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FNG mentioned in the Puna house design thread that when he can't do stairs anymore he'll put in an elevator/escalator. Our house is up on stilts and we are thinking of the not-too-distant future when our knees may not be able to take the constant up & down stairs. We want to put in the simplest kind of elevator, preferably non-electric. I am thinking ratchet/pulley/block&tackle system (but I'm not mechanical). Does anyone have a design or experience with something like this? I envision a platform in a framed-in shaft (we already have this - a staircase that was taken out) that could be used not just to lift an individual person but of course for hauling up groceries etc too.
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Why not electric? By the time your knees are gone your shoulders and elbows will be too. By then you will need a fully engineered system that works perfectly.
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I'm sure it's been done before so there's probably some designs already out there somewhere. I keep envisioning a garage door opener somehow working or a water counter weight system of some sort.
"I like yard sales," he said. "All true survivalists like yard sales."
Kurt Wilson
"I like yard sales," he said. "All true survivalists like yard sales."
Kurt Wilson
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howdy maud. i already got there, we built a ramp. because my dogs knees went before mine i guess. the ramp is also great to move furniture etc.
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They aren't hard to do. It's a nice and cost effective solution to use garage door track and rollers to guide the lift. Many ways to pull it depending on use and load, but a thousand pounds is a good figure and really very little weight. Unless it's a DYU project you'll find it expensive, especially if there's any suspicion "human cargo" is involved.
I've extensive experience as a pro rigger and if you've any questions about block and tackle business I certainly wouldn't mind passing the info along, gratis.
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It is certainly practical to lift heavy weights with the right pulley system. Years ago I had a building with an elevator that would carry a fully loaded pickup truck up two stories. It operated by pulling a rope. Rather effortless all in all. I wish I had better memory of the flywheels and levers. But it worked great without electricity.
As Jay says, a dumbwaiter should be easy. There are probably some old technical books out there on eBay or Amazon. Audel's might have something on the topic.
Assume the best and ask questions.
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When thought about "non electric lift", the first thing I pictured is a jetski lift. You get good leverage because it has a large wheel, and can lift a loaded jetski (about 600 pounds) with just your arms. The only design problem is that on this kind of lift, the wheel is stationary at the top of the unit, ... you'd need to make one that had the wheel on the carriage. Good luck.
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The reason this is being proposed is that the users would be old and feeble. Any manual system would defeat the purpose of enabling invalids to move around easily.
I think that something could be built using a garage door opener but real human carrying elevators have a lot of safety systems and inspection requirements for a reason. People have gotten hurt without them.
A ramp, if made gentle enough, would be failsafe and still provide access to invalids and wheelchairs. One downside of a ramp is that it takes a large amount of space but this should not be a problem since in Puna most of the properties are large.
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One of our friends made a home-made & totally not inspected elevator/dumb-waiter in Nanawale. He hooked up a power lift motor (possibly a winching type) to the top of an extension on his center rafter beam, framed in side walls & had the lift bring up a crate like structure. His wife uses it, and they use it to move their purchases up to the second floor.... I think it is a might bit on the ricketty home made looking, but she does use it....
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If you have to have a manual system I think a ramp would be the way to go. Someone who was being careful and thoughtful could build their own simple lift, just be very careful and keep in mind that as you fail physically you may also lose mental sharpness. Look out for pinch points and ways that someone could get caught.
