Business Opportunities Weblog

A Business Out of Manholes

By on February 27, 2013 in Profiles

Business Week:

Opening manhole covers, which weigh up to 400 lbs., is difficult at best and dangerous at worst. Dave Roberts, 51, who spent 25 years lifting them while working for waste-water authorities in Minnesota’s Twin Cities, decided to find a better way. A perpetual tinkerer, Roberts designed a machine to remove the heavy cast-iron lids using a powerful magnet and a hydraulic hoist that attaches to a back of a vehicle. He assembled the first device in his garage five years ago and sold seven of them to his employer.

Business Opportunities Weblog editor and publisher Dane Carlson lives in the Sierra Nevada mountains of California, just 15 miles from Yosemite National Park. He accidentally became a professional blogger in 2001. He has added 12,209 posts to the site.

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  • Jaclyn Wells

    I bet city workers just love this idea! I have always wondered how heavy those things are, because you always see workers struggling to get them out of the road.

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