# Pictures of My Homemade Porty III



## YUKON 659 (May 22, 2003)

I just wanted to post a couple of pictures of a Port A Wrap I started today. I will get the welding done tomorrow and post a finished picture. I made the tube out of 1 3/4", 1/4" wall stainless steel tubing. The rest of it is made from 1/2" stainless. The only dimension that I knew for sure was the small porty had a 1 1/2" diameter tube and the large one was 2"...I made mine in between!!! Can anyone tell me what diameter the "cleats" are on a factory Porty? I should be close.

Jeff


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## YUKON 659 (May 22, 2003)

Another one....


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## mikecross23 (May 22, 2003)

> _Originally posted by YUKON 659 _
> *Can anyone tell me what diameter the "cleats" are on a factory Porty? I should be close. Jeff *



large porty measures 5/8".

It looks good! Lets see the finished product.

-Mike-


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## Acer (May 23, 2003)

I remember seeing a home made Port a Wrap II at a safety seminar..it came in two pieces, as it failed under load at or near a weld.

Sorry to p1ss on your chips, but a home made lowering device - especially if it involves home welding - is not a good idea. Those components look great, but the welding will probably let it down. Even if that's A1, and you've not trapped slag in there somewhere, the process will weaken the parent metal, unless you can compensate with many hours of strictly controlled heat treatment.

You will never know what it's true safe working load is - you may find it's breaking load!! - so how can you ever trust it?


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## Frans (May 23, 2003)

I agree with Acer up to a point. 
The flip side is that someone had to weld the first prototype other wise we would never have "it" in the first place.
My big concern with fabricating my own stuff is the time and money and energy it takes. 
When you are copying a proven design the payback is even less.
If you figure your time alone, not including the cost of materials, costs of fabrication, costs of designing, in makng your home made porty I think you will find it is a losing idea.
But hey maybe the next thing you make will be what everybody will want next year. Look at Greg Goods device. That device is so far ahead of the competion I am always puzzeled why anybody would buy anything else. but then again folks still buy polyester leisure suits...
Frans


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## John Paul Sanborn (May 23, 2003)

Or climb on Arborplex.

Flinch factor is the problem with the GRCS. It takes practical app for most people to be won over.

Look at Dan Murphy, he's sold on it, but still has not bought  

I bought mine after working with a guy with one, and whishing I had one with other companies.


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## rahtreelimbs (May 24, 2003)

> _Originally posted by Frans _
> *
> My big concern with fabricating my own stuff is the time and money and energy it takes.
> 
> ...




For me, metal fabrication is a very satisfying hobby. The most useful item is the log dolly ( looks somewhat like the one in the Sherrill catalog ) that I am working on!


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## Acer (May 24, 2003)

> _Originally posted by rich hoffman _
> *The most useful item is the log dolly ( looks somewhat like the one in the Sherrill catalog ) that I am working on! *



This is a different case..in fact I'm thinking of making something similar myself. You won't know how strong it is until it breaks in service, but what happens then? The log might fall 6" to 1' to the ground, and you'll have to spend the rest of the day carrying out the logs the hard way. With home made rigging devices, of which you probably won't know the true strength, or a truly safe load to take it up to, the consequences of a failure under load are pretty serious. I wouldn't trust home welding in that situation, unless you can put it through the correct heat treatment afterwards.

My 2p


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## YUKON 659 (May 24, 2003)

Acer and others, I understand your concern about the issue of the homemade porty being safe. It is also a concern of mine. I have been a toolmaker for 23yrs. working and building products out of metal throughout this time. I do agree with you the weld will probably break before the stainless gives out but I would dare say that the weld on this port a wrap is better and stronger than any "production" weld job on a factory bought one. It was done by our toolroom welder, not me. I also talked with a guy who does testing on material to see why or if it will fail when used in a production atmosphere and he seemed very confident with the design and weld job. The tensile strenghth of 1/2 inch stainless steel, even after a "worse case" heating, bending and welding job is still 98,000 lbs. of tensile strenghth. I will use this port a wrap.....I will also be very carefull not to overload it. I don't see any reason why this device will not be able to handle at least 1,000 lbs.

Jeff

P.S. I will post finished pictures later...its done I just haven't had time to take pictures yet.


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## take3wraps (May 24, 2003)

SIZE MATTERS , is everyone so bent on being the "one " they have to come up with stupid reditions of every thing , what's next the figure 7 belay device , in the words of Penn & teller , "That's Bull???? !"


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## Acer (May 24, 2003)

Jeff,

You've obviously done your homework. I've seen things that people have cobbled together in the back garden out of scrap metal with their hobby MIG set - those are the sort of things I wouldn't trust under load.

The design will work well - I bought one from sherrill's when I visited a friend in MT, and it's quick and easy to set up. I can't fault it.


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## John Paul Sanborn (May 24, 2003)

What is better then a figure 8? everything else. The GRCS is the best thing available except for a crain.\
Too much rope on rope friction on an 8, it is only a step above a munter or 3 wraps on the tree. Infact for most things, anything is better then 3wraps. All 3wraps is good for is a good laugh.


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## NickfromWI (May 24, 2003)

Norm Hall and Scott Prophet would be sad.


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## Tim Gardner (May 24, 2003)

I made all three of the port-a-wraps I have used. I would rope out pine and oak blocks that were 1 ½’ x 8’ using ¾” double braid with no problem. I used two of them at one time to lay 60’ pine stubs down when a client wanted 20’ lengths. I had to lay them down that long because 20’ logs could not be dropped out. I trust my welding but then I have been doing it since I was 12. Not sure I would want to try to make one like the new design though. It does not seem to be a lot of area for the weld. I do plan on ordering one from Sherrill.


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## Acer (May 24, 2003)

> _Originally posted by Tim Gardner _
> *I trust my welding but then I have been doing it since I was 12. *



The failed port a wrap I saw had been welded badly. But even if your welding is good, a home welder cannot avoid the effect of the heat affected zone. As the work cools down in air, the mechanical properties of the parent metal change, and this often leaves a brittle zone close to the weld. So even if your weld is spot on, you may have weakened the parent metal..that's why in manufacturing companies, fabrications will go through a heat treatment process to anneal the work and eliminate stresses due to welding, followed by controlled cooling to give the desired physical properties, something that could only be done in a kiln with temperature control.

If you know what you're doing, and are allowing for all this, then fine. If you're not sure, then don't put home made items in safety critical situations.


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## John Paul Sanborn (May 24, 2003)

Norm and Scot would just shake their heads and say "don't try to seu me when it breaks. ( that actualy happend to Scott, they got the papers and he had his lawyers get the device to look at it, It was not his design and it was modified, poorly.)

They did not patent it because they did not want the headaches.

On that line, Denny Morehouse says he kcicks himself for not getting a patent on the first figure 8.


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## Frans (May 24, 2003)

speaking of making your own tools.
I have been wanting a metal stake side wagon to haul brush loads from the backyard to the chipper.
NorthernTool.com has a few ready made but no brakes.
I used one made by Don Blair but he does'nt make them anymore.
It was real slick you could rotate the pull handle and dump the load.
I hauled massive loads of brush with the thing.
You could stack loads of branches 10'-15' long with the ends dragging and just fly out of the yard with them. It had a brake so It would'nt walk away while you were loading it. And it had metal rods as the stakes so you would thread the stakes down through the load and into the stake holes.
worked real good


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## Ghivelder (May 25, 2003)

What is the best material to make a port-a-wrap of?
Iron or stainless stell?

Sergio


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## YUKON 659 (May 25, 2003)

My choice would be stainless steel....it's stronger and if it's 300 series it will not rust. Stainless is a little harder to machine but overall it's a much better choice. Unfortunatley it's a little heavier and also more expensive.

Acer, when you refer to eliminating stress in kiln to relieve stress, the process is actually refered to as stress relieving. Anealling is a process to draw back the hardness after a hardening process. When stainless is welded there is no hardening taking place...and as far as the stress it would be very minimal. If you were to weld some type of air hardening tool steel (A-2, A-8, D-2 etc.) there would be a little hardening around the weld and yes it would be a good idea to fully anneal the piece.

Jeff


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## NeTree (May 25, 2003)

Has anyone tried using 303 stainless? It machines and welds nicer than 302 or 304. If you wanted to get real fancy, you could use some 304V, but that's pretty expensive in comparison.


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## John Paul Sanborn (May 25, 2003)

I've worked for several people that use quadies on the jobsite. One guy drags everything big right to the chipper, another will cut the stuff up under the tree, load the ATV trailer and chip right off the trailer. 

Each way has it's advantages.


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## YUKON 659 (May 25, 2003)

As promised here are the pictures of the finished port a wrap.


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## YUKON 659 (May 25, 2003)

Another view.....


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## Tim Gardner (May 25, 2003)

> _Originally posted by Acer _
> *The failed port a wrap I saw had been welded badly. But even if your welding is good, a home welder cannot avoid the effect of the heat affected zone. As the work cools down in air, the mechanical properties of the parent metal change, and this often leaves a brittle zone close to the weld. So even if your weld is spot on, you may have weakened the parent metal..that's why in manufacturing companies, fabrications will go through a heat treatment process to anneal the work and eliminate stresses due to welding, followed by controlled cooling to give the desired physical properties, something that could only be done in a kiln with temperature control.
> 
> If you know what you're doing, and are allowing for all this, then fine. If you're not sure, then don't put home made items in safety critical situations. *



Dang acer, I better get busy building a time machine so I can go back and remove all the trailer hitches on the dump trucks that we used to pull heavy equipment that I built from scratch. Heck I better go back and remove all the welds and fabrications on the stump grinder too. A full size stump grinder will find a weak weld in an instant. While I am at it I better go back and remove out riggers, tanks, and welds on all the equipment we used. I doubt I could find a kiln in my area large enough to fit all that equipment in to control the cooling.


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## geofore (May 25, 2003)

*welding*

Glad to hear I'm not the only one that learned how to weld when they were 12. There would be a lot of buildings in trouble if my welds where bad. Any weld I did I would trust my life to it's use. A lot of production stuff needs to be rewelded to trust it's use not that welding hasn't come a long way in recent years it's that third world countries haven't hit the learning curve yet and production lines are speeded up to make more money. Quality control is better in my shop because I can do it better myself. Fabricating is a good hobby, it keeps your skill level up and that realy helps when you need to fix something you broke out on the jobsite and just have to have it for tomorrows work.


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## Acer (May 26, 2003)

> _Originally posted by Tim Gardner _
> *Dang acer, I better get busy building a time machine etc etc etc: *




Of course, I wasn't referring to _your_ welding, Tim. You obviously know everything there is to know about absolutely everything


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## Tim Gardner (May 26, 2003)

> _Originally posted by Acer _
> *Of course, I wasn't referring to your welding, Tim. You obviously know everything there is to know about absolutely everything *



No acer, if I knew everything then I would not need to hang out here to learn. I was simply making fun of your post.  If I can weld a pentle type hitch from scratch and tow a piece of heavy equipment through the stop and go traffic of Myrtle Beach I can and did make several port-a-wraps that can handle 2,000 lbs plus. I did not make and put them into service right away in critical applications. I tested them first. Nothing fancy. Just dropping heavy loads on them. I think I managed to snap a new ¾ double braid one time. If all the welding shops across America thought the way you do they would have to shut down their businesses and let the large companies with all that fancy equipment do welding. I will not even begin to talk about all the small businesses that have to do fabrication and welding themselves just to be able to have the equipment and tools they need to stay in business.


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## geofore (May 26, 2003)

*making your own*

With the changes in technology most things you can get online, overnight expressed to your home but it was not all that long ago you had to make your own or do without until they could find one and order it for you. A month or so later you'd get it. I used to fabricate rigging equipment in my garage and make parts for Safe- Way. I don't frown on folks making their own parts but your point is taken with the need to test to breaking the equipment before you use it on the job. 

Yukon, you know as well as I do the shiney stuff gets legs and walks off first but stainless is nice. These guys argue about weight but my thoughts on it are strong is better. How often have you overloaded a piece on the job? Without the safety factor a lot of us would not have lived this long. If it is safe you live longer. I like the stainless because it stays shiney and it is strong but it is the first thing to disappear when you are not looking. Make extras, that one looks good.


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## YUKON 659 (May 27, 2003)

Thanks geofre, I tried to disguise it by glass beading it....it looks like a nickel finish!!!  

Jeff


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## TimberMcPherson (May 28, 2003)

Home made gear is all good, but in the case of a portawrap of that design I have to say I was dubious with what is at stake how much pressure is put on the welds in such a small attachment area. 

I have a home made portawrap, but I modified the design a bit, I dont have a pic of it but basically the tube system is the same but instead of having the looped steelband its a "t" section made up entirely of tube with a mounting loop at the base of it. The advantage is that with the "T" section its held together by about 20cm of welds instead of the small contact of the normal portawrap pipe and band. (the horizontal tube insterts into the vertical tube)

The design is heavier but sits lighter on my psyche when the cut is going through. I have friends that are certified welders, and after welding since before highschool or kissing girls I know enough from them to know I dont know enough for my crew.

Looks like youve done a great job though, kudos to you


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## YUKON 659 (May 31, 2003)

David, nice job!!! Almost as nice as mine  What type of material did you use to build it?

Jeff


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## DDM (May 31, 2003)

2" tubing 3/4" Wrap 5/8" Tie off Quite strong actually I tested it in a non crucial area I Shock loaded it with a 3' X 10' oak Spar Snapped a 3/4" piece of stable braid didn't Harm the wrap at all.


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## Kneejerk Bombas (May 31, 2003)

> _Originally posted by DDM _
> *Snapped a 3/4" piece of stable braid didn't Harm the wrap at all. *



Where was the rope that snapped, holding the pulley, the port-a-wrap, or the bull rope?


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## DDM (Jun 1, 2003)

Bull Rope, It was an old line It broke right over the Pulley at the bend.


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## DDM (Jun 1, 2003)

My mistake that wasnt Stable braid it was 3 strand.


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## Kneejerk Bombas (Jun 1, 2003)

To break 3/4" stable braid, you really gotta work hard. What was holding the pulley that was twice as strong as the 3/4" 3 strand?


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## DDM (Jun 1, 2003)

It was either a Tuflex sling or a Tennex i cant remember which one.


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## Nailsbeats (Oct 29, 2008)

Nice job one the porty, me and my bro made a couple ourselves, what a money saver. If you can weld good it's no problem, which we can because we do 40hrs a week.


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## Magnum783 (Oct 29, 2008)

Nailsbeats said:


> Nice job one the porty, me and my bro made a couple ourselves, what a money saver. If you can weld good it's no problem, which we can because we do 40hrs a week.



I thought of you toady nails welded 35lbs of 6010++++ and 25lbs of 7018 rods all welds then had to be x-rayed and only one had a minor slag intrusion. I thought to myself after the inspector left Nails would be proud. 
Jared


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## Nailsbeats (Oct 29, 2008)

Magnum783 said:


> I thought of you toady nails welded 35lbs of 6010++++ and 25lbs of 7018 rods all welds then had to be x-rayed and only one had a minor slag intrusion. I thought to myself after the inspector left Nails would be proud.
> Jared



You bet I would, that's a lot of iron. Musta chewed a whole box of snoose to get that done, lol.


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## Magnum783 (Oct 29, 2008)

Nope putting stupid hasps on classified material storage facilties, dumb yes very dumb. Then some #### comes out and says my weld has a crack it was slag, best part in pointing this crack out he proceeds to touch my fresh weld not quite glowing hot but you could heat your coffee on it. I got my revenge. I not much of mig welder a I am learning though, I am a superb TIG and SMAW (stick) welder. Government sent me to collage for a year to learn and then gave me six more of practice. Plus gave me a welding shop with all the goodies but it sounds like you aren't hurting too bad.
Jared


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## Nailsbeats (Oct 29, 2008)

Magnum783 said:


> Nope putting stupid hasps on classified material storage facilties, dumb yes very dumb. Then some #### comes out and says my weld has a crack it was slag, best part in pointing this crack out he proceeds to touch my fresh weld not quite glowing hot but you could heat your coffee on it. I got my revenge. I not much of mig welder a I am learning though, I am a superb TIG and SMAW (stick) welder. Government sent me to collage for a year to learn and then gave me six more of practice. Plus gave me a welding shop with all the goodies but it sounds like you aren't hurting too bad.
> Jared




I'm only hurtin as bad as I want to be. So you don't chew snoose huh? I don't have a guy on my crew that doesn't.


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## Magnum783 (Oct 29, 2008)

did but quit wife hates the stuff and I hated spitting in the mask, and MY stomach got tore up swallowing it which I did a majority of the time.
Jared


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