One of my mottoes is “if it’s worth doing, it’s worth over-doing.” When it came time to raise the front of the fuselage up to install the gear legs, I wanted something a little more secure than wedging the fuse front up on boards.  And when the engine arrives later this summer, I’ll need a way to get it out of the crate and onto the engine mount, I decided to spring for a shop crane.

This is Harbor Freight’s “deluxe” model 2-ton crane. It was on sale, only $20 more than the base-model crane which didn’t get very good reviews on the HF website. It’s heavy as hell, and is over spec’d for the job by about 200 percent…perfect, since it’s pretty obvious from this particular product that quality welding isn’t a skill widely taught in China.