An Elevator For My 10'x12' Storage Shed

Step 4: The Hoist:

I purchased an inexpensive trailer winch off the internet, but quickly realized the winch was both too small to hold the 3/4" rope I had chosen and the gearing took the 4-to-1 ratio forever to crank.  I pulled an old bronze sailboat winch out of storage and put it back to work.  In order to line everything up, I had to add another pulley, but at the moment, all's well in my elevator equipped storage shed. :-)

Update #1:  I forgot one part: In the last photo, you'll see a 2x4 attached to the lower half of the left end of the 2x8 platform.  There's a matching piece attached to the top half of the 2x8 that defines the opening.  When these two meet, it stops the upward movement of the platform.  if I had planned right, I would have made the stops out of 1x4s at both ends, but since I was building by the seat of my pants, and didn't have any 1x4s, I screwed plywood down about 1 inch over the opening to stop the opposite end.  I'll fix this as well.

Comments

[kmartin-1]

I love your "stabilizing rig." Beautiful.

[bfk]

Thanks... It helps to steal ideas:)

[onemoroni1]

Your instructable caught my eye because I worked on and installed passenger and freight elevators. Although I would call this a material hoisting device it is well thought out and nicely done to provide convenience.

[bfk]

Thank you very much. I was struggling with what term to use. I thought "lift" sounded too British, (not that there's anything wrong with that) and "hoist" implies a single line, even though the term may be correct. Dumbwaiter was the closest term I could think of that wasn't too pretentious, but other than a personal dislike for the word, the dictionary stated a dumbwaiter is a "small elevator".

I settled on "elevator" mostly because it would draw interest...
It's only a 10' x 12' shed... And an ELEVATOR? Ya gotta look:)

[blackslax]

Extremely awesome Instructable! I might be constructing this in my son's garage this spring.

[bfk]

Thanks... Let us know how it goes and improvements. Mine was spur of the moment and not as well thought out as it could have been. I'd be curious how it works with more planning and thought behind it