I’ve had a Hi-Lift jack for years, and never used the hook thing on the end. But when I broke the frame on a piece of farm equipment, and was struggling to get the bent/broken parts back into line so I could start welding, I discovered the hook. Absolutely perfect! I rotated it to the hook position, and it was the perfect giant clamp to draw the parts together.
For about two strokes of the handle.
Then, just when it got hard enough to need both hands on the handle, the hook snapped.
It’s only about a quarter-inch thick, and made of brittle cast iron.
I kludged up something and got my harrow welded back together, and thought “I’m going to draw that hook up and get one cut out of steel." And I sketched up a few things, and it started to get elaborate as I thought up more and more features. And then I started searching the internet, and found out that there are a couple of devices like that on the market already, and kind of lost interest.
But that broken hook has sat on my desk ever since. I never bought one of the fancy ones, the farm equipment budget being more suited to things like used baling wire. And the other day, I was cleaning my desk and decided that even if I couldn’t justify the $50 thing, I still needed to replace the hook on the jack. So out came the calipers, and I started designing a simple hook. I added one feature—a notch for grabbing chain, and made the whole thing out of ½” plate.
Sent the file off to the plasma guy and got back a couple of these:
Seems to work just fine. If I cut any more, I’ll make them a little bit thicker there along the edge where the teeth are. The chain slot, of course, only works with certain sizes of chain. My all-purpose utility chains are 5/16, and it works fine with that. I think 3/8 will work, but I don’t seem to have one of those anymore. My small 1/4” chains that are normal will fit, but my really strong ones salvaged from a chain hoist won’t.
So, since I’ve got this figured out, and the plasma guy has it programmed, anyone want to buy one of these for $25 plus shipping? It’ll fit in the Priority Mail $7 box. I can probably get 3 in there for the same shipping money.
Welded, and painted with my regular dark green rattlecan primer.
For about two strokes of the handle.
Then, just when it got hard enough to need both hands on the handle, the hook snapped.
It’s only about a quarter-inch thick, and made of brittle cast iron.
I kludged up something and got my harrow welded back together, and thought “I’m going to draw that hook up and get one cut out of steel." And I sketched up a few things, and it started to get elaborate as I thought up more and more features. And then I started searching the internet, and found out that there are a couple of devices like that on the market already, and kind of lost interest.
But that broken hook has sat on my desk ever since. I never bought one of the fancy ones, the farm equipment budget being more suited to things like used baling wire. And the other day, I was cleaning my desk and decided that even if I couldn’t justify the $50 thing, I still needed to replace the hook on the jack. So out came the calipers, and I started designing a simple hook. I added one feature—a notch for grabbing chain, and made the whole thing out of ½” plate.
Sent the file off to the plasma guy and got back a couple of these:
Seems to work just fine. If I cut any more, I’ll make them a little bit thicker there along the edge where the teeth are. The chain slot, of course, only works with certain sizes of chain. My all-purpose utility chains are 5/16, and it works fine with that. I think 3/8 will work, but I don’t seem to have one of those anymore. My small 1/4” chains that are normal will fit, but my really strong ones salvaged from a chain hoist won’t.
So, since I’ve got this figured out, and the plasma guy has it programmed, anyone want to buy one of these for $25 plus shipping? It’ll fit in the Priority Mail $7 box. I can probably get 3 in there for the same shipping money.
Welded, and painted with my regular dark green rattlecan primer.
