Specialized Tools |
Specialized tools exist in every shop. We find some situation that really doesn’t have an off the shelf solution.
Ironically we have a specialized tool that needs a specialized cart to work safely and securely. In a large shop you can leave this equipment bolted to a dedicated stand or table. It isn’t the tool that needs to move around. For my small space, it needs to be mobile. The material moves through the roller long ways.
When you start rolling a 20′ piece you essentially need 40′ of room. It juts out nearly 20′ to the left and then you feed it back through. 20′ out the right side. Back and forth the material travels through as it is slowly being bent skyward. There is a fair amount of shifting weight to control.
It is fun to operate! For people into this type of thing anyway. You’ve got to be mindful. You should keep a watchful eye on the 20 ft spear you are thrusting side to side with each pass. I was initially bolting this to the bed of my truck. It wasn’t a huge deal and I had the clearance I needed.
Bringing this thing out every time was a choir. The whole gadget probably weight 100 lbs. On top of hauling that thing out of its cave and into position. You’ve got to dig out the proper rollers, and bolt the slip roller down. It was quite a lot of extra tool up time. I don’t charge for it, but it pewas happening either way.
Custom Equipment Cart
What we had was a very heavy piece of equipment that rolls long pieces of material through it. Basically it gets super unstable and likes to fall over while having long pieces of steel hanging out of it. Bad situation all way round. So I wanted a cart that could handle a lot of weight and be nearly impossible to tip over. I wanted space to keep the extra tooling and an area to sit the tooling that was coming out of the machine during a swap out.
