Up one level Neidrauer Adventures Photo Album and Blog » The Freight Elevator Project
The Freight Elevator Project
Since I can't carry Locomotives in and out of my no-outside-access basement, one key piece of equipment will be a lifting mechanism I am building. I have fabricated my own freight elevator for the stairwell opening. H. Graham has completed the engineering, provided 16 pages of drawings. I have completed the mechanical fabrication Winter 2011. The power is in, the controls are in and operational. The staircase stand is now finished. Modifications to the lifting stand is complete November 2011. The lifting stand has made a trial lift to the top without issue. Next Finished: December 2011: The jumper track for the top of the stairs to bridge the stand to garage distance. Started Winter 2010. First solo lift, load out, load in and lower, December 2011.

3-Dec-2011 One little problem: this chain guide slipped, wrapped around the sprocket before jamming and stalling the motor. 3-Dec-2011 Stairs out of the way, stand in position and read lifting beam and lifting bracket in position. 3-Dec-2011 The Crab at elevator top ready to roll outside across the jumper track. Sunday, December 4, 2011 One Last Fun Run Saturday turned out to be an incredibly nice day, sunny and warm (62). Tim had called me earlier in the week saying we should run out at the track, our friend Alan W. from TN was going to visit and that he was going to bring the 1 3-Nov-2011 Using a large chunk of well-used metal, I've drilled a 51/64 2-Nov-2011 Using the rear lifting bracket as a drill guide to pilot the bushing holes in the legs of the stand. I use the motorcycle lift to position the bracket, and later to lean against it for leverage since my feet kept sliding on the floor while drilling! 29-Oct-2011 The finished rear lifting bracket in paint. Update: Discovered the upper bushings were too high on the stand legs, had to drill two more holes and weld bushings in place a few days later. 19-Oct-2011 First trial lift of the stand and it is a success!! The modified stand legs clear the chain drive and the shorter length fits into the lifting beams opening. 19-Oct-2011 First trial lift of the stand, rear view. 16-Oct-2011 Modifications nearly complete, and finished in gloss black, the lifting stand goes back into the basement. I still have to weld the lifting pad onto the front and drill bolt holes for the real lifting pad bracket, but I have to position the stand over the lifting beams to mark their locations. 9-Oct-2011 Tickled with a paint brush, both stands roll over onto their backs. I actually spent last weekend cutting, grinding and re-welding the lifting stand to it's now shorter dimensions. And installed foot brakes on both units. I also got a coat of rusty metal primer on both. 22-June-2011 An unforscene problem: the wheels are underneath the drive chain. When the cart is lifted, it will hit the chain on the way up and down. Looks like I will have to modify the cart design a bit. 22-June-2011. Uh Houston, we have a problem! Looks like the Field Engineer forgot to tell the draftsman to adjust the drawings for the lifting cart. The end of the cart is supposed to be _between_ the lifting beam (to the left), not straddling it. We're going to have to do some cutting and grinding to modify.... 22-June-2011 Measuring the gap between the stand and the top of the stairs with a plumb line. It is better than I calculated! Hmmm, here's a little problem. The wheels are hitting the chain guide supports before the cart is fully in position. 22-June-2011 Wheels under the stairs, Rolled out of the stairwell. That worked well! 22-June-2011 Maybe a little crude right now, but an old sock on the end of the stairwell handrail seemed like the best 'watch out!' warning flag at the time. The lower limit switch installed! Lower Limit switch and mounting bracket fabricated. The switch was recycled from old computer/printer assemblies. I start welding the vertical legs for the staircase The upstairs control panel mounted, wired in and operational! I am thrilled with the look! 22-May-2011 The upstairs control panel is mounted. The finished faceplate with buttons afixed. 22-May-2011 Cutting a 7/8 20-May-2011 The Basement control buttons are mounted and operational! 17-May-2011 - Holes drilled - buttons installed! The lower control box is ready to be mounted. 17-May-2011 I needed to put a 7/8 17-May-2011 The big mill was tied up with a part for the Mikado locomotive, so I use the mill-drill to bore a 1.087 hole in the control box I picked up. The 'cancel/stop' button will go here. 28-Apr-2011 With a clamp holding the blackberry overhead, I use my phone to make a quick video of the bench wired control circuit working. 28-Apr-2011 This setup may not be what Blackberry had in mind when the designed their device. 25-April-2011 Control wiriing in progress on the bench. It looks a bit messy now, but I have a plan! The TECO FM50 AC Drive controller. Pretty nifty, 110vac15amp input, 220vac-3-phase output. Service disconnect switch on left. 2-Apr-2011 Proposed wiring schematic for the controls. 19-Feb-2011 Clearance check. The keystock is close, but not touching the support post. here you can see how they sit on top of the lifting nut, bearing the load. 19-Feb-2011 The final piece of fabrication on the lifting beams - welding 1/2 16-Feb-2011 Beveling one end of 1/2 12-Feb-2011 We slotted one end to allow for slight movement of the beam and screws when in use. 12-Feb-2011 A successful test fitting of the beam! Drilling the lifting nut bolt holes. Sometimes you just need a little more support on one end (of a 50 lbs. beam!) 2-Feb-2011 A string of lousy weather Saturdays had allowed extra shop time this month! With the support posts final installed, the lifting nut bolt holes can be drilled into the beams. I was only 1/16 12-Feb-2011 The motor mouting assembly. 9-Feb-2011 Making a mounting plate for the motor out of 1/2 9-Feb-2011 The chain and sprocket assembly. I would recommend making a longer shaft and also put a bearing below the sprockets for additional support. 9-Feb-2011 The support posts have been anchored to the floor and to the house floor joists (thanks Al for your help!), and #40 chain purchased from a local supplier. The installed drive chain! Packing the thrust bearings for installation. 5-Feb-2011 Welding additional support bracket on the upper bearing plate. It was listed as optional on the drawings. 17-Nov-2010 Fitting the upper bearings and screws to the support posts. The quickest way to get a professional paint job - have a professional do it! Fresh from the sandblaster with a coat of enamal paint end undercoat, the parts look fantastic! I also had the gondola painted while I was dropping things off. 8-Aug-10 Main welding complete. Need to weld lifting brackets on and drill bolt holes after check the 'as-finsihed' assembly dimensions. 4-Aug-2010 more welding, more use of the Mikdao boiler and stand as a work bench. 4-August-2010 Fabricating the lifting beam. 23-July-2010 Lower bearing supports welded on. Lower assembly Upper assembly 7-July-10 A post with the screw temporarily assembled, put in place for show and tell later in the week. Using a machined plug to locate the upper bearing keeper on the upper bearing plate. Clearing a space around the stairs, I position the legs on the corners to see how things are shaping up. Here's how it looks from the bottom up. I am using a piece of 7 inch C-channel sitting on top of the boiler on the yellow engine stand as a welding table. Sure beats welding on the floor on my hands and knees! A temporary assembly to position the upper bearing support plate for tack welding. A Vee-block to hold the pipe, magnet to hold the lower bearing bracket and using the screw and brearing to keep it in line with the top bearing plate. Top shot of the upper brackets tack welded on. The base plates are tack-welded to the bottom of the pipes. It was a pain grinding the ends square so the pipes would stand up (mostly) straight. Once again, the engine/boiler stand is pressed into service to hold the 93 23-June-10 workholding clamps to weld the baseplate. The 4 bearing spaces and the leftover stock. The spaces will be machined to final thickness in another operation. Parting off the bearing spacers 16-June-10 Bill cleans the burr off the stock 9-June-10 Finished Lower bearing support brackets and upper bearing keepers. 19-May-20 The big Rahn-Larmon lathe works again. Here Bill had turned down the welded portion smooth for the lower bearing seat, then cut the shoulder for the sprocket. We used a blown up cutoff tool to make the scriber. A closeup of the hand ground scriber Here's how we used the scriber and the line made on the shaft (inside the circle) 19-May-10 We needed to set the length of all four screws to an equal amount, so we resorted to a 'poor mans' height gage. We scribed a line on all four screws with a HSS scriber on the top of the shelves. After I turned the gas bottle on, turned down the heat and wire feed rate, things got a lot better! The shaft extension has been welded to the screw. Next step: machine the extension to size. What a SMAW (MIG) weld looks like without cover gas. Utterly terrible and unacceptable! I use a couple of bearings at the other end so the screw will roll when I turn it. This setup turns out to be overly complex. The screw will roll with little resistance just setting in the vee-block. I end up threading a nut on the end of the screw to keep the bearings from falling off, but really a large wash would suffice. The welding roller setup, using the boiler as a workbench. My solution to providing a clamp grounding point which still allows me to roll the screw. The end of the screw with threaded receiver and beveled end for welding. Here are the shaft extensions threaded onto the end of the screw, ready for welding. 12-May-10 Bill rough machines the screw shaft extensions. He wishes my little Clausing lathe would move the carriage and compound simultanously to produce a 45 degree cut, but the angle is more like 25 degees. He cuts the 45 degree bevel by hand. Here's a shop tip: we want the bevel go from the 1-1/8 24-April-10 It's not much to look at, but here is the stairwell with completed modifications and a sand-texture paint job. The ceiling is now squared off (not sloping), the sand swirl texture applied and a finish coat of Using a hole saw to cut a 1 I work on the the lower bearing support bracket. After putting threads on the other end of all four the acme rods, Bill prepares the end for a shaft extension I have to weld on. We will screw the shaft into the rod, then also weld it. I had to use the fly-cutter to finish the bore to size. I used a hole saw to cut the 2 The Joist brackets are drilled using the same vise-stop arrangement. I worked on the other parts. Here I'm drilling holes for the floor mount. I'm all proud that I used a vise stop for quick locating of the other plates, making it quicker to drill the holes. The 7/8 Turning down the end of the rod to take the thrust bearings using a tool holder my brother gave me. We have 5 feet of rod hanging off the end of the spindle. Since we don't want that to whip around bending or breaking things, Bill made a close fitting aluminum collar. It's a snug fit in the spindle, but a looser fit on the threaded rod. The collar hold the rod nicely. Unfortunately, this outboard end of the spindle is slightly bent, so the rod wobbles anyhow. 31-Mar-10 Using a dial indicator with a large button back to center the threaded rod in the 4-Jaw chuck. As we rotate the chuck, the indicator moves off the thread top, requiring us to move the carriage. 27-Mar-10 After probably 4 hours of band-saw time, I've got the metal stock cut and ready for machining. Also today, Brian Miller from Miller Machining stopped out at the track and dropped off the screw nuts he made for me. They fit perfectly on the acme threaded rod and I am so happy! One of the things Mom & Dad & I did while they were visiting was stopping by the steel supplier to pick up my order. Here I've laid out the cuts for the bandsaw to work on. The stairwell opening after a coat of mud. At the end of the day Sunday, the opening is rough drywalled in! Denis has fun with the camera and catches and action shot of dad. :) 21-Mar-10 Putting 2x2 sleepers in so we can hang drywall. In a bit of recycling of our own, we reused the studs we removed from the stairwell opening. The vetern 35+ year old Skill brand scroll saw still can cut, but not without some effort. Completing the rip cut in the stud. 21-Mar-10 Dad uses a portable circular saw to rip the studs down while I hold the vacume cleaner nozzle in an attempt to contain the dust and dirt. Operators side view of the torch trolley. Yes, that is a trailing truck for my 3/4 23-Jan-10 I spend the morning fabricating a trolly for my torch since I cannot cut straight lines freehand and there is not a lot of wiggle room for error. 23-Jan-2010 Before fabrication can begin, you need the raw stock. In this case, 24 pieces of 3,4 and 5 inch widths need to be cut from this 3/8 21-Nov-09 Howard had so much fun cutting the inspection hole, he kept going and opened up the rest of rough opening needed to provide vertical clearance. Demolition is so much fun! Bill and Howard feign suprise at what the inspection hole reveals.

This album has 2347 items in total    |    Album was updated 12/10/11 10:25 PM    |    Generated by JAlbum 7.3, custom skin ExhibitPlus 1.5