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anyone ever make a elevator for a barn/shop

Started by UNCLEBUCK, January 17, 2004, 09:23:24 AM

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UNCLEBUCK

here is pictures of old barn I am fixing up and cleaning junk out of and would love to see pictures or hear ideas of anyone that has found a easier way to get upstairs to the loft like a homemade elevator or a outside ramp or a neat stairway , I would like to move all my woodworking stuff up to the loft because I like it up there and it otherwise is wasted space . thanks                                                                                  

UNCLEBUCK    bridge burner/bridge mender

Wes

 Looks like a nice place, I hope to have a small farm someday. I ve noticed that most of the dairy farms in my area were built into a hillside or slope,providing easy acess to the loft, Ive also seen a fiew with earthen ramps, I think that would be the best, you would need to first build a retaining wall alongside the barn wall.

Swede

Perhaps a beltconveyor on wheels so You can move it? I think an used one for gravel should be possible to find but most of them goes to fast and are heavy.

But how much wood do You want to take up on the loft? I´m thinking about the weight.

Swede.
Had a mobile band sawmill, All hydraulics  for logs 30\"x19´, remote control. (sold it 2009-04-13)
Monkey Blades.Sold them too)
Jonsered 535/15\". Just cut firewood now.

UNCLEBUCK

Hi Wes , I never thought about the dirt ramp idea but its a darn good thought . I have heard of people making a homemade elevator but I just cant find any pics on the web.  Swede , hey there !  My great grand parents all came from sweden and norway so that makes me half and half ! good idea about the conveyor , I use to fill the loft full of haybales 20 plus years ago from floor to cieling so I guess it held 4000 hay bales at 50 pounds a bale so 200,000 pounds so to be safe say 100,000 pounds spread out should be no problem, I know its old but I want to get things like table saw ,band saw stuff up there, its a waste to not make use of it and still have cattle come in the lower part , it feels like the woodwrights shop t.v. show up there if I can figure out the ramp or landing or elevator thing, thanks for the feedback , keep it comin, going to be about minus 18 f tonight here in central minnesota, thats a long way from sweden
UNCLEBUCK    bridge burner/bridge mender

shopteacher

I was going to put a hydraulic elevator in the barn I'm currently building, but decided to forgo it as I didn't want to give up the space.  What I bought was the whole front end off a fork lift and all the hydraulics. All I would have had to do was cement it into the ground and install an electric motor to the pump.  Got the forks with the front end so would have only had to put a platform on them.  My second idea was to set up the front end to fit a 3 point hitch and use it on the rear of my Massey  as a rear fork lift.  Bought a JD 8875 so no longer need it for that either.
Proud owner of a LT40HDSE25, Corley Circle mill, JD 450C, JD 8875, MF 1240E
Tilt Bed Truck  and well equipted wood shop.

UNCLEBUCK

thanks shopteacher , the  forklift idea sounds great, I have drawn so many homemade elevator ideas inside/outside etc and all my drawings I have had a electric winch but I really like this forklift thing you have , its about 9 foot from main floor to upstairs so not too impossible . I pulled the overhead power pole down and going to dig in underground power to this barn in april but I want a elevator really bad and I will do it the cheap way somehow .
UNCLEBUCK    bridge burner/bridge mender

ADfields

I'm thinking a 4 post car lift inside with your lumber rack right on it.   You know the ones like in this link. http://www.northerntool.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?storeId=6970&langId=-1&catalogId=4006970&PHOTOS=on&TEST=Y&productId=200214674

I think you could extend the legs so you get the travel you need.   They have a drive type chain that lifts all 4 legs at once with 1 hyd cylinder on them.   Not a lot to them. ;)   Build a floor on the ramps and your in business and your cows can use the center ally under it when it's up.   Use a spiral stair to get you up and down easy and take little space.
Andy

J_T

I just bough an old electric fork lift with side shift ,five foot forks 190in lift for 250 bucks could set aganst a wall put on a big platform and have lots leftover parts for something else. I build everything am putting this one on a two row cotton picker calling it my cotton picking fork lift  8)
Jim Holloway

ScottAR

The forklift idea is great.  Most lifts are pretty cheap.  The electric ones can be had for nearly nothing when the batteries go bad.  Don't be tempted to use the 12V pump.  One will spend more on batteries than a 110V pump will cost.  HTH.
Scott
"There is much that I need to do, even more that I want to do, and even less that I can do."
[Magicman]

UNCLEBUCK

wow  ! sounds like the forklift idea is what I like and lots of auctions coming up soon around fargo,nd. so I be a biddin on a junker and throwin out all my drawings . AD had a great idea too if I could get it at the auction it would be worth a look to see how much it goes for . I see that new price is out of my budget but its auction season soon, I would have never thought about either of these ideas if I wouldnt have asked and I probably would have walked right past it at the auctions and went and stood by the hayrack junk. J_T, ScottAR, great idears !  :) thanks
UNCLEBUCK    bridge burner/bridge mender

Corley5

Hayrack JUNQUE.  The real treasures at auctions are found on those loads of JUNQUE ;) ;D
Burnt Gunpowder is the Smell Of Freedom

UNCLEBUCK

hahaha  :D  , yeah I be the one with three hamburgers in my hand and diggin through the boxes of "gold" !  sure is fun though isnt it . :D
UNCLEBUCK    bridge burner/bridge mender

Corley5

Loads ;D  That what's been hauled home ::)  Gonna have to have an auction here to make room for more ;) ;D ;D
Burnt Gunpowder is the Smell Of Freedom

Stan

I saw one in "Farm Show" that might work for you. It was set up for a 3 point hitch, but there's no reason you couldn't just make it a stationary rig. The guy built a heavy duty ladder out of pipe, made a platform that rode on wheels against the verticals, and cranked it up with a winch looped around a pulley at the top. His was just to gain access to the side of his house to work on gutters, so he used a hand cranked winch. I don't know why you couldn't use an electric one.  8)
I may have been born on a turnip truck, but I didn't just fall off.

Den Socling

If you need more travel than hydraulics can deliver, an elevator is easy. Get a gear motor with an electric brake. Add a reversing starter designed for a hoist (with up and down buttons). Make spools from pipe and crank the spools with the gear motor. It doesn't take much to lift tons. And, with a few calculations, you can make the travel speed exactly what you want by taking an old gear motor and adjusting speed with the spool diameter.

Swede

9 foot....... ::) *thinking in Meters* 2,73. It looks double as much from my chair. Then I vote for an old forklift.
In back of a traktor or other wheels with low pressure even that can be too much with big load on the top. Make it stationary or use other wheels if there is no supportlegs to squeeze to a firm  ground.
Check old pipings and hoses!

Swede.
Had a mobile band sawmill, All hydraulics  for logs 30\"x19´, remote control. (sold it 2009-04-13)
Monkey Blades.Sold them too)
Jonsered 535/15\". Just cut firewood now.

UNCLEBUCK

Stan,Den and Swede thank you for the feedback and maybe it will help anyone else wishing to do this too, well its 22 below tonight and I will be checking all the auction bills for a forklift set up, sounds like the way to go , and much safer than my first plan. If anyone finds a picture of one installed in a barn please post it here someday otherwise I can pretty much pisture it in my head , now thats scary ! ::)
UNCLEBUCK    bridge burner/bridge mender

D._Frederick

Uncle,

I see that  your barn was set-up for loose hay with the track down the center, do you have the carriage for the track? That carriage and track will easily lift a 1000 lbs. It wouldn't be that much of a problem to lift your wood working equipment to the loft for a one time thing. Most of those barns used 3/4 inch lumber for a floor, you should put down some sheets of 3/4 plywood for your equipment to sit on.

UNCLEBUCK

D._Frederick,  here is a pic of the track as it extends outside of the barn and yes the carriage is still hanging on the track but I dont know anything about it , I read once that it locks the load in the air and then somehow the carriage will roll on the track all the way to the other end and then you can somehow trip it , I guess I better crawl up the extension ladder and figure this one out because I feel really stupid now but thats ok, it sounds even better than the old forklift idea and also its free and allready in place, you have once again helped me in a big way here, wow ! thanks , now I wont sleep for sure !  ???                                                                                  
UNCLEBUCK    bridge burner/bridge mender

Minnesota_boy

Our barn had one of those hay carriers.  The trolley would roll out to the end of the track to where there was a mechanism that locked the trolley in place and let the hay lift down to the hay rack.  When you pulled the rope, it would lift straight up until the load reached the top, then it would release (sort of) the trolley to roll into the barn where you would trip the hay forks to drop the loose hay.  No way included to let the load down slowly, just had to drop it.  You could get creative and make up something to stop the trolley and let you lower the load, but you'll be working at the top of the barn, far above the floor while you do it.
I eat a high-fiber diet.  Lots of sawdust!

Bro. Noble

Be sure to replace the old ropes with modern synthetic rope.  The climbers can probably reccomend the right kind,

I think you can put a collar or knot or something in the rope so it makes the trolly think the load is all the way up.  You could locate it so that the trolly moves when the load is just above the level of the loft floor.  By incorperating a hand winch (come-a-long) or a chain hoist a few feet above the end of the lift rope,  you could allow for lifting different heights of loads.  And could set them to the floor gently.

Ya gotta have a team of mules to pull the lift rope though :D  That sure brings back memories.  Had a neighbor that used an electric motor and a capstan winch on the lift rope.

Somewhere there must be operators instructions for those setups------would be very helpful to you.  Probably some old-timers around that would be thrilled to show you how they worked.

If you could see our old barn (in my logo) better you would see that it is also made for loading loose hay.  If you could see, however,  sticking in the opening below is a portable grain elevator.  We use it for putting Small square bales in the loft. Used to use it in two different barns as well as stacking bales in a pole barn.  We put the hopper on it and used it with ear corn.  We have used it to put shingles on roofs and to build concrete block flues-------both to lift the blocks and as a scaffold.  It's 40 ft long and will lift (by hand crank and cable) to about 20 ft high.  
milking and logging and sawing and milking

isawlogs

You could rigg an electric winch easaly to the trolly and use the winch for up down, and pull the load by hand in or pull it with a rope . We put a winch over at dads and use a rope tpull in the load ...We took the trolly off and oiled it good and do oil it every time we use it..
A man does not always grow wise as he grows old , but he always grows old as he grows wise .

   Marcel

Corley5

The following pics show what we've done to our old hay barn to make it into a workshop.  We poured a floor, added an upper floor with I-beams, 2X8s and 1" lumber, then insulated and sheathed the inside with chip board from the GP plant in Gaylord.  The I-beams are also going to double as shop crane.  We are going to put a trolley on each beam with another beam with a trolley and chainfalls to give a wide range of mobility.  The old barn also has a hay track in the peak and we framed in a trap door in the floor to use it along with a trolley and chain falls to get stuff to the second floor.  For heat we have a heat exchanger hooked to Dad's Heatmoor outdoor furnace.  It doesn't take long even at zero degrees and no heat in there for several days for it to warm up.  We put 8" of insulation in the ceiling and six in the side walls.  The total work area in the shop is about 24X32.  That about half of the barn with the other half being cold storage.  We had talked about building a new shop but decided we'd be better off utilizing one that we already had.  We also upgraded the power to a 200 amp service.  This is still a work in progress but we are almost done now.  Just have to finish painting and build some work benches.

The stairway to the second floor


The heat exchanger


Hay grapple/forks where they've been for as long as I can rember


Hay trolley where it's also hung for as long as I can remember


Trap door to second floor for lifting stuff with hay track


Last winters pic of the barn.  It doesn't look much diiferent this winter

Burnt Gunpowder is the Smell Of Freedom

D._Frederick

Corley,

Nice job of building a shop in your barn, can you hide it from the tax assessor? How are you handling that cutting torch in a wooden building, my assurance agent would have a fit if he saw that?

HP

Here are some pictures of an elevator that I built in our house several years ago.  
between floors


worm gear winch

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