How to build an elevator?

[lapeer20m]

i was at a scrap yard a while back that had about a dozen junk fork trucks.......

if you could find such a place near you, i think the moving portion would make a good hydraulic elevator capable of lifting at least a ton 15 feet high

[Elliot Naess]

Wow, that's one humdinger of a draw bridge! What's it say on that boat... Exxon N. Valdez?

Great classic mechanical design. Anybody with a big enough Meccano erector set....
Basically, those two towers constitute the four pillars of my first idea for the lift, yes. And the big truss across the top will already be there -- in the form of the upstairs floor joists.

Now... a fork lift... There's a brand new idea indeed! Maybe I can simply buy a usable fork lift and use it for all kinds of things -- like lift Millicent for oil changes!

Ah... 2008 is gonna be great!

[the_experience03]

Hmm...that picture seems to have gotten away from me a little. That's the Aerial Lift Bridge in Duluth and has been around forever. It even used to be a shuttle bridge.

I like Jason's idea as well. I guess I never considered that a person could actually find a forklift in a junkyard. That might be just the ticket really. A pump powered by an electric motor would not be difficult to rig up. The only issue might be synchronizing the two different lifts to work in conjunction with each other, especially under an unbalanced load, but the only way to find out if that would be an issue would be to try it I guess.

About the ship...

That's the Edgar B. Speer, a member of the Great Lakes Fleet of U.S.S. Corp. The only cargo it hauls would be the taconite pellets produced by the mines up here in my neck of the woods that feed the steel mills out east.

Overall dimensions
Length-1004'00"
Beam-105'00"
Depth-56'00"
Capacity (tons)-73,700
Diesel engine horsepower-19,600
Unloading boom-52'

Yep, even as the self unloading thousand footers go that thing is a big 'un. Any bigger and it wouldn't make it through the locks. As it is that boat (remember...it's in a lake so it's not a ship) will never be able to leave the Great Lakes.

[Elliot Naess]

A man's boat! Big = good!

But why do you folks up there have so much styrofoam floating on your lake?

[timbuk]

that is pieces of canada shes breaking up! that liferaft is bigger than our busses!

[lapeer20m]

i live on an inland lake here in michigan, and that styrofoam is now strong enough to drive a car on. we have over 6 inches of the stuff.

[Elliot Naess]

What happened to that global warming we were promised?

I'm supposed to go on the road in a few days, and the forecast right now is for ten feet -- yes ten FEET -- of snow over Donner Summit by Sunday!

(Maybe I'll just stay home. )

[pete c]

Haven't you been paying attention to algore? Global warming causes cold weather too! Yup, it causes drought. It causes flood. It causes twisters. You name it. It also causes idiots to send al money so he can have a giant house or three and an old gas guzzler gulfstream. But worry not, all that is cancelled out by his carbon credits.

THREAD DRIFT ALERT!!! THREAD DRIFT ALERT!!!!

Whoops. Sorry about that. Back to the topic.

How many elevators you 'spose algore has in his house?

[Elliot Naess]

Drift away -- it's my thread. Maybe we could turn this one into the Official Royal Pick-On-Elliot Society Thread!

[dentarthurdent]

Originally Posted by Elliot Naess

What happened to that global warming we were promised?

oh it's alive and well as evidenced here...

[reprobate]

Now Elliot,it may seem like we are picking on you, when in fact it is just our way of showing our affection for you. If it weren't for you, my roof wouldn't be 18" taller. Thanks and be safe out on the road. There are a lot of crazies out there, and as soon as I get out, there will be one more.

[Elliot Naess]

If it weren't for you, my roof wouldn't be 18" taller.

My life finally has meaning! I can die happy now! And Reprobate shall become Chief Holy Potentate of the Royal Society For Picking-On-Elliot-In-Eternity! Wooooooohoooooo!

I'm glad Millicent is leading by an Acceptable Example. Raising a roof is easy!
If we don't all rain away by tomorrow, I'll try to get out to Millicent and take a snapshot of the folding bunks -- that you haven't seen yet.

2008 is gonna be great!

[Roasting8]

Folding bunks? Are they going to operate by Kinetics?

[Elliot Naess]

Why not? I'm thinking it would only take something like this:




(Yes, Rube Godberg would approve -- I think. )

[reprobate]

Rube would be impressed, and favorably at that.

[Elliot Naess]

Rube would be impressed, and favorably at that.

(I wonder, could that be an insult?)

In fairness, that's not my mechanism -- it's the drive train of a friend's Kinetic Racing Sculpture. My own mechanisms are rarely that neat.

[Griff]

If ya wanna make SURE you clinch the Rube Goldberg Grand Poohbah Prize, you need to be able to power the whole rig via a hamster in a treadwheel.

[timbuk]

incorporate all those items and there is your elevator! hee haw! TIM

[Roasting8]

Originally Posted by Elliot Naess

Why not? I'm thinking it would only take something like this:




(Yes, Rube Godberg would approve -- I think. )

Elliot, I've heard of getting your back scratched, but that's just a little too much.

(De Sade would also be proud)