Hey,
I've been meaning to post this for a while, but just now finally getting around to it. I bought a house last year, so I had to move my games out of my parents' and friend's basement... which of course wasn't very fun. But with a ton of games and parts to be moved in a short amount of time like that, it made me use some creativity to not kill myself, and maybe even make the job kinda easy. I figured I'd share... so maybe it'll help someone else.
Here's the run down of the stuff:
First, is the obvious hand truck (visible in some of the pics). I have a really heavy duty one with the wheels that kick back (Stevens Escort), and it's great for moving games, except that the hand truck weights a lot, so you're moving more than just the game. But, it was great for accepting the abuse I was about to give it.
Next, is the ramp and winch setup I built to get the games up the stairs. I basically made a ramp for the cart to roll/slide up, and bought a cheap winch from Harbor Freight (~$50). I attached the winch to a 4x4 that ran across the stairwell, pushed back by a ~3' 4x4 to give room at the top of the stairwell to stand the game up. It ran it off a 12V jumpstart battery, and though it was a little bit slow, it had no problem pulling up the heavy games, like SF Rush, Pinballs, etc. I found it to be too slow for hauling up the small stuff though... I still did those by hand (it took a few mins to get up the stairs, plus connecting/disconnecting the cable, and the winch cable would sometimes need to be untangled).
Also, notice in the bottom of the stairwell is a platform I built to make the patio door level to go out. This is REALLY useful... it saves having to turn the game around in the bottom of the stairwell on the hand truck (to go over the several inch door hump).
Next is the hoist, which I put up in the attic to lower lots of the parts and monitors that I had stored up there... as well as using it to raise the stuff to my new attic. Once again, it was ~$50 from Harbor Freight. Well worth it, as I can use it to easily store even 27" monitors up in the attic. In my friend's attic, I attached it to a black iron pipe straddling the opening, to lower stuff out. In my attic, I mounted a hook-like thing over the opening (I can't think of the name... it's meant to hold a board, like for barricading a gate/door), then I just set the black iron pipe w/ the hoist in the hook when I want to use it and raise/lower from there. The hoist I got runs off 115V, so I plug it into the light socket up in the attic, or you could run an extension cord.
After getting stuck in the grass moving a few games on the hand truck, I decided I needed some sort of off road cart. I had just come across some off road wheels, which I decided would work perfectly. I put the 4 swivel ones on the corners and put two non-swiveling ones in the middle (kinda like those wood hauling carts at Home Depot). I probably didn't need the non-swivel ones, but I figured they'd help support a little bit under a heavy load. My main purpose for this was moving the Top Skater base, so I made sure it was at least as big as that. But after using it to move a couple regular games, I realized how nice it was for moving everything. I just lay the games back on it, then pull with the large rope I attached to the front. It's easy enough that one person can move a game through the grass with it. And riding down the hill on an SF Rush seat makes moving fun
.
Last is the shed... I have a LOT of parts, so I went through them all, put them in boxes, made a spreadsheet of everything I have, numbered the boxes, and put them on shelves. Now, when I need something, I check the spreadsheet, go out to the shed, and I know exactly where everything is at. That is REALLY nice! Also, the 4 drawer lateral file works great for holding PCBs. I'd recommend getting as tall of drawers as possible.
Anyway, I hope you guys find this interesting, and maybe helpful. Attached are a bunch of pics.
DogP
I've been meaning to post this for a while, but just now finally getting around to it. I bought a house last year, so I had to move my games out of my parents' and friend's basement... which of course wasn't very fun. But with a ton of games and parts to be moved in a short amount of time like that, it made me use some creativity to not kill myself, and maybe even make the job kinda easy. I figured I'd share... so maybe it'll help someone else.
Here's the run down of the stuff:
First, is the obvious hand truck (visible in some of the pics). I have a really heavy duty one with the wheels that kick back (Stevens Escort), and it's great for moving games, except that the hand truck weights a lot, so you're moving more than just the game. But, it was great for accepting the abuse I was about to give it.
Next, is the ramp and winch setup I built to get the games up the stairs. I basically made a ramp for the cart to roll/slide up, and bought a cheap winch from Harbor Freight (~$50). I attached the winch to a 4x4 that ran across the stairwell, pushed back by a ~3' 4x4 to give room at the top of the stairwell to stand the game up. It ran it off a 12V jumpstart battery, and though it was a little bit slow, it had no problem pulling up the heavy games, like SF Rush, Pinballs, etc. I found it to be too slow for hauling up the small stuff though... I still did those by hand (it took a few mins to get up the stairs, plus connecting/disconnecting the cable, and the winch cable would sometimes need to be untangled).
Also, notice in the bottom of the stairwell is a platform I built to make the patio door level to go out. This is REALLY useful... it saves having to turn the game around in the bottom of the stairwell on the hand truck (to go over the several inch door hump).
Next is the hoist, which I put up in the attic to lower lots of the parts and monitors that I had stored up there... as well as using it to raise the stuff to my new attic. Once again, it was ~$50 from Harbor Freight. Well worth it, as I can use it to easily store even 27" monitors up in the attic. In my friend's attic, I attached it to a black iron pipe straddling the opening, to lower stuff out. In my attic, I mounted a hook-like thing over the opening (I can't think of the name... it's meant to hold a board, like for barricading a gate/door), then I just set the black iron pipe w/ the hoist in the hook when I want to use it and raise/lower from there. The hoist I got runs off 115V, so I plug it into the light socket up in the attic, or you could run an extension cord.
After getting stuck in the grass moving a few games on the hand truck, I decided I needed some sort of off road cart. I had just come across some off road wheels, which I decided would work perfectly. I put the 4 swivel ones on the corners and put two non-swiveling ones in the middle (kinda like those wood hauling carts at Home Depot). I probably didn't need the non-swivel ones, but I figured they'd help support a little bit under a heavy load. My main purpose for this was moving the Top Skater base, so I made sure it was at least as big as that. But after using it to move a couple regular games, I realized how nice it was for moving everything. I just lay the games back on it, then pull with the large rope I attached to the front. It's easy enough that one person can move a game through the grass with it. And riding down the hill on an SF Rush seat makes moving fun
Last is the shed... I have a LOT of parts, so I went through them all, put them in boxes, made a spreadsheet of everything I have, numbered the boxes, and put them on shelves. Now, when I need something, I check the spreadsheet, go out to the shed, and I know exactly where everything is at. That is REALLY nice! Also, the 4 drawer lateral file works great for holding PCBs. I'd recommend getting as tall of drawers as possible.
Anyway, I hope you guys find this interesting, and maybe helpful. Attached are a bunch of pics.
DogP




