Hello all,
At the request of my friend Al, I have posted some shots of my latest idea on how to save space and store my nearly completed fuse. We have a 'two' car garage that doesn't fit two cars. That said, we need to put at least one car in there. One car and one 9A fuse however is pushing it. So I had to come up with an alternative that would, at times, keep the fuse out of the way during every day operations....something that would let me press a button and have the garage magically change from a car shelter into a workshop. Well this is what I came up with. I side mounted a 645 lb electric hoist and ran the primary cable along the length of my garage ceiling. At the end of the garage there are two 250 lb test pulleys that receive two cables that are run to two separate pairs of the same type of pulleys which are spread fore and aft of the center of the fuse together. This allows for even lift without the need for equal weight distribution. I have two 2X4s that act as the main structure for the harness with straps that cradle the fuse below. These two harnesses have a centered hook that is each grabbed by one of the two hoist lines. When the electric hoist is engaged it retracts both lines. Because the two lines are joined at the far end of the garage the hoist itself never retrieves anything more than the primary cable.
Fully lifted.
Lowered half way. You can see the single run cable to the electric hoist (the recieving hook and safety ring supplied with the hoist is now being used as a 'stop' when it arrives at the hoist housing.
And finally you can see how when I'm not working on it I can tuck in away and the wife gets her parking space back. As you can also see that it easily clears the opened garage door. This also frees up the entire floor at times when the fuse isn't being worked on and doesn't require an 'addition to the garage'.
The hoist came from Harbor Freight and cost $139.00. I bought some additional cable and eight pulleys. Total was around $160.00. It works like a charm. I can drop the fuse at any moment right onto the home built dolly and go right to work any time. When I am not working on it, I simply hook up the harnesses and lift her back up to the ceiling and it's out of harm’s way and the car can be put back in the garage. This is a big plus to my wife. And finally, the electric hoist allows my wife to lower this with little to no effort if it is ever needed.
Thought some of you out there might find this little design useful in squeezing the most of your limited garage space.
Enjoy.
Evans.
Space saver fuse lift
Linear Mode
