Spreader bar extention

[Frank S]

After picking up a 68 ft long beam with my spreader bar it became all to apparent my 14ft spreader bar was not going to cut it
So a 26 ft length of 4" pipe 1/2" wall thickness was chained to the bottom of the spreader bar and I welded chain stops on each end to prevent the chains from sliding in either direction we chained from the ends of the extension to the end of the spreader bar so it could not slide

Now it works just fine
only needed it a couple of times

[DIYer]

Thanks Frank S! We've added your Spreader Bar Extension to our Jacks and Lifts category,
as well as to your builder page: Frank S's Homemade Tools. Your receipt:

Spreader Bar Extension by Frank S

tags: lifting, spreader

[metric_taper]

After seeing the photo the other day of your beam clamps, and the very curved beam, I was thinking you were making pretzels out of them. Looks like this is fixed.
68ft is scary. My shop used 4, 30 foot 12x19 beams back in 1984. I used a home built crane from 2, 4x4 douglas fir 16' sticks of wood, made into an "A" frame. I used a chain hoist to do the lifting, and another cable hoist to a tree to control the A frame location to place the beams. I had an oak tree luckily in the right place for that cable hoist to pull against.
Looks like your making progress, assume this is the hardest part of the project.

[Frank S]

After seeing the photo the other day of your beam clamps, and the very curved beam, I was thinking you were making pretzels out of them. Looks like this is fixed.
68ft is scary. My shop used 4, 30 foot 12x19 beams back in 1984. I used a home built crane from 2, 4x4 douglas fir 16' sticks of wood, made into an "A" frame. I used a chain hoist to do the lifting, and another cable hoist to a tree to control the A frame location to place the beams. I had an oak tree luckily in the right place for that cable hoist to pull against.
Looks like your making progress, assume this is the hardest part of the project.

yeah pretty much the most difficult part is in getting the perimeter top plate and the trusses secured in place But putting the purlins up on top is not going to be a picnic unless I have another guy who is as willing and capable of working on top of the trusses as I am.

[KustomsbyKent]

Looking good Frank!
Keep posting pictures, curious to see a farther away picture so we can see the full scope of the shop plan.
Hopefully you can find a guy to help you with the purlin installation and work safe!
Kent

[Frank S]

I have finished repairing the damaged truss. Now just waiting for a day with low wind.
The top section of the truss had become damaged when the wind caught it while I was moving it out of my way this was why we could not install it last weekend.
To repair it I straightened the top tubes as best as reasonably possible in lieu of cutting them out and replacing them I decided to graft 1 10ft sections of 3 x 3 x1/4" angle to the top across the peak.