RSJ, hoists and winches

[Renaud]

Hi John,
Never late for praising me my friend!

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It’s funny you should say that. The other evening, my Landrover blew a coreplug at the back of the cylinder head. So I am going to have to get the head off to do the job. The trouble is that. The Landrover is too tall to go into the garage!

I remember going down a long ramp to reach a parking under a hotel in Toulouse just to discover that I could not enter with the Vito... I had to deflate the tyres under may wife's dreadfully reprobative  frown.

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It’s funny you should say that. The other evening, my Landrover blew a coreplug at the back of the cylinder head. So I am going to have to get the head off to do the job. The trouble is that. The Landrover is too tall to go into the garage!

Some very useful machine-tools as well; always a great help in getting jobs done. How anyone manages without at least a lathe and drill press I cannot imagine.

So do I Tony. The lathe and small mill were my late father's as was the heavy (170 pouds) TIG. The large old italian mill on the left I bought some years ago very damaged and incomplete and rebuilt it.

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Stuart:
"I have put a travelling hoist in each of the garages and workshops here."
Now I'm jealous! Why did'nt I built rather one like that?
Well done and everything very neat! Then I would say, seeing all your workshops and with all due respect, that you are just a bit glutton!

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Hello Bruce,
Here's the view from my place

[Duncan Grimmond]

Go on Renaud, make us all jealous!
If the newly announced vaccine works I'm determined to take a longer trip to France next year as I was deprived of my annual visit this year and I will try harder to get out to your end of Brittany this time!

I too have a large RSJ across my workshop with a chain pull traveller and a chain hoist, it has already saved my ageing back several times. I would it very useful for keeping the chassis out of the way as I could get 6 feet of clear space below it.

[Renaud]

Hi Duncan,
Bruce should not have teased me with his mountains...

Yes the use of the RSJ to forget a frame up there is invaluable!

[John Mason]

There is one thing you can say about Renuad is that when it comes to garages he knows his onions must be because he is from Brittany.

John Mason

[Ivor Hawkins]

Am I the only one who uses a crane?

[Stuart Giles]

Am I the only one who uses a crane?

That's an interesting non engine lifting use for a crane.

I use one sometimes, still never lifted an engine out with mine, I was using it here to manipulate the steel roof trusses for my 'new' garage while I was cutting the steel and welding the joints; the high tech wooden pattern I lashed up is in the background of these two photos. I don't do much of this sort of fabrication these days, it was so satisfying to be using a stick welder @ 250+amps with the arc just lighting up and not having to worry about weld distortion on the finished job.





Thankfully the farmer who lives behind my place bought his big toy round to put the trusses into place.

[Andy Bennett]

is RSJ envy a thing? In which case I have it.

[Renaud]

Hello,
John, yes Roscoff is where they grow, just some kilometers north!

Ivor, I would like to caption your first photo featuring the red A7 "in fâcheuse posture" with something for the fellow on the left around "what should I NOT do now mate?"

Andy, it is and was for me for decades, at least I can cross that one!
keep well in the workshop all of you,
Renaud

["Slack Alice" Simon]

I use a crane, a good quality one bought cheaply from Ebay.

It makes engine removal as easy as it was when I was young.

Because it is portable, is is lent for removing other engines, and assembling garden sculptures.

[Reckless Rat]

Boyle's Law concerning the behaviour of gases is directly related to garages, workshops and man- sheds, in as much that it matters not how big your available space is, you never have enough. The amount of stuff you accumulate expands in proportion to the volume available. P1.V1 = P2.V2

I built myself a new garage/man shed when we moved in 2007 and having done so I now find that I would have done it differently and of course, made it bigger. You would think that 64 square metres would be enough (26' x 26'). At the time it seemed so. I decided that I would need attic space for storage, and due the fact that I didn't want to have a central pillar I asked a structural engineer friend to do the calcs for an RSJ that would span 8 metres and then support the weight of additional masonry for the roof. It's a biggie! Its dimensions are 33cm x 16cm and it weighs over 400kg. It more than does the job.

Just thought I'd mention it for any of you wanting to tick a box in your "I Spy" book for girder spotters.