DIY Elevator - Simple and Strong 

Hi Larry - Thank you VERY much for the kind words!

You are welcome!

I’m incorporating this design into my floating bed my bed is floating with the same kind of cables connected to the ceiling but I want to make it to work goes up and down and I will use ideas from this video thank you so much

Thank you! It's nice to get a positive comment sprinkled in with all the troll comments!

do you have a the instructions to that same elevator ?

@@huesenpaul1394 Hi Paul, Dan and I chose not to provide explicit instructions due to liability issues. However, here are some CAD views that will help a savvy DIY builder. www.preyerplanning.com/elevator-ideas-01.pdf

@@mailmanx69 building one in our shop / airplane hangar. Thanks for the extra info. 👍🏻

Hi Melanie - What a REALLY THOUGHTFUL comment!! Rare, and quite pleasant! I actually do ignore the negative comments for the most part. Every now and then one will annoy me enough to have to force it out of my mind. I can usually do that pretty easily. If I were to monetized my videos, negative comments would not bother me at all since all comments, negative or positive, add to the level of income. However, I chose not to monetize so that people can view my videos without ads. I'm glad that you were able to find it useful. It's hard to believe that it's been a year and a half since I posted this video. Dan and I had intended on having MY elevator complete in a few weeks from when we started and I would post that as another video linked to this one. Life has a way of changing plans. It's been a rough year and a half. The wife of my friend, Dan, has MS. Some days are good, many are not. He does the best he can to provide care for her around his full-time job and in conjunction with his desire to have projects and hobbies. I was never pushy about getting the elevator done, a fact that he regularly thanks me for. About five months after this video posted, Dan's wife was doing pretty well, so he planned a nice summer vacation motorcycle ride from California to Alaska with his best friend. It was to be a 3-week trip. At the last minute, the friend's wife decided to go, too, but did not want to do it on the motorcycle, so she drove her car and took their dog with her. She travelled behind the two bikers so that they could set the pace. They were nearly to their first evening's destination and all was going well. Dan checked his mirror (he was riding in the middle) and saw her car start to veer left. It was a 2-lane highway with little traffic, but her car managed to find an oncoming car. It was a direct hit at about 60 miles per hour. Dan immediately turned around to see if he could provide help. He and one other driver stopped at the same time, so they went to opposite cars. Both driver's had died on impact. There were no other passengers in either car, except the dog, which also died on impact. There was nothing they could do but wait for the Police and Rescue to arrive. Dan and his friend did not have inter-bike radios, so it took his friend a while to realize something was wrong and turn around. Dan had to intercept him and recommend not going to the car. As most of us would be, he was driven to go see for himself. Ultimately, that's probably the only way he would believe it was real. The driver of the other car was an older gentleman in his 80's, unmarried. The police asked questions about the lady's state of mind. They were assured that she loved life. Therefore, the only conclusion anyone could arrive at is that she dozed off. She and the other driver both went to heaven sooner than expected, along with her dog. That cut the vacation short as Dan and his friend spent the next three weeks trying to cope with the loss while making arrangements for funeral and family. I, too, have had issues. Dan and I and our spouses are senior citizens. My wife and I are raising three grandkids, ages 6, 7 & 14 because their mother (our daughter) is a drug addict. My wife chose to give up her career to become a full-time stay-at-home "mother" for these kids. It's HARD work, but we love them dearly! We live on my income alone and manage to squeak by. Recently, I ended up in the hospital with a really severe case of pneumonia. We were OK financially since I had SDI short-term disability insurance coverage, but it scared my wife to face a possibility of losing me. Fortunately, she did not, but I understand her fear. The best I can do for that is to ensure that my family will be covered with better-than-average life-insurance. I have no idea why I just wrote all of this. I guess it's because I feel guilty that there isn't any update on my elevator yet.

@@mailmanx69 God bless you all for everything you do for others! And this vid is darling, inspiring!

That's awesome! I'm glad that we could spark a bit of creativity.

It was my friend, Dan, who did the design. He has been very concerned about liability. However, after further discussion, he decided he could share a few basic CAD drawings for people to use as they see fit. I added the link under the description, but here it is specifically for you: www.preyerplanning.com/elevator-ideas-01.pdf

That's an interesting thought. We were just testing out a theory for a fixed elevator at home, or in a barn or a garage, etc. Basically, we wanted a freight elevator that "could" be capable of lifting people as long as safety precautions were incorporated into the design. Dan, my friend who built this one moved it to his barn after finishing the roof shingle project. There, he re-built it with some improvements that we learned during the first effort. It is now used successfully for transferring hay and equipment between the lower and upper floors.

My thoughts exactly

It is when it gets to the roof!

My friend, Dan, is came up with the idea and the test model, so I'll give him the credit that is due.

Thank you! Not everyone understands the mind of those who love to design and build. We do it just for the love of doing it. I think a lot of those negative comments were more tongue-in-cheek than literal. The original height is simply because Dan found 4 really nice 16-foot 4x4's that were super straight. Since he planned to eventually move the elevator into his barn, he did not know what the final height would be, so he chose not to cut them yet. At this point, he has, indeed, moved it to the barn for permanent installation with a few revisions/upgrades. It works great there as a freight elevator. We started work on my in-house elevator. Dan was concerned about safety and liability, so he started going overboard on the design. We took a break to re-think it. During that time, I had a long period of sickness and now Dan has a major medical problem at his home with his wife. We will get back on task one of these days, then I will document it for RU-vid.

Michael Preyer, he had a good idea multi-purposing it. How "dare he" think that this ahead in the design! Ha ha ha! Your friend is a good guy to keep around. And i 100% understand the ability to do things anymore. Thanks!

Thanks a lot for showing the implementation of this really good idea. Hope you all get completely healthy and back at designing and building cool useful stuff soon !

I'd LOVE to see pics or video! You can upload your video to youtube quite easily. You can either post the video unedited, or use the RU-vid editor to make adjustments. You can also load individual pictures to RU-vid, then use the youtube editor to put those together into a slide show so that each picture lasts a predetermined amount of time, like 3-seconds each, or whatever else you choose.

Yes! You are one of the few who understands! Besides, Dan had another use for it. After moving it from the house, he made some improvements and permanently installed it in his barn as a freight elevator.

There are pulleys in the overhead rigging. The main cable is connected to 4 smaller cables that each go over a pulley in the rigging. He did not use any block and tackle-type rigging to increase torque since the rated capacity of the winch was more than adequate.

Nobody knows and he isn't going to tell us

In the description below the video, click on SHOW MORE. Then scroll down to see ADDENDUM. In that paragraph is a link to some simple design drawings that should be helpful.

That will be corrected in the elevator that goes into my garage.

It was my friend, Dan, who did the design. He has been very concerned about liability. However, after further discussion, he decided he could share a few basic CAD drawings for people to use as they see fit. I added the link under the description, but here it is specifically for you: www.preyerplanning.com/elevator-ideas-01.pdf

Thank you for that, it is more complicated than I thought, though It's clear and easy to understand...

This test elevator was an easy one. It took one day to build. After use, it was moved to Dan's 2-story barn and reassembled in an afternoon with a few minor improvements. The one he is designing for use in my house is a big step up in terms of reliability and safety. Right now, he's putting the finishing touch on an emergency brake system.

Found the addendum. Still a few questions but I assume you will not respond. Thanks - I plan on doing this or a variant within the next 12 months.

This elevator was moved to a barn where it is now used to move supplies to the upper loft. It has been secured with more bracing.

Adam Mackey Smith Yes, exactly.

It was my friend, Dan, who did the design. He has been very concerned about liability. However, after further discussion, he decided he could share a few basic CAD drawings for people to use as they see fit. I added the link under the description, but here it is specifically for you: www.preyerplanning.com/elevator-ideas-01.pdf

My friend, Dan, was not comfortable, at first, sharing plans due to liability issues. He later agreed that I could show a very rough CAD rendering of the upper pulley structure. The main cable of the winch is connected to 4 cables that go over pulleys in the overheard rigging and drop down to each corner of the lift platform. I hope you can work with this as it's all he's willing to have me show: www.preyerplanning.com/elevator-ideas-01.pdf

True! But an engineer is happy for any excuse to make something more complicated!

The motor is an automotive winch, so works great on any 12v automotive battery.

What would you do to make a permanent lift to get me 4 stairs up to my front door? Ramps are ugly and I would likely fall. I'm not ready for a wheelchair but getting in and out of the house is really hard

AD ALVAREZ you could do this exact same build with less materials by using 3x3 1/4 inch metal post the take rectangular tubing to use for your bracing cross bars to keep it from collapsing inwards on itself but the part you will need to figure out is how he ran his inner cables to the floor

shadd100 I will ask because I empathize with the needs of our honorable veterans. I know that Dan is quite concerned about liability. Even though he and I are long-time trusted friends, I will be signing an agreement and a liability waiver. Once it's all done, he may be willing to share parts of the design.

I guess that safety is not a factor

It's an 8,000 lb winch with automatic breaking.

Michael Preyer I hope you mean braking 😉

That is hilarious! Good catch. Since the motor is made in China, my typo may be too close to the truth!

1978garfield - We can get that delivery service here as well. However, Dan and I are both engineers which makes us a bit "odd". We like to design, tinker and build. In fact, if we see something that is just too darn simple to operate, we feel compelled to muck it up a bit so that it is more appropriately complex! But seriously, Dan had some other plans for this elevator down the road, so this was a test setup. He bought really straight 16-foot posts and did not want to cut them, for now. This elevator has since been modified, improved and installed permanently in Dan's 2-story barn where it is used to move heavy stuff from one level to the other. He modified the "platform" of the elevator into a simple elevator "car". That way, it has a protective ceiling in case debris is dropped while the car is on the first floor. The height of the car used up much of the extra length on the posts, so he only had to cut them down a couple of feet.

@@mailmanx69 first off your two have done an amazing job designing this and making it work so smoothly. I cant wait to build something like this of my own. My only question is what was changed or modified to make it permanent? Any pictures or drawings of the one installed in the barn?

Hi MagicHorseman! My friend, Dan, who designed this basic elevator and who is now designing a much improved version for my garage, did not want me to share too much detail on RU-vid. That is his prerogative and I will honor it. However, I will help as much as I can without giving away specifics of his design... Go to 1:30 in the video and start playing from there. For a few seconds, you can see where the cable from the winch junctions with the 4 smaller cables going on up to the top. At the top corner, those 4 individual cables run through a series of horizontal and vertical pulleys to distribute them down the insides of the applicable corner posts. The pulley system is fairly complex and is the heart of what makes it work well. The pulleys are mounted in sturdy metal brackets that Dan made for them. The brackets are then sandwiched into a strong laminated structure at the top of the elevator that is designed to drive all of the load equally down through the 4 corner posts.

También me preguntaba lo mismo, pero ahí esta muy claro, tienen 4 cables una en cada esquina que son mas delgados que el que va al carrete del motor y estos cuatro cables se unen en el empalme. Min 1:32

A ramp to the top of the roof is much easier and uses less wood have a look at my video.

Due to liability reasons, Dan does not wish to distribute the plans. When the project at my house is complete, I will upload a new video. From that, a handy person could likely figure out how to build his own.

Yes, just one motor. It is a 12v jeep winch purchased from Harbor Freight. It has a 9,000 lb weight capacity which is WAY more than enough. It also has a motor brake that will stop the cable if the motor quits. Start at 1:51 and move forward frame-by-frame. If on a computer, you can do that using the > key. You can also go back one frame with the < key. At this point in the video, you will be able to see where the one large cable coming from the motor is spliced to the four smaller cables that go up and over the top then down to each corner. Then, go to this webpage, www.preyerplanning.com/elevator-ideas-01.pdf . It will show some basic 3D views taken from the CAD drawing for the upper structure. My friend, Dan, who designed this, did not want to provide the complete set of drawings due to concerns about liability. He and I hope that the few pictures provided here will give a savvy person the answer they are looking for. Oh, I should mention that the pulleys we used are from heavy patio doors. They come in 1", 1.25" and 1.5" diameters and with or without hardware. Here are some examples: www.primeline.net/product-categories/exterior-door-hardware/rollers-1#/pagesize=9&orderby=5 The larger diameter rollers will be easier on the cable, so I recommend those. You can buy them with or without hardware. I would get them WITHOUT hardware because several of them in this elevator system are stacked 2-wide. You are better off to buy your own hardware. NOTE: You will need (12) of those pulley. Take a look at this photo to see where they all are: www.preyerplanning.com/Pulleys-for-Top-of-Elevator.jpg For the pulley axle-bolts, I recommend buying grade 5 shoulder bolts, similar to this, www.amazon.com/dp/B008AY350U/ref=sr_1_10?dchild=1&keywords=grade+5+1%2F4-inch+shoulder+bolt&qid=1587086896&sr=8-10 of the appropriate length for your application. Don't scrimp on quality for other hardware, either. Eye bolts, for example, should only forged, heat treated steel that look like this: images.homedepot-static.com/productImages/bd318304-fd41-4218-b4b6-caf5d6fe8d22/svn/hardware-essentials-eye-bolts-320608-0-64_1000.jpg It will be immeasurably stronger than the little bent metal ones at the home stores.

Michael Preyer Sir, you are awesome!!! Thank you so much for taking the time with all this information. It is for sure greatly appreciated! 🍻 I was wondering and glad to hear the motor has a brake. 👍🏻 As for quality, I agree 100 percent !!! In fact, I’d probably go a step more on bolts and buy grade 8 myself. (I’ve never hade grade 8..... because in my 46 years, I’ve never been let down by using grade 8 ) And nowadays there’s so much crap out there for stainless, I try to stick to 316, which is marine grade. If have no choice I’ll use 304 stainless, but I’ve never had 316 grade fail me. The older I get, the more and more make sure when I do a job one time! Again, much appreciated I all the details.

@@cnvw974 Glad to help! I appreciated your words of wisdom as well. Find what works and stick with it!

Michael Preyer How did you run the cable?

Michael Preyer Never mind, just seen in description! Thanks!!!

Where's the fun in that? No challenge! I getcha, though. There certainly are easier ways. However, us engineering-types are a strange breed. We look for reasons to design and build things.

Understood, except he was testing a design. When done with lifting the shingles, he moved the elevator to his barn and reassembled it with a few improvements. Now he has a freight elevator to the loft in his barn. Even better, he has now designed a much better quality one that he and are are building into my house since I think I will be in a wheelchair in the next few years. My arthritis is taking a toll on my body.

The code of secrecy!

SHINGLES DOESNT CARE!

Or just pick the bundles up and put them on the roof. That roof line is like 8 feet off the ground

Yup. I guess you overlooked the very first line of my video description. This was not built "just" for taking shingles up. It was an experiment to verify that it would work. It has now been moved into a barn where it is used to move supplies to an upper loft. A few improvements were made and more bracing was added. It works great!

Oh ye of little faith! It has a half-life of 20-years, so we are good for a while.

Yes. I am currently working on an upgraded version of this design as a "freight elevator" that will be large enough and strong enough for 2-people and a wheelchair. It will be 4-feet wide and 5-feet long. All of the parts of the construction must be strong enough to be safe as if people would ever be on it. :-)

JerryRigEverything made one

@@zaneball8294 - Hi Zane! If you are referring to this one that Zack installed for his wife, Cambry, he bought it and helped install it. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-aqMZfQODJZo.html Nice unit, but pricey! Hopefully he got it at a discount in exchange for advertising. The retail rate for that elevator is $25,000 plus the cost of any construction required. It's also really tiny. Zack would not be able to get on it along with Cambry in her wheelchair. Most people who find this video are looking for a DIY bargain, which is what I am working on. I am trying to keep mine under $2000 total parts and labor (the labor is mine and some friends). It will have a very healthy 1,500 lb lifting capacity and be large enough for 2 wheelchairs. It's been slow going, but I hope to have it done by the end of summer. When done, I'll do a video on it.

@@mailmanx69 This is a good idea.I would need one for my camp.Its elevated 10 feet off the ground.

True, but that wasn't the point. We are engineers. We love to build and tinker. We also like to take simple things and complexify them! It was a fun little experiment. Besides, Dan had a long-term plan. When he disassembled the elevator after the roof was done, he improved the design and put it in his 2-story barn as a freight elevator.

Or you could have Gone to any self respecting roofing supplier and gotten roof top delivery for less than 400 bucks lol.

I checked. None of the roofing guys in my area have any self-respect! What was I to do? LOL!!

hahaha I figured maybe you live out in the boondocks.

tphone720 .... At the age of 71, this looks like a very viable gizmo....

It would be cheaper to hire someone to carry me up to my 5th floor apartment than it would be to build an elevator! That's not why people build elevators or try out ideas.

@@jeffmoore9487 i get it. but his roof is barely 8 ft. thats what i was basing it off of. not a 5 story apartment. it would be genius if it were a 5 story apartment.

but then OSHA wouldn't approve

Obviously they just lifted 630 lb of shingles . Would imagine there are some hazards and pinch points for humans though

We are both engineers. Engineers are a strange breed that enjoys designing and building things even when simple options already exist. In fact, if a simple option exists, we feel compelled to make it more complex! Dan, my friend and the designer, learned from this effort. He improved it and moved it to his 2-story barn for transferring stuff between floors. It continues to live on today.

Correction, 4x4x20.

well the date on the video post description says 3/1/2017 so...

Where's the fun in that? We are engineers! We love to design and build things. If they aren't complicated, we try to make them so!

Michael Preyer I applaud you for making work fun then 👏😊

Understood, except he was testing a design. When done with lifting the shingles, he moved the elevator to his barn and reassembled it with a few improvements. Now he has a freight elevator to the loft in his barn. Even better, he has now designed a much better quality one that he and are are building into my house since I think I will be in a wheelchair in the next few years. My arthritis is taking a toll on my body.

But you can certainly put a muzzle on a jackass!

Hi Gregory - Thanks for the feedback. We appreciate all comments.

You could engineer a wet paper bag and someone somewhere would die in it. Sometimes, you just have to trust people with their own freedom to accidentally injure themselves.

@@kevinfishburne you are correct and if you want to see that sort of stuff you search for "fails". Many many people come to RU-vid for advice and ideas on how to do something. That is the power of the RU-vid community and as an avid RU-vidr I was just pointing out that for those that want to experiment with lifting devices "be wery wery careful!" this stuff will kill you faster and in more ways than a wet paper bag. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-zZUJLO6lMhI.html

@@mfsolutions LOL. It is true. I've done a lot of projects and generally over-engineer them to varying degrees, but my tentative home elevator project idea has given me pause more than the others. There are a lot of things that can go wrong, including operator error. I'll probably just plan it to death and if it smells right in the end see if I can make it happen. Life would be torturously boring without fun projects. :)

@@kevinfishburne I am in the process of designing one as well for people (me)... I had toyed with the winch idea but will probably go with homemade hydraulics with a pressure balancing system..in the case of failure there is no movement. I design hydraulic presses so I will stick with what I am familiar and plan for failure...cause that will happen to every system eventually. That is why we call is a "fail safe".

Hi Joe - Thank you very much for the excellent advice! I will pass it along to Dan who is designing mine. I believe that he has already incorporated most of those changes into the new design. He is a professional tool designer who specializes in heavy lifts slings. I know he understands the stress side of the engineering calculations. The rickety elevator in the video was just a rough test. He improved it when he moved it to his barn. He wants the elevator in my house to be extremely safe and is, indeed, designing it with a 5:1 ratio. The cable will be heavier and will be professionally crimped at a local tool shop. Each of the lift points will be forged fitting. I believe he will agree with all of your points.

Hey! This is good to hear, keep safe and happy lifting!

Hi thanks for the comments. The link doesn't work.

Loulou Labelette Just search google for "understanding riggers design factor" and you should be able to read a few publications on the issue. Definitely enough to make this project 10x safer. You won't be a certified rigger over night or anything but you will at least understand the outer limits of design factors.

Gracias Joe

Uh oh, the Warden has struck! Don't worry, Scruffmeister, it was designed by an Aerospace Tooling Engineer. It was peer reviewed by an Aerospace Manufacturing Engineer (not me, my supervisor). It was stress analyzed by an Aerospace Stress Engineer. A lot of my friends at work are quite interested in this project. 100 of the county's best inspectifiers couldn't do any better. Besides, don't ever forget the possibilities mentioned by the infamous Steven Tyler: "Love In An Elevator!" Ha! The elevator shaft was built 10-feet above the roofline for 2-reasons: 1) He wanted it at least tall enough to stop about 4-feet above the roof so it's easy to pull bundles off the platform without bending over. 2) He purchased 16-foot 4X4's and he did not want to cut them yet. That's because this elevator will be removed then rebuilt (new and improved!) in his barn after the roof is done. He can cut the 4X4's to the final size at that time. It will be a cheap elevator for his barn and it will have been FREE for his roof shingles! So there! Neener, neener!

There's the problem! It was peer reviewed (overkilled) by enginears! Adding the cost of the hi-priced enginearing time used, not to even mention the distraction factor from the impotent NGRAC projects that suffered, and the cost more than doubled! If it was reviewed by a good Imaginary Enginear it woulda never got to the starting blocks! As fer the barn; whatsamatta with using a rope pulley to reach a loft, that can be taken down when not used like real farmers do?! It would only take up space in midair, only when needed, not alla time like a sure to rust & breakdown, seldom used dumbwaiter! Err....did all youse Enginear Extraordinairs fergit that "Space truly is the final frontier"?! Finally, can I hide & watch while ya tell the county mounties that "100 of the county's best inspectifiers couldn't do any better"?!

So you are saying that an "imaginary engineer", like you, would give me an "imaginary elevator?"

You can find a diagram of the pullies in a link that I posted under ADDENDUM in the comments section below the video.