Home made attic elevator

[Michael Dobony]

I need something like this for my office and storage on the 4th floor, but needs to handle more than 200 lbs.

Mike D.

[RBM]

It's too much of a Rube for what it's capable of doing

[HeyBub]

The weak link is the 200-pound test nylon rope. Replace that with 1/4" cable and it should be good for 1,000 pounds. Harbor Freight even has a remote control winch so you don't have to climb up the ladder first.

[aemeijers]

Agreed. Most residential attics make lousy storage space anyway, not being humidity and temp controlled, and the floor often not being rated for human weight. I also didn't notice any sealing to keep the lift hole from becoming a chimney in a fire. In a commercial building, a setup like that would make your insurance underwriter laugh like hell as he ripped up your policy. If you need a dumbwaiter, buy a dumbwaiter. If you have a tall attic that can take the weight, and your stuff doesn't mind the hot and damp, sacrifice a closet or the dead space in the top of the stairwell, and frame in a staircase, even if it is just 4 giant steps. In some commercial buildings, a fire-rated floor hatch and a block and tackle or chain fall, like in an old barn, would be a solution.

I've cleaned out a lot of attics in my time, helping people move, or doing estate cleanouts. In most cases, the vast majority of the stuff up there is crap not worth storing, or if it was good when it went up there, was trashed by the summer heat and winter damp.

-- aem sends...

[olddog]

How much crap would you have to put in your attic to warrant the trouble to make something like that? I have a artificial x-mas tree that I put up in mine and take out once a year. Hardly worth the effort. Looks to me like someone needs to build a shed.

Olddog

[mm]

Haven't seen the video but make it with pieces twice as thick.

OK, I saw the video. If 4 ropes are 200 pound test each, why is the weight limit 200 pounds. Don't put all the weight on one corner.

[olddog]

It's the old "no chain is stronger than it's weakest link" theory. I wouldn't want to test it. Just get some better rope.

Olddog

[mm]

That applies when the links are all in one chain, all in a row, or in this case all the weight is in one corner.

If one puts 200 pounds on a platform with 4 ropes at the corners, if the center of gravity of the load is in the center of the platform, the load on each rope is 50 pounds. The closer the center of gravity is to one rope, the greater load on that rope, but unless all 200 pounds are at corner A, the load on rope A is less than 200 pounds.

I agree.

[Too_Many_Tools]

Ropes rot...get chains or cable.

TMT

[Norminn]

clipped

I would love to make a career of cleaning attics......my favorite antiques came from a condemned house. I had to wear roach-proof clothing, take in a shovel and rake to move the trash so's I could get my treasures out. It was February, so the roaches were a bit slow. On my final inspection, I thought I might have found an antique Teddy bear, but it was a dead cat. Didn't pick it up :o) I doused my "new" pie safe and walnut table with bleach once I got them outside. I would not have asked my husband to partake, but my best gal pal was game for almost anything. Country auctions were my favorite entertainment for me and children......fine furniture, cheap food, room to run.

Paper doesn't do well in attics, but I have a trunk that has crossed the ocean and spent 154 years in cellars and attics, none the worse for wear :o)

[Ralph Mowery]

I have seen some 1/4 inch Dacron rope listed as 900# berak strength. The 4 ropes should be good for over 1000# of lift. The weak point may then be at another point.

[Michael B]

Yeah, like the pulley securings.

[DerbyDad03]

I had a friend who built a post an beam house on top of a full-story block basement.

His living room fireplace was therefore on the "second floor". While he was building the house, he framed out an area next to the fireplace for an elevator to bring wood up from the "basement".

He welded a box together and added some guides to follow the framing, using a steel cable and pulley system powered by a 115 AC winch.

For a finishing touch, he made a miniature 6 panel pine door to match the other 6 panel pine doors used throughout the house.

It was real nice system.

[Bill]

Cool! Nice work...

[sligoNoSPAMjoe]

Not only that, but if he needs more than 200 lbs, he likely is going to go over the load limit of the floor, if it is a floor.

[RickH]

I cant see the video right now. But I secured a block and tackle to my garage ceiling so I could hoist my lawn mower, snowblower, and other crap onto a loft platform I built overhead. I can hook a cargo bag to the rope or hook the mower itself. I get on a ladder, hoist te item to the ceiling, then push the item onto the loft shelf. Loft shelf is itself suspended from the ceiling joists.