Clothes elevator: Difference between revisions

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Winter makes this whole deal all the more challenging since cold plus damp equals mildew; heating a room is expensive; the windows are drafty... and waah did I mention that winter is long cold and dark, best endured from behind a protective shield of fidgety little indoor projects.

Mechanical engineering is not my thing, which is unfortunate because I enjoy making stuff that is used and should not fall apart. ~~I make~~ garden tools that bend, shelves that fall out of the wall, bicycle trailers that tip their load on a rainy night. I once tried to find an evening continuing ed class on the subject. To my surprise this isn't how it works—nobody wants their city's bridge designed by a punter who picked it up from odd nights out and a couple of video explainers. But still, I blame elitism.

== Pulleys: how does that work? ==

Mechanical engineering is not my thing, which is unfortunate because I enjoy making stuff that is used and should not fall apart. In my wake lie garden tools that bend, shelves that fall out of the wall, and bicycle trailers that tip their load on a rainy night. I once tried to find an evening continuing ed. class on the subject. To my surprise this isn't how it works—nobody wants their city's bridge designed by a punter who picked it up from odd nights out and a couple of video explainers. But still, I blame elitism.

For this reason and other factors, it's taken me a few years of building courage to try a clothes elevator. The problem seemed harder than it is, at first: unattainably mathy with so many different angles and lengths to consider... the idea stagnated and each time I sketched it came out obviously wrong and incomplete. The turning point was to learn that pulleys simply change the direction of force, and this direction can be constrained or constant.

For this reason and other factors, it's taken me a few years of building up courage to try a clothes elevator. The problem seemed harder than it is, at first: unattainably mathy with so many different angles and lengths to consider... the idea stagnated and each time I sketched it came out obviously wrong and incomplete. The turning point was to learn that pulleys simply change the direction of force, and this direction can be constrained or constant.

In other words, the rope's travel is equal but opposite as seen from either side of a pulley. If the pulleys stay put it gets even simpler, and all that's happening in my case is that downwards pulling force on a rope is rotated by 90° at the ceiling, and then another 90° so that it's acting upwards on the load. This is just the fancy equivalent of a 180° turn over a single pulley [img].

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[[File:Raw bed.jpg|left|thumb|200x200px]]

[[File:Bed remnants.jpg|thumb|400x400px]]

A year or two passes. But one crappy afternoon I stumbled across a huge oak bed. Having spent a bit of time observing trash on city streets, I recognized this for the incredibly attractive nuisance it is and I rushed home to get the tools. Indeed, by the time I returned, scavengers or vandals had chewed or stomped a dozen of the sticks out and... I'm curious what the stumps could be used for: firewood, a small dishtowel rack, jagged ski poles for a baby? It's cold, dark, and I'm doing something ambiguous in public, I'm not here to ask any questions. I unscrewed what remained, tossed it in an innocuous stroller and walked back home hunched over my prize.

~~The slats are perfect, hardwood at roughly 2~~.~~5cm x 1cm x 1.0m~~. ~~Beveling~~ the ~~business edges~~ and ~~sanding~~ to ~~180 or so grit gives~~ the ~~wood enough smoothness for cloth~~ to ~~slide over but enough roughness to not slip~~. I ~~forgot to sand before assembly and pop rivets are permanent~~, ~~so I~~ had the ~~unwieldy pleasure of maneuvering~~ the ~~full frame at 2~~.~~5m x 1m~~.

== A second-best bed ==

A year or two passes. But one crappy afternoon I stumbled across a huge oak bed on the street. Having spent my youth observing city trash floes, I recognized this for the incredibly attractive nuisance it is and I rushed home to get the tools to dismantle it. Indeed, by the time I returned, scavengers or vandals had chewed or stomped a dozen of the sticks out and... I'm curious what the stumps could even be used for: firewood, a small dishtowel rack, jagged ski poles for a baby? It's cold and dark out and I'm doing something ambiguous in public, it's not my place to ask these questions. I unscrewed what remained, tossed the sticks into an innocuous getaway stroller and walked back home hunched over my prize.

Aluminum angle for the runners and aluminum<ref>Weird side note: different types of metal touching one another do a molecular-electrical [[w:Galvanic_corrosion|Galvanic corrosion]] thing over time.</ref> pop rivets ~~serve admirably and~~ keep the overall weight down.[weigh it]

The slats are perfect: hardwood at roughly 2.5cm x 1cm x 1.0m. Beveling the business edges and sanding to 180 grit or so leaves the wood smooth enough for cloth to slide over but rough enough not slip. I forgot to sand the sticks before assembly, it gets unwieldy.

== Tie it together ==

Aluminum angle serve admirably for the runners, and aluminum<ref>Weird side note: different types of metal touching one another do a molecular-electrical [[w:Galvanic_corrosion|Galvanic corrosion]] thing over time.</ref> pop rivets holding slats to the runners keep the overall weight down.[weigh it]

[[File:Plywood pulley w slash.jpg|thumb|150x150px]]

Mounting the pulleys had me at a loss for bad ideas. Here's one example, a monstrosity of scrap plywood. It's cute that the pulley is invisible, but there's nothing else good happening here.

Mounting the pulleys however had me at a loss for bad ideas. Here's one example, a monstrosity of scrap plywood. It's cute that the pulley is invisible, but there's nothing else good happening here.

[[File:All pulleys.jpg|thumb|203x203px]]

[[File:Thread lock.jpg|left|thumb|200x200px]]

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'''Notes'''

__NOTOC__

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 Winter makes this whole deal all the more challenging since cold plus damp equals mildew; heating a room is expensive; the windows are drafty... and waah did I mention that winter is long cold and dark, best endured from behind a protective shield of fidgety little indoor projects.
-Mechanical engineering is not my thing, which is unfortunate because I enjoy making stuff that is used and should not fall apart.  I make garden tools that bend, shelves that fall out of the wall, bicycle trailers that tip their load on a rainy night.  I once tried to find an evening continuing ed class on the subject.  To my surprise this isn't how it works—nobody wants their city's bridge designed by a punter who picked it up from odd nights out and a couple of video explainers.  But still, I blame elitism.
+== Pulleys: how does that work? ==
+Mechanical engineering is not my thing, which is unfortunate because I enjoy making stuff that is used and should not fall apart.  In my wake lie garden tools that bend, shelves that fall out of the wall, and bicycle trailers that tip their load on a rainy night.  I once tried to find an evening continuing ed. class on the subject.  To my surprise this isn't how it works—nobody wants their city's bridge designed by a punter who picked it up from odd nights out and a couple of video explainers.  But still, I blame elitism.
-For this reason and other factors, it's taken me a few years of building courage to try a clothes elevator.  The problem seemed harder than it is, at first: unattainably mathy with so many different angles and lengths to consider...  the idea stagnated and each time I sketched it came out obviously wrong and incomplete.  The turning point was to learn that pulleys simply change the direction of force, and this direction can be constrained or constant.
+For this reason and other factors, it's taken me a few years of building up courage to try a clothes elevator.  The problem seemed harder than it is, at first: unattainably mathy with so many different angles and lengths to consider...  the idea stagnated and each time I sketched it came out obviously wrong and incomplete.  The turning point was to learn that pulleys simply change the direction of force, and this direction can be constrained or constant.
 In other words, the rope's travel is equal but opposite as seen from either side of a pulley.  If the pulleys stay put it gets even simpler, and all that's happening in my case is that downwards pulling force on a rope is rotated by 90° at the ceiling, and then another 90° so that it's acting upwards on the load.  This is just the fancy equivalent of a 180° turn over a single pulley [img].
@@ Line 18: / Line 19: @@
 [[File:Raw bed.jpg|left|thumb|200x200px]]
 [[File:Bed remnants.jpg|thumb|400x400px]]
-A year or two passes.  But one crappy afternoon I stumbled across a huge oak bed.  Having spent a bit of time observing trash on city streets, I recognized this for the incredibly attractive nuisance it is and I rushed home to get the tools.  Indeed, by the time I returned, scavengers or vandals had chewed or stomped a dozen of the sticks out and... I'm curious what the stumps could be used for: firewood, a small dishtowel rack, jagged ski poles for a baby?  It's cold, dark, and I'm doing something ambiguous in public, I'm not here to ask any questions.  I unscrewed what remained, tossed it in an innocuous stroller and walked back home hunched over my prize.
-The slats are perfect, hardwood at roughly 2.5cm x 1cm x 1.0m.  Beveling the business edges and sanding to 180 or so grit gives the wood enough smoothness for cloth to slide over but enough roughness to not slip.  I forgot to sand before assembly and pop rivets are permanent, so I had the unwieldy pleasure of maneuvering the full frame at 2.5m x 1m.
+== A second-best bed ==
+A year or two passes.  But one crappy afternoon I stumbled across a huge oak bed on the street.  Having spent my youth observing city trash floes, I recognized this for the incredibly attractive nuisance it is and I rushed home to get the tools to dismantle it.  Indeed, by the time I returned, scavengers or vandals had chewed or stomped a dozen of the sticks out and... I'm curious what the stumps could even be used for: firewood, a small dishtowel rack, jagged ski poles for a baby?  It's cold and dark out and I'm doing something ambiguous in public, it's not my place to ask these questions.  I unscrewed what remained, tossed the sticks into an innocuous getaway stroller and walked back home hunched over my prize.
-Aluminum angle for the runners and aluminum<ref>Weird side note: different types of metal touching one another do a molecular-electrical [[w:Galvanic_corrosion|Galvanic corrosion]] thing over time.</ref> pop rivets serve admirably and keep the overall weight down.[weigh it]
+The slats are perfect: hardwood at roughly 2.5cm x 1cm x 1.0m.  Beveling the business edges and sanding to 180 grit or so leaves the wood smooth enough for cloth to slide over but rough enough not slip.  I forgot to sand the sticks before assembly, it gets unwieldy.
+== Tie it together ==
+Aluminum angle serve admirably for the runners, and aluminum<ref>Weird side note: different types of metal touching one another do a molecular-electrical [[w:Galvanic_corrosion|Galvanic corrosion]] thing over time.</ref> pop rivets holding slats to the runners keep the overall weight down.[weigh it]
 [[File:Plywood pulley w slash.jpg|thumb|150x150px]]
-Mounting the pulleys had me at a loss for bad ideas.  Here's one example, a monstrosity of scrap plywood.  It's cute that the pulley is invisible, but there's nothing else good happening here.
+Mounting the pulleys however had me at a loss for bad ideas.  Here's one example, a monstrosity of scrap plywood.  It's cute that the pulley is invisible, but there's nothing else good happening here.
 [[File:All pulleys.jpg|thumb|203x203px]]
 [[File:Thread lock.jpg|left|thumb|200x200px]]
@@ Line 44: / Line 48: @@
 '''Notes'''
 <references />
+__NOTOC__