Handy tool

jw2170 said:

I have a pair of 'Gorilla Grippers' that work well.

Click to expand...

I looked at the gorilla gripers but decided against them because they put your shoulder and arm in an odd position carrying a panel from the top (or at least that is how I saw them demonstrated. That is a particular problem for this 64yr old with a bad shoulder (in fact, I just got a Cortisone shot in the right shoulder last week and YES it does help a lot!).

I have some of the cheap plastic carriers that go UNDER the sheet and extend up to the handle about 18". That allows your arm to hold the weight below your waist more naturally and with less strain. HOWEVER, those have the issue that the sheet can slip if your not somewhat careful. I have considered gluing rubber on the area where the sheet rests to address the issue but haven't gotten around to it yet.

Unfortunately, the vac. grip handle I posted earlier, only works on non-porous surfaces like Melamine but it can be a real back saver on sheets lying flat. It can also be used as a handle to help push the sheet on a saw. We work a good bit with Melamine and those sheets are heavy as heck!! Any help is appreciated.

We do plan to build a panel handling tilting cart soon. Idea being we can back the truck in the shop, slide sheets onto the Horizontal cart then tilt them vertically to slide them into our sheet rack. Hopefully with a lot less straining. We are currently building a panel saw that will roll in front of the sheet rack. We hope to be able to simply slide sheets off the rack and directly onto the saw to cut them down to size. Anything to reduce the heavy lifting!!