For Phil: Here is a picture of my chainfall mounting system. Two 4x4s laid up in the crotches of my roof trusses (spanning four trusses) with a thick (I think 1/4") steel plate laid on top of the two 4x4s and a cast-iron loop through-bolted through the steel plate. It ain't going nowhere.... If you are comfortable with the strength of your steel beams in the ceiling, if you like this idea, you could do something similar - at the least, it is very simple. You could lay two steel square sections spanning two of your steel trusses (or even a couple 4x4s or 6x6s - I'm only spanning two feet - you are spanning 5-feet), bolt a plate to the top of them and hang your hoist. One advantage in your shop with a simple-mounted system like that would be that you could move it to whatever location in the shop you want as your shop evolves. One thing I have found with my shop is that as your work and shop use evolves, you start wishing that you had made some of your permanent installations elsewhere. I agree with other comments regarding the nice slow incremental movements you can make with the chainfall. I know many folks use an electric hoist successfully, but being the klutz that I can be, I think I am much more goof-proof with my chainfall. The other thing I noticed about the electric hoist you provided a URL for was that it had a rated capacity of 500 lbs. If you removed a plate from a 9-foot piano, you'd be coming pretty close (maybe even exceeding?) to the capacity of the hoist. You might want to try putting a strap around an old VW beetle or something else big and see how strong that thing really is before risking a big piano plate. A one-ton chainfall gives you a real comfortable measure of safety, IMHO. Terry Farrell -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: https://www.moypiano.com/ptg/pianotech.php/attachments/20070427/3a61adad/attachment-0001.html -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: image/jpeg Size: 47995 bytes Desc: not available Url : https://www.moypiano.com/ptg/pianotech.php/attachments/20070427/3a61adad/attachment-0001.jpe
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