Workbench Creations

Very good and simple idea and witty made. It has to be unacceptable for kids who had been already learnt of an ancient battle field history.

Frank, that is brilliant. Cudos! I wish I had such a gizmo for the last couple jobs I have done. But I think I am done doing drywall myself. I am getting too old for it...

Excellent. With a few small changes to the leverage, and the strength of the arm, you could change tires, remove engines, pull weeds, the list is long. Congratulations on working smarter, not harder.

Good idea but it seems you need quite a bit of room to swing the sheets up. no problem for a large room, but not to practical in a smaller room.

oilcan13

Good on you! Back to basic principles. For you:

This reminds me of a seesaw. *sigh*

Although I won't be putting drywall on my ceiling for a long time, I can see fun applications of the same idea. Very versatile DIY creation you have concocted.

Great idea! Just what the doctor ordered. I've been tossing around ideas for drywalling my shop overhead.

If you're interested to see what else this project can/has been used for, check out Pumpkin Chuckin' with CR4.

Hello Frankd20. I was looking for an alternative to the standard drywall lift for the same reasons you mentioned and was very impressed with your trebuchet-like design. I realize you have most likely disassembled the one you made but is it possible you recall how you set up the pulleys? It's hard to tell from the photos and video. Also, on the drywall end where you had the 2x4 perpendicular to the plane of the drywall sheet I can see a brick is tied on to add stability but there also appears to be a rope the goes down to the base of the structure. Is this simply to limit the drywall pivoting when raised or is it somehow tied intot he pulley system? Any additional tips would be greatly appreciated.

Well if anyone comes across this subject, I was able to successfully reproduce the trebuchet. I made my base a little wider/longer for added stabiltiy but otherwise it looks the same. The only thing I guessed on was the relative length of the lever arms. I ended up using about 118 cm on the drywall end and 88 on the bucket end (for a ceiling height of 250 cm). It would be nice to make the bucket end arm longer for more leverage but then you get into problems with ceiling clearance when the drywall end is down to the floor. The pulley on the bucket end is about 25 cm inboard of the bucket handle for bucket clearance. I'm guessing I have around 22-25 kg in the bucket which left me with a pretty hard tug on the rope to get the drywall up. I may add some sand to increase bucket weight (my rocks didn't pack very well) or maybe add another pulley or two for more leverage... But it works!

Could you fine tune the weight in the counterbalance by using water filled plastic bottles? One gallon milk containers are cheap, and easy to obtain.

Could the lever arms be constructed so that they could slide inside each other? That would allow what ever length is needed by adjusting the length. It would also make it store in a smaller space.

I suppose you could fine tune with water but in my case I'm not yet at the 'fine' point. I need substantially more weight in the (5 gallon) bucket and I believe denser packing of a denser material (than water) is needed.

As for the lever arms, you could certainly make some kind of telescoping lever to adjust for different lengths but that is far more complex than a 2x4 cut to length. I was trying to build it with minimum expenditure (I ended up spending $60 on lumber and a little hardware).

Hi mike sorry for not replying to your questions before, I only check my blogs every so often to see if I have new comments.

The pulley I used was a block and tackle with double wheel pulley's that my father used to use when I was a kid. The pulley's I used have a hook that you can capture the rope in to lock it in place. I did put a fair amount of weight in the bucket, although I only used bricks, pulling on the pulley wasn't so hard for me, even with 80lb fire code drywall sheets.

I did consider utilizing water as the weight, I was thinking of having two buckets one on the base and one as the counter weight. I was thinking if I put a pump that could transfer the water from one to the other then it would lift its self at the push of a button. While this might have worked, I decided against it to keep it simple quick, and low cost.

I did use a single brick on the lift end to help stabilize the drywall, the rope you see hanging off of the lift side is not connected to the pulley system. Sometimes the drywall wouldn't level as quickly as I felt comfortable, so that rope was their so I could tug it if needed. The rope was simply a short rope tied to the frame, but I could also set it so that at a particular lift height it would make sure the sheet was level. Once I lifted a few sheets and it loosened up everything would go into place without me having to do anything other than pull the main rope.

Feel free to send me any other questions, and if you don't get a reply, send me a msg. I have disassembled the lift but not completely, as I am thinking about replacing another ceiling sometime this summer. I can send you what ever details and pictures you would like.

Thanks Frank. If you still have the boom in one piece, what were the measurements from fulcrum to bucket and to drywall pivot (and what height of ceiling were you using it on)? I'm using a single pulley at each end and so suspect I'm not getting as much mechanical advantage as you have. Any close up pictures of how you arranged the rope/pulleys would be welcome.

Didn't have time to get these measurements for you lastnight, the boom is buried somewhere in my basement so it will take me a few days to find it. I will get you all the measurements in the next day or two. As for photos I need to see if I have any photos I took when the device was still together, as its taken apart now. The pulley's weren't all that complicated. A short rope was connected to the end of the boom same place as the bucket was connected. That short (about 1') rope had a loop that the hook of the pulley was connected to. The other end of the pulley was connected via a short rope to the front side of the base. The only other thing I had was short pieces of wire (just scraps I had around) connected to the frame. These wires were to lock the boom in the up or down position when loading and unloading a sheet. Give me a few days and I will get you dimensions and whatever pictures I can find.

Ok so I finally took some measurements, so I hope they help you. When I built this nothing was measured, I just took scrap wood and cut it and put holes in it so the boom would just reach the ceiling.

My ceiling is 9.5 feet, but I have a small part which is 8.5 feet this device worked for both parts without adjustment.

From the floor to the pivot point is 69"

The boom is 85" long total, but from the holes on the ends which held the bucket and the drywall holder is 82" end to end.

The hole for the pivot point in the boom is 46" from the drywall side and 36" from the side with the weights.

With the inch or so extra in the drywall holder the 46" in the boom and the 69" base, that brings you to 116" which is just a tad longer than the 114" ceiling.

Thanks Frank. I'll let you know how it goes.