How to Install an I-Beam Gantry Rail

I-beams are nearly synonymous with a gantry rails -- the main horizontal member of a gantry crane. In fact, many gantries employ a typical construction I-beam as the rail for the sliding gantry crane. You can create your own gantry rail with an I-beam over head and two I-beam posts.

Plasma cutter
Drill
Masonry bit
Masonry epoxy
Hardware

Instructions

- 1
  Fabricate I-beam posts to carry the gantry rail, cutting them to length with a plasma cutter. They should be the height of the wall, less the height of the gantry rail, if your gantry carriage -- the sliding crane component -- will hang from the bottom cord of the I-beam. Otherwise, you must shorten your posts to make room for the gantry carriage to ride over the I-beam, without hitting the ceiling of your structure.
- 2
  Drill four corner holes in four plates and weld them to the ends of each gantry post.
- 3
  Cut your gantry rail I-beam to length so it will span from the outside of one post to the outside of the other post, with each post mounted flush to the inside of a structural wall.
- 4
  Drill holes in the ends of the gantry rail's bottom cord to correspond to the end-plate holes in the posts.
- 5
  Drill four holes in the concrete slab where the posts will be mounted, using a masonry bit and heavy-duty drill.
- 6
  Epoxy eight threaded posts into the masonry holes using a masonry epoxy. Make sure each post dries while perfectly perpendicular to the ground.
- 7
  Mount the I-beam posts on the floor studs and bolt them down.
- 8
  Mount the gantry rail atop the two posts such that the holes on each end align. Use helpers, scaffolding or a small crane to place the beam safely. As soon as one end of the beam is aligned, through bolt one of the holes, then through-bolt one hole on the other end of the beam to position both sides.
- 9
  Continue bolting all holes. Weld the seams if additional strength is desired.

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