Garage elevator man lift build ideas needed

[Frank Surber]

Here is something for those who have an extreme sloped lot. Back when I was building boat houses and marinas this was a solution for one customer to get from their home down to their dock.

 

[Grumpy Old Man]

I don't know of anywhere in the world where an elevator only as a means of traversing from one level to another is accepted. On low structures having 3 floors or less an elevator may be used in conjunction with a tight wound spiral stair case on rare occasions
I tight wound spiral stairway is considered 6 ft diameter or less.
There are residential elevator manufactures who offer elevators as small as 24 inch by 30 inch interior cabin dimensions
These are usually only hidden in a closet.
When designing home for an elevator a couple of options could be to design the stairway around the elevator shaft-way. Even better is to design for a vintage look like the old open meshed cabins with concertina doors. There are even the vintage looking controls with modern electronics
I someone likes the look of a circular stair they may consider using a round elevator car .
I am not a licensed or registered passenger elevator designer, so I refrain from making very specific recommendations, also I would chose not to recommend one manufacture over another. I often purchase propitiatory and patented controls and safeties from several for my freight lifts since at times it is more economical than making these myself. But All passenger elevator manufactures do this as well.

so basically your saying nothing ?

 

[Frank Surber]

Its not that I am saying nothing I am simply making sure it is clear that I do not do elevators for passenger service. Although I imagine that at one time or another someone has ridden every one of my lifts, probably on a daily basis. I just don't condone it,
And I was pointing out that any house so far as I know requires an alternative means of going from one floor to the next additional to an elevator. This might be something as simple as a ladder in some cases. like getting up to a loft.
There are several reasons why there are fire & safety codes. I feel that some of them are carried to the extremes at times by local municipalities.

 

[Frank Surber]

The subject of DIY elevators or a simple way for someone to construct a means of lifting materials in a barn or other building is needed by some folks.
1000s of years before there were safety standards large stone blocks were raised by ropes by the use of blocks & tackle pulley systems. When something went wrong objects fell often killing many people.
Modern high rise buildings were limited in height because there was no safe means of transporting people to the upper floors without them having to climb numerous flights of stairs. Not until the invention of an automatic way to prevent an elevator car from falling did very tall buildings start to be erected. You can look up the history of the elevator for all of the gory details
However somewhere along the line safety systems over took practicality for limited use lifting systems.
No lifting device may be used to transport people vertically horizontally or up an incline either commercially or in a private home without meeting these often very stringent safeties. These are at best very confusing to folks who need a means of lifting objects or desire a means to go from one floor to the next without having to climb stairs
What is needed is a simple explanation of a few of the most pertinent safeties.
First and foremost is a device that automatically prevents the platform or cabin from falling there are many things involved in this depending on the means the platform / cabin is raised these can become very involved , far too numerous to even try and explain. This has to deal with velocities, redundant suspensions and many others.
Next is preventing anyone from accidently being injured by pinch points. These are pretty much self-explanatory there should be no opening large enough for a person to extend their arms or legs to any part of the lift that may injure them.
Next is fire prevention. Elevator shaft ways can become chimneys which accelerate or increase fire damage. Non-enclosed shafts and exposed mounted open platforms do not. However they can do nothing to prevent a fire from traveling to the next floor level.
Electrical safeties fall under a National electrical code
With hydraulic lifts or elevators there are minimal precautions which must be followed to prevent contamination from spillage
For mechanical or geared lifts refer to the first requirement.
These are some of the absolute minimum things to consider when thinking of a lifting device or elevator
When searching for a manufacture for a lift to be used in a garage or barn try not using the word elevator it may help to find a more economical device. Explaining its primary use as a means to lift materials up to a loft area or mezzanine also helps

 

[jimgerken]

Doesnt a house with a walkout basement already have a way to get to the other level? You go outside and go back in the door on the other level. In addition, there are legal egress windows required. Seems to me that an elevator taking the place of a stairway is changing one method for another. Either method could be blocked by fire or collapse, but there is always the other path of going outside to get out or to the other level. Saying I still need to have a stairway if I have an elevator makes no sense. A stairway can also act as a chiminy in a fire, or allow fire top pass from one level to another.
NOW, I have hijacked this thread far enough. Obviously I am talking about a personell elevator, and the OP is asking about a freight elevator, and the expert (Frank) is not qualified to specify residential personell elevators, but is helping a great deal for the original subject. I will re-direct my inquiry to another google search or a new thread. Thanks.

 

[Frank Surber]

I have searching through my old archives to see if I could come up with a light duty unit that I had designed. the problem here is since everything I have built is used in the industrial sector with the structure having a minimum FOS (factor of safety) of 5 to one and suspension cables @ 8 to one. This is the lightest duty lift in my archives and it has some special features not normally found on lifts as well this is a 1 ton rated lift with a 5 by 7 ft platform 15 ft of rise surface mounted so that there is no obstruction in the walk through area when the platform if in the up position the ramps allow for loading from either end it is off loaded from the side when raised if the pressure of the pump is adjusted to its max setting the lift would raise over 3 tons
ON one service call my tech noticed they had figured out how to monkey with the pressure settings and were lifting 5000 pallets. He readjusted it back to the 125% setting then cut the adjustment bolt off


I do have some single and 2 column lifts but they are much heavier one is 6 ton rated

 

[Frank Surber]

On a personal note if I were going to build a simple lift for my own use and only needed a 500 to 700 lbs capacity I would probably use something similar to the one someone mentioned in an earlier post with 2 heavy duty overhead door channels mounted to a wall or use standard "T" rails like used in passenger elevators as the vertical guides. I wold concentrate on putting the strength in the platform making it "C" shaped lifting it from the top of the "C" as near to the center as possible with a spring loaded locking device that would grip the vertical guides automatically in the event the lifting cable or chain were to break

 

[R W]

Pleased to see you received a more positive response here, than on the other forum.

 

[ericher69]

Pleased to see you received a more positive response here, than on the other forum.

Yup what a bunch of...

 

[ray66v]

The problem of the lifting cable breaking can be easily avoided. You simply use one that is many times stronger than you need, and inspect it periodically.

The winch gearing, and brake or locking mechanism, is where I would be concerned. That seems much more likely to fail, allowing the winch to slip, or freewheel.

This is especially concerning, since some people are apparently trusting their life to HF quality???