In our unending endeavors to acquire wood for turning, we woodturners have to become innovative in our approach. While we hobbyists are by no means in the logging business, we still have to find ways to accommodate our need for acquisition of wood to put on the lathe.
In my previous thread about 3 weeks ago, I showed the trailer I got for hauling things.....especially wood for turning! I had gone through several ideas and dismissed some, and kept some of them, and finally settled on this design [of my own] for a lifting arch and winch setup to save the back.
Below you will see pics of the arch, and the mods made to the trailer. I decided, as I usually do, that if I was going to do this, I was going to do it right, so instead of makeshifting some wood, I decided to take my design to the steel fabricators who know how to weld beautifully and have all the materials necessary for this.......a few bucks up front, but a sturdy and well done modification that will last as long as the trailer itself.
We begin with the plate added to the tongue of the trailer with a battery box, and a hitch reciever for the winch setup.
IMGP3888.jpgIMGP3889.jpg then, you will see the receiver's that were welded in place to receive the arch frame...this is removable when I want to use the trailer for things where I do not need lift.
IMGP3890.jpgIMGP3891.jpg next, you see pics of the arch laying on the trailer bed, and in the receivers.
IMGP3892.jpgIMGP3893.jpg Next, you can see the winch [rated 3000lbs.] and pulley which hooks to the loop I had welded on the arch. Since the weight load of this trailer is basically 3500 lbs. then I will have to be careful not to overload it.......afterall, I am not logging, just getting turning wood! The trailer will take a 10 ft. log, but I will limit them to 8 ft long, and go shorter if the log is particularly big or heavy........maybe if they are heavy, just get a couple at a time.
IMGP3894.jpgIMGP3895.jpg I will continue this on the next post.......a couple more pics........