| Author | Message | ||
     S1owner |
Ok so Ghere has been lots of chatting in between posts but I have seen nothing on its own so I started one. My lift cost me $90. I have plans I got from others had lots of metal laying around just had to buy the air over hydro ram. Actually just finished my wheel clamp this past weekend as I slapped it together a year ago just to get my build done    Here is the clamp before I finished it  Yes that is a pipe clamp I used it works well! I do also have an air operated hoist above to do any lifting it will lift 2500 pounds (Message edited by S1owner on November 15, 2016) | ||
| K12pilot |
A table is such a useful tool...I have 2... I hope I never have to be without again | ||
| Court |
What's the best table .... I need one. | ||
| 1313 |
I bought a used Handy Lift with (some of) my tax refund a few years back. That thing will outlive me! 1313 | ||
| S1owner |
Court Its alot of personal preference and how much you want to spend Homemade $100 plus Harbor freight 300 plus Titan 500 plus Weaver and others 750 plus (Message edited by S1owner on November 15, 2016) | ||
| S1owner |
Court You can appreciate some of my lift the entire bottom and top frame is made from the large angle from a Hughes Brothers 345 KV H Frame structure! | ||
| Reepicheep |
I have the harbor freight lift table, actually bought by a friend, but it stays in my garage because because he doesn't have room for it and I've done work on some of his bikes in the past. It won't impress anyone, but functionally, it is fine. They take up a lot of space, but you can easily store a bike on them. I hate working on bikes without one now. | ||
| 651lance |
Does this count? I use this lift to put my bike in the attic during the winter.     | ||
| Phelan |
Ckever, Lance! | ||
| Phelan |
I have a lot of tools, but yet to buy a lift. That will change shortly. Until now, I never needed my own. Now I work for myself so I need one or two stat. | ||
| Oopezoo |
I've been meaning to make one, but refuse to give up the garage space needed to store it. That has led me to the plan of recessing it into the concrete floor of the garage. Main problem there is, I don't even have time to ride my bikes, let alone work on them, or build a lift  One of these days | ||
| S1owner |
Lance thats awesome and you have access to a full shop so you are set. Phelan You are not at NHRS? What are you doing for your business? Oop When mine is not used as a lift it is an extra work bench! But I have a 1000 sq ft shop just for me but not everyone has that.      | ||
| Tq_freak |
Super helpful thread I have been on the fence for buying a table for a long time. I don't know how many times I have almost pulled the trigger on the harbor freight table but just worry about the quality. Also I need to make sure its decent for even the 800 lb HD dresser for the short term I made a now moving table and just use ramps to get the bike on the table (on with the little Honda I just picked the bike up and stuck in on the table. )   | ||
| S1owner |
If I did not build I would have went for the harbor freight one. Its good bones just needs some mods. During my research I seen several that uses the floor jack we all have already to lift the table then lock it in and you are goid to go. If anyone wants my plans I could send them in a pdf to you | ||
| Phelan |
Ken, I left NRHS on good terms last November, when I moved 120 miles south to Fountain, CO, to be closer to family. I took a seasonal Service Tech position at Pikes Peak HD but that expired in September, which I had planned on. My wife gave birth to our first born the next day, and as of 2 weeks ago, she took a full time teaching position. So I take care of our little girl during the day, and work from home buying, selling, building, and repairing Buells. I have a few client builds I'm working on (including a 90" XB9R), and do well selling parts, so it has worked out well for us thusfar. I'm looking for commercial property here in Fountain to start something of my own, though admittedly I'm still deciding what all I want to do there. I'm trying to keep it small at first to minimize or avoid debt, and expand it as funds allow to cover all areas I'm interested in pursuing- a couple lifts, air compressor, blasting cabinet, arbor press, and mill are on the short list. (Message edited by phelan on November 16, 2016) | ||
| Purpony |
im the same way... i keep going back and forth about buying or building a lift table as well... I just dont want to store it when im not using it. If i really wanted to i could roll the bike onto my 4 post lift runner or build a platform for my snowmobile lift and use that (but my sled is always stored on that. What i do have and use ALL the time is my platform on wheels. Its 4 cheap harbor freight car dollies under a wooden platform. I roll my bike onto that and it allows me to roll the bike around anywhere in the garage. I can put a swingarm stand under it, screw the front wheel chuck to it. I also have a beam in the ceiling with through the ceiling eyelets that i use straps to hand the bike from. Works well.     | ||
| S1owner |
Congrates on the new born!!! I think now adays small shops are doing well as long as they are vesital not stuck in one brand. We have Roys repair up here he has two guys that are there the work on anything and do it well I bet he is less then 1000 sq ft. They do alot of mods and cafe racer/ mono shock 2 stroke street bike conversions on old hondas etc but will work on a buell ir whatever and they are honest and do top notch work. Heck look where revival cycles went! Purpony I could see you building one easily on wheels it could replace the cart you have. I thought about wheels on mine. Keep me in the loop I am always looking for parts etc send me your ebay info if thats where your selling them! | ||
| Reepicheep |
The harbor freight table handles a Uly just fine. I had a Virago on it that wasn't a problem (that thing rode like a fat wallowing pig, but I have no idea how much it actually weighed). | ||
| Tq_freak |
Phelan - Congrats on the Little one. They are a ton of fun. Purpony, I like the idea of using the Dollys under the wood plank, I'll need to do that once I get the Honda all done. Also, your Bike is outstanding. It makes me pine for a tuber S1owner could you send me that PDF? wmfedun (at) Gmail Dot Com | ||
| Kc_zombie |
Harbor Freight hydraulic lift with wheel chock bolted to it. Adjustable for any size bike (almost). No straps required. Easy peasy lemon squeezy!  (Message edited by kc_zombie on November 16, 2016) | ||
| Court |
>>>made from the large angle from a Hughes Brothers 345 KV H Frame structure! Very cool. No one does lam wood like Hughes Brothers . . . I'm going to do some snooping around and see if I can find any leftovers from damaged arms for workbench stuff. Those arms are hell for stout as well. Well done ! | ||
| S1owner |
Yep I have a bridge in my yard made from it so I can get the zero turn over a ditch. Should not have any rot issues!!! I went through a ton of grinding wheels as they really galvanize that stuff all done manually I visited their factory a couple years back its really cool how they build everything! | ||
| Loose1 |
Here's my HF lift. I think it's great, except for the "wheel clamp" that it comes with. I used it for the screw and made my own clamp. I wanted to be able to remove the wheel chock while the bike is in it for ease of removing the wheel. Works great now. I also made a small lighter duty over head hoist to pick the bike from overhead. It really helped when putting the frame back on the motor.   | ||
| Reepicheep |
I just use the wheel clamp as kind of a guide. I put jackstands and rebar through the rear wheel to hold it up. Or straps to the bars. The only mod I did to the one I use was to take a hammer and bend the corners of those raised edges in. From the factory, it is easy to catch a pant leg on them and tear something (like a leg  ). I also don't trust the jack, I always put the bar through it (you can see the holes for it in the picture Loose posted). Thats a nice wheel clamp mod Loose. Clever. | ||
| Upthemaiden |
This was mine. I built it as a temporary when I had a bike I was rebuilding. 2x6s, plywood, 4x4s, some VCT floor tiles, tie downs, caster wheels, and some lag screws so the legs were easily removable.  As far as the people who said they don't have the space to store it, I had the same concern, and that was the same reason I eventually put mine onto craigslist. I haven't built a new workbench since I redid my garage, so my plan for when I eventually grab one of the harbor freight stands is to put leave a gap under the bottom shelf on the bench that's about 8 inches high. It's a little higher than I'd normally leave it, but it'll be the perfect place to slide the stand when not in use. I think the stand will be a few inches wider than the bench is deep, so maybe not perfect... but it'll work. | ||
| Reepicheep |
I just park my dirt bike on the deflated stand. So it just takes up one parking place. The dirt bike doesn't move as often, and given it's a 250 pound KDX-200, its trivial to put it up on the stand even without the ramp part attached. So the storage solution is obvious. Get a KDX-200 to go with your harbor freight stand. Duh! | ||
| Jayvee |
Not a table, but the EazyRizer (Original Red) lift picks up to the height of a table lift, but it stores a little more compactly because it doesn't have the big table surface. Kind of handy for putting on the rear wheel because you can set it at the exact height needed to put the axle through. Reviewed on Web Bike World, that's where I found out about it. Don't have a picture of my bike on it but it looks like this:https://www.on-bike.com/product/eazyrizer-original -red/#!prettyPhoto | ||
| S1owner |
Jayvee How will that work on a bike with under slung shock and muffler | ||
| Upthemaiden |
It looks like half some of the bikes have a muffler under the engine. It must be good at fitting around things if it can hold a bike with a full fairing and 4 exhaust headers combining into 1 under the engine. The only thing that makes me feel uneasy looking at that one is the width of the base. There's a lot of bike hanging over the front and rear of that stand, so it looks like it'd be a little top heavy, and watching bike tip over one way or the other onto empty fork legs or a swingarm isn't going to be pretty. It doesn't even look like the base comes with mounting tables for you to be able to bolt it to your garage floor, without drilling more holes or welding tabs onto it. The idea sounds great, and it looks like it would be easy to use, but nothing I'd trust a project on in the garage for months, or in a garage where kids will be passing through. | ||
| Airbozo |
I would kill for a garage just to put a table in... My "Harley Shed" barely holds 2 bikes and my tools and the sportster is torn down. Right now the S3 is sitting outside under cover, but I have to squeeze it in the shed this weekend before it starts raining. I have been working with a friend of mine who is a welder and metal smith to create something similar to the attic lift so I have a place to store a table when it is not in use. I'll update if I ever build it. | ||
| S1owner |
I have a friend that builds a lift that will lift cycles, atv and snowmobiles in the air to what ever height needed then you can park others under it. They are slick. |
