This is a really good idea. Scrap metal is a booming business these days.
Jennifer
----- Original Message -----
From: Paul Franklin
To: blindhandyman@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Tuesday, May 04, 2010 7:30 AM
Subject: Re: [BlindHandyMan] Freakin termites.
Dan, most of the old cast iron radiators that I have seen, were cast in
sections which were bolted together top and bottom with long threaded rods with
a nut on each end. To separate the sections and lighten the load all you have
to do is remove or knock off the nuts and slip out the rods. Another solution
might be to call a scrap iron dealer who might be happy to come to your home
and hall away the pig for the value of the iron.
Paul Franklin
----- Original Message -----
From: Dan Rossi
To: blindhandyman@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Monday, May 03, 2010 9:58 PM
Subject: Re: [BlindHandyMan] Freakin termites.
Betsy,
The pig is a five foot long, thirty inch high, eight inch thick,
approximately 450 pound, cast iron radiator. I removed it from my
living room, and when faced with the prospect of trying to get it down the
stairs to the street, and onto a truck, I opted for the somewhat easier,
and much riskier plan of sliding it down the basement stairs. Here is a
post I wrote about it at the time.
Well, I now have a 400+ pound, cast iron, radiator sitting in my basement.
My buddy Mark came over on Saturday and we pulled off the rigging job of
the decade. At least my rigging job of the decade.
First, I had to empty out a cupboard in the kitchen and move the cupboard
out of the way.
We ripped a 4X8 sheet of 3/4 inch plywood in half and then ripped one of
the halves in half to make a 24 inch wide, 12 foot long ramp. We laid that
down over the steps. You know, stairs are a lot steeper than you realize
when there is a ramp down them. We kept joking that we would make the
Darwin awards if saw dust caught fire and we couldn't get out of the
basement because of the ramp. It was quite challenging getting up and
down that ramp. I opted not to take Mark up on his offer of giving me
every dollar in his bank account if I would put on roller blades and go
down the ramp. He even allowed that I could put a mattress against the
wall opposite the bottom of the stairs.
We screwed a 2X4 along the outer edge of the ramp to prevent the radiator
from skidding off the open side of the stairs.
We screwed a 2X4 down the middle of the ramp to join the upper and lower
sections together.
We wedged a 2X4 between the bottom of the ramp and the wall opposite the
bottom of the stairs to keep the ramp from slipping.
We took to 2X4s 5 feet long, laid them parallel to each other and 18
inches apart, outer edge to outer edge. We then put 18 inch long 2X4s on
top of those, connecting them together. We put three screws in each
corner. So, the cross bars were above the floor by the thickness of a 2X4.
We drilled two holes in each crossbar to accept the legs of the radiator.
We brought the sled upstairs and eventually managed to manhandle the
radiator up onto the sled with the legs fitting nicely into the holes in
the crossbars. Have I mentioned that this radiator is friggin heavy? Then
we screwed big hooks into the sled rails and used
those to anchor a strap around the radiator to keep it from falling over
side to side.
We then slid the sled over to the basement stairs and lined it up. I used
my rock climbing know-how and gear and tied a line onto the radiator. I
stood a 4X4 outside the kitchen window, it went from the ground up above
the top of the window so you could pull it and it wouldn't pull through
the window. I wrapped some flat webbing around the 4X4, ran two steel
carabiners through the webbing, and attached my belay device to the
carabiners. The rope went through the belay device and the carabiners.
We were now ready.
We spent some time going over what we might have forgotten. There were
many ways this could go wrong, but at least we were pretty sure we
couldn't get injured. We could do a whole hell of a lot of damage to the
basement, but we would be well out of the way. One thing we were really
worried about was the radiator getting hung up on something. If it got
jammed on the way down, we were seriously screwed. It would be
extremely difficult, and not a little dangerous if we had to try and
manipulate the radiator while it was on the ramp. We briefly discussed
if it was a possibility that the 2X4 sled runners might snap as all the
weight of the radiator would be on a very narrow point, or line, across
the runners as the radiator tipped over the edge of the beginning of the
stairs, but we figured they were strong enough.
Well, after running out of things to discuss, we figured it was about time
to go for it. I manned the belay, Mark manned the radiator, and Teresa
manned the camera for evidence at the coroner's inquest.
Mark slid the sled forward to just before the center of gravity. He
lifted up the back end as I kept tension on the rope. With me belaying
the radiator, he was able to nudge the radiator forward until the sled
eased over and laid down on the ramp. From there, I was in control and
could easily belay the 400 pound pig down the ramp. It slid right over
the center 2X4 that was joining the upper and lower ramp segments
together. There was a bit of a bump there, but it did just fine. Within
a moment, the pig had bottomed out at the bottom of the ramp.
I gave the belay line to Teresa and Mark and I eased our way down the ramp
and off the side of the stairs. With Teresa belaying from above, Mark and
I eased the pig forward until it was sitting fully on the basement floor.
We untied it and slid it over against the wall for temporary storage.
FWEW!! It took several hours of preparation and only about five minutes
of excitement, but the pig is now safely ensconced in the basement.
We had beers all around and went out for dinner.
Today, Teresa and I put the house back in order and we are fast
approaching doneness on the living room. WOOHOO!
What a deal.
--
Blue skies.
Dan Rossi
Carnegie Mellon University.
E-Mail: d...@andrew.cmu.edu
Tel: (412) 268-9081
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