How to Lift a Sewing Machine Safely

[MyOldHyde]

Here's my solution to moving my gargantuan Singer 7-33.  $50 at Habitat for Humanity Restore... 450lb capacity and rolls easily with full load on 5" wheels. My back-saver! 

[AlZilla]

Well, now you're just showing off...

I think that's called a "Hoyer Lift" and it's used for lifting medical patients. Not a bad idea.

Some insurance company probably paid big money for that thing.

[MyOldHyde]

You bet!  Hoyer is a big manufacturer of medical transport devices and I think first made the patient lift, hence the name.   Now this is showing off... how I got in and out of my truck!  Hey, when you're 70, 250lbs feels like 500!

 

Edited August 23 by MyOldHyde
additional info

[Digit]

The non-medical variant is simply called a (foldable) workshop crane. It comes in various configurations but it usually has two wheeled legs that go under or to the sides of the load and an arm (sometimes telescopic) that can be moved up or down hydrolically, pneumatically or with a screw drive. Max carrying weight goes up to two or three metric tons, depending on the model.

My mechanic has one in his garage to lift engines out of cars.

[friquant]

On 8/20/2025 at 4:15 PM, friquant said:

I aspire to invent some wooden accessory so I can set down on wood, then skooch it over and lower one half at a time.

This cradle that I built to support the machine while working on it works fairly well as an assist for dropping the machine into the hole.   

 

On 8/21/2025 at 12:07 PM, AlZilla said:

On 8/20/2025 at 4:15 PM, friquant said:

You know the other thing that's a pain in the butt...good paint. I'm avoiding marring the orange paint on the table, and that avoiding gets expensive.

That means your table is too pretty. Make it work!

And I've been dragging things across the table, enough that I got a remark, "We're going to have to repaint that top" 😁🫢