At Mike Allen's request here is a bit of information on the over head rail I'm putting up in my workshop to enable loading lathe and mill from work bench with tooling or material. Basically it is 2.5"x0.5" flat bar supported from the ceiling as a rail and a gate system to enable changing direction of a slider with chain block attached. See attached photo for progress so far.
Think of it as the old type of rail system used in a meat processing factory where each carcass is on a sliding hook that runs along the rail and has gates that close between rails to move product to different areas. This is actually what I have, my property is an old bacon and small meat goods factory which still had some of the rails and gate systems left in it when I got the place. I've cut it down and moved it to the area I use as my metal workshop.
Even though I had everything, it has still take a lot of time to get it cut to size and everything lining up correctly. I've had to modify the gate lengths to make everything fit in the right place. I won't be able to easily change the configuration of things once it is all done so I've spent a lot of time measuring twice and cutting multiple times too! Realistically it is over kill for what I need, it will easily handle 100kg (220lbs), but it was free since I had all the materials.
