2003
I do about anything and everything I want or need sometimes pay for it with back pains for week or so take a few over counter pills for few days,realize that I'm not 40 ish any more but sometimes just have to do what I have to do.
I've also got a piece of shrapnel been there since 1972 close to my LAD artery cellular growth around it built up and closed it 90% opted get a stint in 2012 instead of open chest cavity surgery will know in 30 years if was the correct decision

Amazing! And with no help from aliens at all!

Thank you Jon, Mr Wally Wallington was the bloke I was thinking of. I know why Stonehenge was built still unsure as to the how however.
Frank S you have pretty much summed it up. The human body and mind can adapt to just about anything, the trick seems to be the ability to stay alive long enough to learn that we are not indestructible. Back when I was eighteen, eight foot and bulletproof I could do anything. Now I like to stop for a cuppa and a ponder first!
I'm of the opinion that a pill can help sometimes and think I know enough to judge when to take one but I will never become reliant on one and a surgeon is just another tradesman who gets to bury his mistakes, there are good and there are not so good and the knife is a last resort. That said there are occasions when a simple operation can transform a life .
Here's to the day that ergonomics are taught from a primary school level.

The first three mechanic shops I worked in I was the only mechanic. And that taught me early on how to be strategic in how to lift and move heavy things. I also came to the realization there would not be anybody find me for a while if I did get hurt. So it just became how I approached things and it was lucky because later it saved me from hurting myself bad. Meanwhile my brother who's two years younger has had his neck fused, his lower back fused and rotator cuff surgery on both shoulders. He is in constant pain and basically disabled. I am scared to death of doc's and his exoerience reinforced that. But last year my wife who's 5yrs younger had hip replacement and is doing great, better than before.

Two of the best back savers in my shop are a 2ton folding HFT engine hoist and a 1,000lb lift table. I've had the hoist/cherry picker for 10yrs and it mostly is in storage out in my shed. But it has saved my bacon so many times I can't count. The lift table I wish I would have bought years ago too. I mostly use it as a welding/fab table but it's proved it worth so many times I can't figure out why I waited so long.

There is also the facet of mental discipline:

-I'll just lift it like this once, I'm in a hurry.
-If I carry twice the weight per trip, I can finish this task in half the time.
-I'm carrying a heavy weight, but I need to open this door, so I'll lean against the wall and remove one hand from the load, just for a second.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Jon

There is also the facet of mental discipline:

-I'll just lift it like this once, I'm in a hurry.
-If I carry twice the weight per trip, I can finish this task in half the time.
-I'm carrying a heavy weight, but I need to open this door, so I'll lean against the wall and remove one hand from the load, just for a second.

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It only takes that single second. I had already modified half a dozen to the D 10 blades and had always made the underneath cuts first that way when I did the final cuts parts simply fell away from me. Except that blade had numerous broken welds hidden by paint it hit me on my rt shoulder and fortunately with enough force to knock me out from under it had I been just a tiny bit further underneath I could have just as easily been trapped under it very seriously injured..
I've had other broken bones when I was a youngster they always healed after being properly set in place. However a compression fracture to a vertebra can be a horse of a different color those bones are not as thick and hard as say a thy bone they are more porous, there is hardly any way to actually set one back to its original shape about the only thing that can be done is to isolate or limit the movement as much as possible and hope for the best or go the fusion route which traps a disk between to vertebra so nothing can move almost exactly same process to repair a herniated disk the blown out tissue must be excised then the adjacent vertebra are fused, which almost always results in sensitive nerves being involved
Just in the past very few years a new process has been approved which was discovered had been used centuries ago.Where a small incision is made some of the effected tissue is removed then the area is packed with a substance to limit movement until natural healing could take effect. Of course today we have lasers to pin point damaged areas and excise the tissue without even making an incision we can grow some human tissues in cultures or right in the hosts own body then relocate those tissues to other areas Perhaps one day we may understand a way to transform bone to Adamantium and trick our cells to instant regeneration But I'm not holding my breath

I've always envied Wolverine!

Forgot to mention - this is why I like rgsparber's Gas Grill Back saver so much. It conquers two of the biases that cause back injuries:

-You really only have to awkwardly wiggle those propane tanks for 6 inches or so, so you're inclined to think it's not a big deal.
-You usually have to install the new tank immediately, when the grill is already going, to keep your food cooking. Just this once, of course!

"Perhaps one day we may understand a way to transform bone to Adamantium and trick our cells to instant regeneration But I'm not holding my breath"

Yeah, I'm waiting for those crazy wonderful "nanites" I keep reading about on my sci fi books.