Working with big enclosures

JasonSelf

Member
Join Date
Sep 2013
Location
Cincinnati
Posts
31
I am looking at some potential work that will use a rather large enclosure...possibly a 2 or even 3 door Hoffman box. This is not something that I can fabricate in my shop at home due to size and I have been considering leasing a small space where I can build the thing. The question is, I have always had truck height docks to work with. Is there even a way to load/unload such a large enclosure without truck height docks?
 
Use a truck with a lift gate (as long as your enclosure is not more than 7' long.)

Depending on the weight you will likely need a forklift (possibly with extensions) to move it around once off the truck though, especially once you get the components installed inside.

(In fact if you get the forklift you can probably forget about the lift gate)

Be sure when you start, to have this on and secured to pallets and aligned so you can get it out the door when you are done or have some means of lifting this with eye hooks and chain falls to put it on pallets when you are done.

We have always built this kind of thing up onsite.
But I am on a ship and it would be impossible to move such a thing around pre-fabricated, perhaps your situation is different.

BCS
 
Last edited:
I am looking at some potential work that will use a rather large enclosure...possibly a 2 or even 3 door Hoffman box. This is not something that I can fabricate in my shop at home due to size and I have been considering leasing a small space where I can build the thing. The question is, I have always had truck height docks to work with. Is there even a way to load/unload such a large enclosure without truck height docks?

At some of our previous locations we had drive up entrances to our shop. Whenever we had large panels we would ask a neighbour with a forklift to help out.
 
Leave it on the pallet the whole time, it will be easier to move when finished. Good luck getting the back panel in when finished...this is always fun.


I think that Saginaw Control and Engineering (SCE) makes a "Hoffman" at a lot better price.
saginawcontrrol.com
 
An overhead chain-fall will work too, I have seen these used to lift the panel and back the truck under it. This can be done in even some of the larger storage units around here, but you need to verify the owner allows it first.
 
build it on wheels, push it out of the workshop, and have it lifted the correct way so not a forklift as the cabinet will fall over, but lift it using some hoisting rings mounted in top of the cabinet.

AND be sure you can get the panel in place at the site!!
 
In addition to building it, give some consideration to how you will install it at the customer's site. A "modular" style enclosure in multiple sections may be easier to deal with.
 
In addition to building it, give some consideration to how you will install it at the customer's site. A "modular" style enclosure in multiple sections may be easier to deal with.
Amen to that!
I built one once in a 4 section modular with 90 x 36 x 36 enclosures, with each section being independent so they could be dropped in the roof access hatch of the underground pump station structure. But the access hatch was only only 33" wide; nobody on the Civil side noticed that, we found out when we delivered them on-site, rented a crane and started to drop them in. It was a poured concrete and in the middle of a road so cutting a new access hatch was a big project. It cost the civil guys a lot of money, but less than I was going to charge them to rebuild the panels into smaller enclosures. I would have had to add another one and that was going to cause other problems.
 
Why not have it delivered on a drop gate truck and use 1 inch rigid or gas pipe to roll it in and out of your workspace. We have moved more MCC's and control panels like this. Rent a crane truck or get a moving company to pick it up and move it to your site and use the rollers and blocking to move it into place. Two guys with crowbars wood blocks and rollers can move quite a lot of weight very easily.
 

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