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My kid's best friend

Days

Commentator
You know him as Prince Von Prussia, commander of the King's German legion, based upon an actual brigade that fought in Germany for the British crown in Napoleonic times. (I am violent_indigo, I am a sergeant for the 051st, an actual air wing under the German Reich in WWII; they were known for purposely sparing the enemy pilot in their kills). Okay, maybe you are not up on our gaming personalities, but many kids out there know us that way. Of course , we know Martin as the kid who lived across the court yard in our complex and hung out with Daniel, here in our living room. Years gone by.

They are both in college now. Daniel has his eyes set on the financial forecasting aspect of industrial engineering, so he's looking to pick up a math minor; industrial engineering major is so math intensive, he would only need three additional math classes to pick up the minor. Martin is already employed by the UN (yeah, that UN; the United Nations) bringing in folks legally from the war torn Congo. There are some 16,000 residents in the Chicagoland area from the Congo, that Martin tends to along with new comers. Martin is not yet 20 years old, so how on earth does he end up in a position at the UN, that he doesn't even have the schooling for?

Turns out one of the legitimate heirs to a throne absorbed into Prussia (became Germany) prior to WW I... hence, the Prince Von Prussia nickname... turns out that was on his mother's side. Meanwhile his dad is the ruling monarch of Congo; a nation war torn and beset with governmental absurdities from the Dutch and the British, always full of revolutionaries, always in a Civil War, and it is pretty intense at the moment. And, of course, the current government in power, as well as all the governments set up by European powers, treat the royal palace and bloodline to the throne with utter contempt. It seems the palace gets attacked from all sides. Warlords fire rockets at it, the government hurls measures and laws at it, but the people who live there still recognize it as the legitimate crown that it is. The first born male - that's Martin - becomes the next king. Since his dad is still alive, Martin is what is known as the crown prince... he has to attend a couple royal affairs every week, always dressed appropriately. Martin has a flair for outfits, he is big time into military re-enactments from all over history.

Daniel and Martin know an awful lot of battle history and strategy. For Martin, it's a functional necessity; all his cousins next in line to the throne, and living there in Congo, hate the government (everyone hates the government) and want to allign power with the rebels, join the forces on the ground to overthrow the capital. Martin lives over here, and he has a cooler head, he sees the perils of joining an armed revolt, so he has refused to do it. So, he gets Christmas cards, from his cousins, stating, "I can't wait for you to die, so I can take the crown over". kind of surreal. We all have our family struggles.

Daniel and Martin wrote a book together when they were 15. It was set in Napoleonic times. Their characters were officers in the military, of course. Wild imaginations rooted in real historic times. Today, they want to rewrite the book, fix all the historic flaws. I doubt they ever find the time to do so.

It was Martin who taught us all how to fly at War Thunder, and it was Martin who showed me that all my extra crew points are shared with the tank crews... hence, I set up those crews and now play the tanks as well as fly the planes. It was Martin that taught Daniel the war gaming set in Napoleonic and Roman times. One of Daniel's classes, this semester, is classic lit; history of the Roman Empire. Every now and then I get lectures on Roman politics and historic campaigns, which include the command structure for the legions in the field; it is fascinating stuff, and it sheds light on what's behind modern government. I thank Martin for placing it all in my life, I thank God for placing Martin into our family, we love him to death, and we hope that God keeps him alive, so we can go on loving him.
 

Days

Commentator
Karma
I came to a crossroads in my life, when I met Audrey in Pittsburgh. I had moved to Pittsburgh to try and create an independent maintenance/service operation, but instead fell in love with this girl from Chicago, and put the kabosh on my entrepreneural ambitions. I remember her telling me, "money is evil" ... and I corrected her, "you mean, the love of money is the root of all evil" ... but she rebutted, "No, I mean the money itself is evil". So I went the route of education, computers, crafts, all the things she was into. 5 years later we moved to Chicagoland and had a baby boy. That then taught me about the gifted mind, aha reasoning, and a world of conflict in the educational system. I left off my first career, and ventured out into sales, banking, and then fell back into driving. 20 years later, my son is a sophomore at UIC college of Engineering. Meanwhile, that design for a gear motor hoist refused to leave the back of my brain. It would come around periodically, and update itself, improve itself, pick up new technology, and evolve...

A couple years back, my brother closed Davitco... the last of six family corporations that had designed, built, and installed permanent window washing equipment all over the world. I no longer had any use for a scaffold hoist design, and yet, the world was growing a very strong use for the design. Since my son attends a Level 4 Research Institute, I thought, why not donate the design to the University? They could build it with CGI and 3D modeling (my son's other best friend is the son of a mechanical engineer and he was majoring in 3D modeling at college of Dupage, he recently decided to go into auto mechanics instead) ... or who knows? UIC builds stuff for aerospace; maybe they will want to build the hoist, once they realize what they have. So it seemed like the responsible thing to do, however long it takes for the department of mechanical and industrial engineering to get around to the project... so I e-mailed the Phd. in charge of research, and he connected me up with their senior professor teaching design, to look at my design. Don't ask me how long it will take for these busy people to find time for this; but as my wife always says, "In God's time".

The Design
So cool when once I realized what the design had accomplished. It eliminated every line, except the 3/8" wire rope under load, and replaced the AC electric cord with a DC onboard Lithium Polymer battery recharged by a laser rigged to the end of the roof davit, aimed straight down at a solar panel mounted on the "roof" of the hoist. LiPo batteries won't deep well, but they will recharge and discharge at a high rate; in essence, the laser is a wireless electric cord, the power feed is in balance with the power consumption. This is what enables the hoist to endure long drops and long climbs back up. With a 22" horizontal "drum" wrapping 58 lays of 3/8 wire rope around an 18 1/2 diameter tube... and with six inch rims that can accomadate 16 levels of 58 wraps of rope... the maximum reach of the hoist is 5650 feet. one mile = 5280 feet. How crazy is that?

The design is finished, I'm ready to put together a parts list, just waiting on the University at this point. Summer time works best for me - finding time to do this - the same must hold true for them. I'm not sure a scaffold hoist strikes the university as a glamorous item... but the design is awesome, once they see it, I think they will love the design.
 
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Days

Commentator
This hoist

I've been dusting off the design, going through it, adjusting, fixing, making changes, calculating speeds, torque, amps, recharge rate, giving it a thorough run down.

then it hit me...

I have 3 gearing assemblies coming from each direction (the hoist deploys two motors which work in tandem) so the motors feed through the gearing into the center gearing; which drives the tube; where the wire rope wraps. This was my original concept that launched the design over 30 years ago. So here I am, about to present the design, and suddenly it dawns on me; sure, I've got those three gearing reductions to torque, but the two transfer plates between the 3 gearing assemblies are torque reductions in themselves.

doh!

So for 30 years I multiplied the gearing ratios and applied that to torque reduction...

primary gearing ......... 6 1/2 to 1
secondary gearing ...... 5 3/5 to 1
final gearing ............... 5 to 1

... giving the motor generators a 182 to 1 gear ratio/torque reduction. This reduced my running speed of 1400 RPM for the motor to 7.7 RPM for the "drum" wrapping the wire rope. It also reduced 2400 foot pounds of torque (created by a stage weight of 2400 lbs on the 9th wrap, which is one foot in radius... the max reach on the 9th wrap is 2865 feet) to roughly 6 foot pounds per motor. This was a bit of a problem, as it necessitates 6 amps from each motor to lift it, and the hoist can still wrap another 7 levels of wire rope... increasing the radius... increasing the torque required to lift it. Lithium Polymer batteries are great at discharge and recharge rates, but I never wanted to go beyond a 10 Amp recharge rate, and deep welling is out of the question for that type battery. I also have 8 solenoids that are continuous-on, in order to release the brake for movement in either direction.

but then I realized that those transfer plates, which are shaped like steering wheels, are torque levers in their own right. Suddenly the entire hoist dramatically changed from what I've been thinking it was for the past 30 years. I just drew this up today (Saturday).

primary to secondary transfer ....... 5 1/5 to 1
secondary to final transfer ............. 4 2/3 to 1

Those are just torque reductions, no change to speed. Think of a steering wheel; the stem and the wheel are one piece; they turn as one; no speed change.

... giving a total torque reduction of 4416 to 1. Okay, that is just scary. No more worry about running Amps being too high. 2400 foot pounds can be wrapped up with 1/4 foot pound from each motor. That's not even considered being under load. The motors are large, they need 1 1/2 Amps just to run... which delivers roughly 1.6 foot pounds to turn that 1/4 foot pound. A foot pound is a turning strength; it is the abilty to turn a load at one foot radius from the motor shaft, weighing one pound at the end of that one foot radius. Not only is this design incredibly strong, it provides a giant resistance in the form of an electromagnetic down direction controlled descent. If there is a down side, I guess it would be that the down direction isn't going to generate any recharge for the battery; but that was actually a problem, because Lithium Polymer batteries can not be overcharged; so the Laser/Solar panel recharge can be run at 10 Amps and not worry about down direction charging - or - not being enough for the up direction. The 8 solenoids that release the brakes are the primary power consumption, not the motors lifting the hoist. This feels all wrong.

The thing is... the hoist design included the torque reduction from the transfer plates from day one; it has always been in there, I just didn't see it. It is kind of counter intuitive that I can transfer the load from the center gear in the planetary gearing to the outer rack and gain torque reduction, then transfer from the outer rack to the next center gear and gain torque reduction again. It feels like cheating. I gain torque reduction moving from center to outer gear, and then gain again coming back to center. So I drew it up, station by station and stared at it, and stared at it, and stared at it...

doh!
 
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Days

Commentator
This hoist

I've been dusting off the design, going through it, adjusting, fixing, making changes, calculating speeds, torque, amps, recharge rate, giving it a thorough run down.

then it hit me...

I have 3 gearing assemblies coming from each direction (the hoist deploys two motors which work in tandem) so the motors feed through the gearing into the center gearing; which drives the tube; where the wire rope wraps. This was my original concept that launched the design over 30 years ago. So here I am, about to present the design, and suddenly it dawns on me; sure, I've got those three gearing reductions to torque, but the two transfer plates between the 3 gearing assemblies are torque reductions in themselves.

doh!

So for 30 years I multiplied the gearing ratios and applied that to torque reduction...

primary gearing ......... 6 1/2 to 1
secondary gearing ...... 5 3/5 to 1
final gearing ............... 5 to 1

... giving the motor generators a 182 to 1 gear ratio/torque reduction. This reduced my running speed of 1400 RPM for the motor to 7.7 RPM for the "drum" wrapping the wire rope. It also reduced 2400 foot pounds of torque (created by a stage weight of 2400 lbs on the 9th wrap, which is one foot in radius... the max reach on the 9th wrap is 2865 feet) to roughly 6 foot pounds per motor. This was a bit of a problem, as it necessitates 6 amps from each motor to lift it, and the hoist can still wrap another 7 levels of wire rope... increasing the radius... increasing the torque required to lift it. Lithium Polymer batteries are great at discharge and recharge rates, but I never wanted to go beyond a 10 Amp recharge rate, and deep welling is out of the question for that type battery. I also have 8 solenoids that are continuous-on, in order to release the brake for movement in either direction.

but then I realized that those transfer plates, which are shaped like steering wheels, are torque levers in their own right. Suddenly the entire hoist dramatically changed from what I've been thinking it was for the past 30 years. I just drew this up today (Saturday).

primary to secondary transfer ....... 5 1/5 to 1
secondary to final transfer ............. 4 2/3 to 1

Those are just torque reductions, no change to speed. Think of a steering wheel; the stem and the wheel are one piece; they turn as one; no speed change.

... giving a total torque reduction of 4416 to 1. Okay, that is just scary. No more worry about running Amps being too high. 2400 foot pounds can be wrapped up with 1/4 foot pound from each motor. That's not even considered being under load. The motors are large, they need 1 1/2 Amps just to run... which delivers roughly 1.6 foot pounds to turn that 1/4 foot pound. A foot pound is a turning strength; it is the abilty to turn a load at one foot radius from the motor shaft, weighing one pound at the end of that one foot radius. Not only is this design incredibly strong, it provides a giant resistance in the form of an electromagnetic down direction controlled descent. If there is a down side, I guess it would be that the down direction isn't going to generate any recharge for the battery; but that was actually a problem, because Lithium Polymer batteries can not be overcharged; so the Laser/Solar panel recharge can be run at 10 Amps and not worry about down direction charging - or - not being enough for the up direction. The 8 solenoids that release the brakes are the primary power consumption, not the motors lifting the hoist. This feels all wrong.

The thing is... the hoist design included the torque reduction from the transfer plates from day one; it has always been in there, I just didn't see it. It is kind of counter intuitive that I can transfer the load from the center gear in the planetary gearing to the outer rack and gain torque reduction, then transfer from the outer rack to the next center gear and gain torque reduction again. It feels like cheating. I gain torque reduction moving from center to outer gear, and then gain again coming back to center. So I drew it up, station by station and stared at it, and stared at it, and stared at it...

doh!
one tinsy tiny mistake in my calculations; the torque reduction results in a tad over a quarter pound of torque on the 1" radius gear; but to keep it in foot pounds of torque; I have to multiply back out to the 12" radius. IOW, I need to resist 3 1/4 foot pounds with my generator... or conversely, turn 3 1/4 foot pounds with my motor. This enables me to keep a balance in the system for continuous down and up direction travel. The down direction is power off, so I need to produce enough juice from my generator and solar panel to feed those contactors on my 8 solenoids. If these calculations are correct, I'm running somewhere like 2 1/2 foot pounds of torque at the base wrap up to 5 foot pounds of torque on the 16th wrap. It is my wet dream to end up there... (1 HP motor produces 5 1/8 foot pounds torque; I'm hoping to achieve that with a 60 volt 10" OD, 8" long motor running on 4 amps) I've got to special build the motor.

The University is not interested in the design, you would think they would have some academic interest, but not at all. So, okay, tell you what, I'm going to try and draw the monster up on paper... then pitch a business plan with the hoist drawings (for good measure I'll toss in an idea of what I want for a roof rig) and mail it all to my older brothers and my friend Harold. I got through the first hoop today, my son the aspiring IE (Industrial Engineer) acid tested my plan and it basically holds water. In a nutshell, I'm selling the product via dividend bearing stock in the corporation; instead of employee owned stock, I want customer owned stock.

I also cleaned the fish tanks and watered Mommy's plants. I don't want you to think all I do is sit around drawing what I dream up pacing around the place. My wife would not put up with that. But it was a necessary evil. Now that I have the design, I can quit pacing and do more sitting around with my pencils, protactors, compasses, and rulers. Since I can't give this design away, maybe I can build it? Stranger things have happened.
 
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Days

Commentator
one tinsy tiny mistake in my calculations; the torque reduction results in a tad over a quarter pound of torque on the 1" radius gear; but to keep it in foot pounds of torque; I have to multiply back out to the 12" radius. IOW, I need to resist 3 1/4 foot pounds with my generator... or conversely, turn 3 1/4 foot pounds with my motor. This enables me to keep a balance in the system for continuous down and up direction travel. The down direction is power off, so I need to produce enough juice from my generator and solar panel to feed those contactors on my 8 solenoids. If these calculations are correct, I'm running somewhere like 2 1/2 foot pounds of torque at the base wrap up to 5 foot pounds of torque on the 16th wrap. It is my wet dream to end up there... (1 HP motor produces 5 1/8 foot pounds torque; I'm hoping to achieve that with a 60 volt 10" OD, 8" long motor running on 4 amps) I've got to special build the motor.

The University is not interested in the design, you would think they would have some academic interest, but not at all. So, okay, tell you what, I'm going to try and draw the monster up on paper... then pitch a business plan with the hoist drawings (for good measure I'll toss in an idea of what I want for a roof rig) and mail it all to my older brothers and my friend Harold. I got through the first hoop today, my son the aspiring IE (Industrial Engineer) acid tested my plan and it basically holds water. In a nutshell, I'm selling the product via dividend bearing stock in the corporation; instead of employee owned stock, I want customer owned stock.

I also cleaned the fish tanks and watered Mommy's plants. I don't want you to think all I do is sit around drawing what I dream up pacing around the place. My wife would not put up with that. But it was a necessary evil. Now that I have the design, I can quit pacing and do more sitting around with my pencils, protactors, compasses, and rulers. Since I can't give this design away, maybe I can build it? Stranger things have happened.
Okay, more on the hoist, cuz, sorry, it's what inspires me at the moment. I could never wrap my brain around torque reduction, so I stopped trying to and simply looked at it the other way... torque production. That I understand and it is the exact same, so I just figured it from the motor out instead of from the drum back. Originally, I was trying to work out power with a view to resistance in my electro-magnetic down brake; old rigging fears from dumping the worm gear... never mind. So hell, I produce five foot tons from 3 1/2 foot pounds from each motor. So I had it right the first time, this gearing is scary powerful. So I reduced the primary gearing ratio to replace some power with more speed, then reduced motor speed because I'm not going to build that crazy 5650 ft reach hoist, that's just for future genarations; in my lifetime, I'm looking at 4" rims and a 3200 foot reach, mind you, the 6" rims fit, and since there is so much power, some day it will be that easy to build, just toss in the 6 inch rims and go to the 1200 RPM motor, but for my lifetime, it's going to be 4 inch rims and 1000 RPM motors. And anything higher than 3200 feet will need to go to a titanium wire rope cuz the steel already weighs a 1000 lbs at that point.

The down direction will work also cuz the laser is always on, I just need the DC controls to monitor the battery charge level and control turn on and off charging connection to meet a specified target level (probably 95%)... and those controls do that, it's a basic function. So it works out better, cuz now I don't have any worries about recharge rate in the up direction.

I felt so good about the hoist, I started designing the roof truck/davit for it. About a week ago. I took a new approach, ended up designing a friggin' mini crane; but it is so cool, it breaks down into a tiny roof car, 5 foot by 7 foot, I designed the drive, the steering, and laid out all the rigging, a self contained counter weight system that requires no tie-in to the building, it was a lot of fun to throw together. smarter tinker toys, and heavier too. So the roof davit truck and the hoist it handles come as a single unit and the program works in pairs; toss a pick into two hoists and off you go; where no sacffold hoist has ever gone. It's actually temporary staging that will be custom built to the building.

The family will need to start up it's 7th corporation, the first six are all dead, as is my father, who never imagined anything on the level of this crane/davit and gearmotor hoist. I'm looking to make the classic 33% mark-up on cost of parts. I want the entire hoist and davit roof truck manufactured by American shops, I am intending to build an assembly plant is all. I'm thinking my costs will run around $750,000 for the hoist and another $750,000 for the roof truck/davit/crane. So that's a cool $2million for a single unit, and you have to buy a pair of units to run a stage; hence, $4 million per stage... if it costs more, hey, it costs more. I have to turn a normal profit over cost of parts in order to pay for running the plant and the corporation. On top of that, there's taxes, shipping to places like China and the Middle East, and when it arrives, they will need to helicopter it all to the roof. piece of cake, we can do this.

I'm going to draw it all up and send it to Harold as an investment opportunity, and my two older brothers, who can set up the corporation and locate a facility big enough with the over head cranes needed to do assembly and material handling. Al can run the plant and also do the electrical for me, while Mike can keep the books and do the taxes. I'm 58 years old, Al is 60 years old, Mike is 62 years old... Harold is 64 years old... this would be a way to stay busy in retirement. I would need to research all my suppliers, and - once a ground floor investor jumps on board - I have to get the entire parts outlay drawn up. My son is taking the design class his 2nd semester, Junior year, that's a year from now; remember he's an IE (Industrial Engineering) major at UIC college of Engineering... I would love to do this with him next summer; it would be a great experience for him. Maybe after he graduates he could take over running the corporation... after learning from his uncle how to run the real thing.

pipe dream

heavy pipe dream

"Don't mess up my circles"
~ Archimedes' last words to the Roman soldier, that killed him, as the Romans sacked Syracuse.
 
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Days

Commentator
Okay, more on the hoist, cuz, sorry, it's what inspires me at the moment. I could never wrap my brain around torque reduction, so I stopped trying to and simply looked at it the other way... torque production. That I understand and it is the exact same, so I just figured it from the motor out instead of from the drum back. Originally, I was trying to work out power with a view to resistance in my electro-magnetic down brake; old rigging fears from dumping the worm gear... never mind. So hell, I produce five foot tons from 3 1/2 foot pounds from each motor. So I had it right the first time, this gearing is scary powerful. So I reduced the primary gearing ratio to replace some power with more speed, then reduced motor speed because I'm not going to build that crazy 5650 ft reach hoist, that's just for future genarations; in my lifetime, I'm looking at 4" rims and a 3200 foot reach, mind you, the 6" rims fit, and since there is so much power, some day it will be that easy to build, just toss in the 6 inch rims and go to the 1200 RPM motor, but for my lifetime, it's going to be 4 inch rims and 1000 RPM motors. And anything higher than 3200 feet will need to go to a titanium wire rope cuz the steel already weighs a 1000 lbs at that point.

The down direction will work also cuz the laser is always on, I just need the DC controls to monitor the battery charge level and control turn on and off charging connection to meet a specified target level (probably 95%)... and those controls do that, it's a basic function. So it works out better, cuz now I don't have any worries about recharge rate in the up direction.

I felt so good about the hoist, I started designing the roof truck/davit for it. About a week ago. I took a new approach, ended up designing a friggin' mini crane; but it is so cool, it breaks down into a tiny roof car, 5 foot by 7 foot, I designed the drive, the steering, and laid out all the rigging, a self contained counter weight system that requires no tie-in to the building, it was a lot of fun to throw together. smarter tinker toys, and heavier too. So the roof davit truck and the hoist it handles come as a single unit and the program works in pairs; toss a pick into two hoists and off you go; where no sacffold hoist has ever gone. It's actually temporary staging that will be custom built to the building.

The family will need to start up it's 7th corporation, the first six are all dead, as is my father, who never imagined anything on the level of this crane/davit and gearmotor hoist. I'm looking to make the classic 33% mark-up on cost of parts. I want the entire hoist and davit roof truck manufactured by American shops, I am intending to build an assembly plant is all. I'm thinking my costs will run around $750,000 for the hoist and another $750,000 for the roof truck/davit/crane. So that's a cool $2million for a single unit, and you have to buy a pair of units to run a stage; hence, $4 million per stage... if it costs more, hey, it costs more. I have to turn a normal profit over cost of parts in order to pay for running the plant and the corporation. On top of that, there's taxes, shipping to places like China and the Middle East, and when it arrives, they will need to helicopter it all to the roof. piece of cake, we can do this.

I'm going to draw it all up and send it to Harold as an investment opportunity, and my two older brothers, who can set up the corporation and locate a facility big enough with the over head cranes needed to do assembly and material handling. Al can run the plant and also do the electrical for me, while Mike can keep the books and do the taxes. I'm 58 years old, Al is 60 years old, Mike is 62 years old... Harold is 64 years old... this would be a way to stay busy in retirement. I would need to research all my suppliers, and - once a ground floor investor jumps on board - I have to get the entire parts outlay drawn up. My son is taking the design class his 2nd semester, Junior year, that's a year from now; remember he's an IE (Industrial Engineering) major at UIC college of Engineering... I would love to do this with him next summer; it would be a great experience for him. Maybe after he graduates he could take over running the corporation... after learning from his uncle how to run the real thing.

pipe dream

heavy pipe dream

"Don't mess up my circles"
~ Archimedes' last words to the Roman soldier, that killed him, as the Romans sacked Syracuse.
I've been absorbed with this hoist. I downsized the frame and drum, adjusted the gearing, changed the wire rope, scaled back the weight... changed the design from a futuristic hoist to something that could be employed in today's market. I'm targeting the 1/4 mile to 3/4 mile height... roof heights currently under construction are closing in on the half mile mark. It's still a mighty thin market, but it is virgin territory, nobody else is crazy enough to think a scaffold hoist can go that high.

I've got letters out to my two older brothers and my old friend in the business. I've got a business plan/stock model that sells the corporation to a ground floor investor. My friend Harold suggested we pitch Sky Climber to take on the hoist; that's not a real sale, but it gets a prototype together, which is the normal way to sell a hoist. That takes the pressure off me building the prototype, but it also means I do all this work for not much reward; building this hoist in my old age would be like a 60 year old lady giving birth... it will probably kill me.

In order to make this happen, I have to sell the concept. Kind of like selling the wind; nothing physically there, yet. To start with, I'm pitching the hoist to my brothers and my friend; if they like it, I go looking for customers. I'm excited about seeing the design become a reality, I'm also a tad ambivalent taking on so much work. I see the cup as half full; if the hoist happens I get to do something interesting with my old age, if it doesn't happen, life and old age is a lot easier. Whatever God wants to do with it is good by me.

In the mean time, I'm still dirt poor... does anyone use that saying any more? I guess it makes no sense to say "dirt cheap" when dirt costs as much as it does. Between replacing appliances in the kitchen, computers in the living room, teeth in our mouths, used cars in our parking slots, and repairing the new used car, all the money ran out, it's all good. The child of my old age was re-elected to SHPE public relations chair for another year, this time he carries the board instead of them carrying him the past year. There's so much work, I think it hurts his grades, but he loves it, so another year of anemic grades, I guess... what's not to like?

anyways... I'm still alive.
 

JackDallas

Senator
Supporting Member
I've been absorbed with this hoist. I downsized the frame and drum, adjusted the gearing, changed the wire rope, scaled back the weight... changed the design from a futuristic hoist to something that could be employed in today's market. I'm targeting the 1/4 mile to 3/4 mile height... roof heights currently under construction are closing in on the half mile mark. It's still a mighty thin market, but it is virgin territory, nobody else is crazy enough to think a scaffold hoist can go that high.

I've got letters out to my two older brothers and my old friend in the business. I've got a business plan/stock model that sells the corporation to a ground floor investor. My friend Harold suggested we pitch Sky Climber to take on the hoist; that's not a real sale, but it gets a prototype together, which is the normal way to sell a hoist. That takes the pressure off me building the prototype, but it also means I do all this work for not much reward; building this hoist in my old age would be like a 60 year old lady giving birth... it will probably kill me.

In order to make this happen, I have to sell the concept. Kind of like selling the wind; nothing physically there, yet. To start with, I'm pitching the hoist to my brothers and my friend; if they like it, I go looking for customers. I'm excited about seeing the design become a reality, I'm also a tad ambivalent taking on so much work. I see the cup as half full; if the hoist happens I get to do something interesting with my old age, if it doesn't happen, life and old age is a lot easier. Whatever God wants to do with it is good by me.

In the mean time, I'm still dirt poor... does anyone use that saying any more? I guess it makes no sense to say "dirt cheap" when dirt costs as much as it does. Between replacing appliances in the kitchen, computers in the living room, teeth in our mouths, used cars in our parking slots, and repairing the new used car, all the money ran out, it's all good. The child of my old age was re-elected to SHPE public relations chair for another year, this time he carries the board instead of them carrying him the past year. There's so much work, I think it hurts his grades, but he loves it, so another year of anemic grades, I guess... what's not to like?

anyways... I'm still alive.
Didn't you once drive a cab in Chicago?
 

Days

Commentator
Didn't you once drive a cab in Chicago?
still doing that. It's a Limo service now. But in my younger days, I was a prince of swingstage, my dad was the original Detroit branch manager for Spider Staging Sales; the first power driven scaffold hoist. After 20 years with Spider, my dad was wooed by Power Climber to start a dealership for them, that was when I was 18 years old, my dad wanted to name it "Power & Platforms" but I said "Platforms & Power" sounds better. My dad added 2 more corporations; "Ladders and Platforms" and "Powered Platforms Manufacturing" which grew to be the largest manufacturer of permanent installation window washing equipment in North America. My older brothers continued the gig with "Davitco" after my dad retired, but skyscrapers stopped ordering permanent installation equipment; in order to avoid liability for injury or death, buildings nowadays force building contractors to rig their own equipment... so it is all temporary.

Technically, because my davit truck design doesn't tie into the building infrastructure, my hoist and davit is temporary scaffolding. But it returns to the building owning their own equipment. Bottom line; there is no equipment that climbs super tall buildings. My design is 100 times more expensive than conventional equipment, it is all custom built titanium parts, and both the hoist and davit are HUGE, but as things are, there is no way to access the exterior of a building for drops beyond 1500 feet.

Half of the world's super tall skyscrapers are being built in China. If I built this hoist, they would no doubt seek to steal it. Unless Trump can put a stop to those shenanigans.
 

JackDallas

Senator
Supporting Member
still doing that. It's a Limo service now. But in my younger days, I was a prince of swingstage, my dad was the original Detroit branch manager for Spider Staging Sales; the first power driven scaffold hoist. After 20 years with Spider, my dad was wooed by Power Climber to start a dealership for them, that was when I was 18 years old, my dad wanted to name it "Power & Platforms" but I said "Platforms & Power" sounds better. My dad added 2 more corporations; "Ladders and Platforms" and "Powered Platforms Manufacturing" which grew to be the largest manufacturer of permanent installation window washing equipment in North America. My older brothers continued the gig with "Davitco" after my dad retired, but skyscrapers stopped ordering permanent installation equipment; in order to avoid liability for injury or death, buildings nowadays force building contractors to rig their own equipment... so it is all temporary.

Technically, because my davit truck design doesn't tie into the building infrastructure, my hoist and davit is temporary scaffolding. But it returns to the building owning their own equipment. Bottom line; there is no equipment that climbs super tall buildings. My design is 100 times more expensive than conventional equipment, it is all custom built titanium parts, and both the hoist and davit are HUGE, but as things are, there is no way to access the exterior of a building for drops beyond 1500 feet.

Half of the world's super tall skyscrapers are being built in China. If I built this hoist, they would no doubt seek to steal it. Unless Trump can put a stop to those shenanigans.
Is this you:

http://www.spiderstaging.com/about.aspx#history
 

Days

Commentator
that is Spider Staging Sales. It looks like Safway, which is built up scaffolding (tube construction) has bought them up.

Comparing the spider drum hoist with my drum hoist design:


.................................................Spider.....................................my design

drum RPM....................................9....................................................9
drum diameter.............................6"...................................................15"
avg speed..................................18 ft/min.....................................50 ft/min
power......................................120 volt AC...................................60 volt DC
reach.........................................900 feet.......................................4000 feet


28 years ago, I was branch manager for my father in Cleveland, I called the new president of Spider, told him I had a design for a drum hoist. He came by and met with me, but wasn't interested in hearing my design, he said flatly, the drum hoist is history. And it was. What I've designed is not a drum hoist, it is a battery driven gearmotor hoist, a totally different animal. I've taken the scaffold hoist wireless, eliminating the electric cord, enabling the high reach. The design is flexible; it can be widened or heightened to provide more space for wire rope, future generations could use it to climb over a mile into the sky. Originally, I was just trying to do that, I never thought roof levels would go to 2500 feet in my life time, but that will happen and soon. Now I figure they may go as high as 3/4 mile in my lifetime... which is what I tweaked my design for.
 

JackDallas

Senator
Supporting Member
that is Spider Staging Sales. It looks like Safway, which is built up scaffolding (tube construction) has bought them up.

Comparing the spider drum hoist with my drum hoist design:


.................................................Spider.....................................my design

drum RPM....................................9....................................................9
drum diameter.............................6"...................................................15"
avg speed..................................18 ft/min.....................................50 ft/min
power......................................120 volt AC...................................60 volt DC
reach.........................................900 feet.......................................4000 feet


28 years ago, I was branch manager for my father in Cleveland, I called the new president of Spider, told him I had a design for a drum hoist. He came by and met with me, but wasn't interested in hearing my design, he said flatly, the drum hoist is history. And it was. What I've designed is not a drum hoist, it is a battery driven gearmotor hoist, a totally different animal. I've taken the scaffold hoist wireless, eliminating the electric cord, enabling the high reach. The design is flexible; it can be widened or heightened to provide more space for wire rope, future generations could use it to climb over a mile into the sky. Originally, I was just trying to do that, I never thought roof levels would go to 2500 feet in my life time, but that will happen and soon. Now I figure they may go as high as 3/4 mile in my lifetime... which is what I tweaked my design for.
What size battery, or battery pack, could do that? It sounds impossible to me.
I can only envision a 3/4 mile high building with multiple levels, starting with a ground floor many acres large, each level slowly diminishing in size up to a great height, and culminating in the center with the final height achieving the 3/4 mile mark with a 20 or 30 story structure.
 

Days

Commentator
What size battery, or battery pack, could do that? It sounds impossible to me.
I can only envision a 3/4 mile high building with multiple levels, starting with a ground floor many acres large, each level slowly diminishing in size up to a great height, and culminating in the center with the final height achieving the 3/4 mile mark with a 20 or 30 story structure.
Minoru Yamasaki taught the world how to build high; copy the trees. The super tall design is broken into segments in order to lay out a foundation... when you build in a desert you have to do that. But the design is itself going straight up; it is a vertical truss employing a strong core, it sways more than traditional skyscraper design. The higher we build, the more we will see straight vertical drops, because that is what is easiest to do. If the architects learn about my hoist, they will be free to do that.

My gearing is real smart; that's what enables me to pick heavy loads with low amp draw and low power motors. I've settled on a sweet spot that gives me 150:1 gear ratio, so I'm going with 1400 RPM motors, which means my base wrap on the drum climbs the wall at 36 1/2 feet per minute. I've got two torque levers built into the gearing design (see above post in this thread) which bring my torque reduction to 3600:1. Since my gearing is inline (it doesn't turn a corner, there's no worm gear in my drum gearing) one foot pound of torque should pick 3600 lbs on a fully wrapped drum. A foot pound means the motor can turn its shaft with one pound resistance at a 12" radius from the shaft. I have a 7 1/2" radius drum that can wrap wire rope all the way out to 13" radius. My hoist with 2500 feet of wire rope and a working payload is going to weigh about 2 tons. That should only require 3/4 foot pound torque, or less, from each motor, to wrap the outer most wrap, which makes it a very low amp draw.

The way I go wireless is by plugging a laser into the roof electrical outlet (3 phase 240 volt) and mounting it on my boom, aimed directly down at the hoist. I have a solar panel on the roof of the hoist that then converts the laser back into DC voltage, recharging the batteries in use. DC power controls will maintain the charge level on my lithium polymer batteries at 95%. In essence, the laser replaces the electric cord, feeding power to the stage. I've got over 3 cubic feet of battery, if the laser ever fails, the battery should be strong enough to climb a long, long way up, you want to park the hoist on the roof, not on the ground. If the laser fails, and the workers don't notice and manage to deep well the batteries (yikes) ... they can always go down. I have a power off down and the DC motor /generators should produce enough juice in the down direction to feed the solenoids that hold off the spring-loaded friction brakes.

It's a super cool hoist.
 
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JackDallas

Senator
Supporting Member
Minoru Yamasaki taught the world how to build high; copy the trees. The super tall design is broken into segments in order to lay out a foundation... when you build in a desert you have to do that. But the design is itself going straight up; it is a vertical truss employing a strong core, it sways more than traditional skyscraper design. The higher we build, the more we will see straight vertical drops, because that is what is easiest to do. If the architects learn about my hoist, they will be free to do that.

My gearing is real smart; that's what enables me to pick heavy loads with low amp draw and low power motors. I've settled on a sweet spot that gives me 150:1 gear ratio, so I'm going with 1400 RPM motors, which means my base wrap on the drum climbs the wall at 36 1/2 feet per minute. I've got two torque levers built into the gearing design (see above post in this thread) which bring my torque reduction to 3600:1. Since my gearing is inline (it doesn't turn a corner, there's no worm gear in my drum gearing) one foot pound of torque should pick 3600 lbs on a fully wrapped drum. A foot pound means the motor can turn its shaft with one pound resistance at a 12" radius from the shaft. I have a 7 1/2" radius drum that can wrap wire rope all the way out to 13" radius. My hoist with 2500 feet of wire rope and a working payload is going to weigh about 2 tons. That should only require 3/4 footpound torque, or less, from each motor, to wrap the outer most wrap, which makes it a very low amp draw.

The way I go wireless is by plugging a laser into the roof electrical outlet (3 phase 240 volt) and mounting it on my boom, aimed directly down at the hoist. I have a solar panel on the roof of the hoist that then converts the laser back into DC voltage, recharging the batteries in use. DC power controls will maintain the charge level on my lithium polymer batteries at 95%. In essence, the laser replaces the electric cord, feeding power to the stage. I've got over 3 cubic feet of battery, if the laser ever fails, the battery should be strong enough to climb a long, long way up, you want to park the hoist on the roof, not on the ground. If the laser fails, and the workers don't notice and manage to deep well the batteries (yikes) ... they can always go down. I have a power off down and the DC motor /generators should produce enough juice in the down direction to feed the solenoids that hold off the spring loaded friction frakes.

It's a super cool hoist.
One solar panel only produces about 400 watts A/C power. Is that enough?
 

Days

Commentator
One solar panel only produces about 400 watts A/C power. Is that enough?
I'm not living off the sun, I'm feeding that solar panel with a laser. But 400 watts might be enough... the recharging is continuous; the hoist only consumes power when it climbs. I've got a small solar panel, it isn't about solar; it is all about the laser. We will use whatever magnetrons we need to nail the power supply; that stuff is all in the marketplace; DC power controls are so beyond my level, but this is simple stuff.

The idea is to continuosly recharge the batteries so they are always at full charge (well, not completely full, don't wanna overcharge a lithium polymer battery; but the power controls are going to do that for me; regulate the charging)... the question becomes, what kind of drain am I looking at when the hoist climbs the entire building in continuous up; and that happens, so that's my benchmark, I have to have enough laser feed to be sure the batteries never deep well. Those things are some of the fun stuff you work out with the prototype. If I get that far, it means I have a hoist. Right now, all I have is a hoist design and an investment opportunity for someone with a few million burning a hole in their pocket.
 
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Days

Commentator
I'm not living off the sun, I'm feeding that solar panel with a laser. But 400 watts might be enough... the recharging is continuous; the hoist only consumes power when it climbs. I've got a small solar panel, it isn't about solar; it is all about the laser. We will use whatever magnetrons we need to nail the power supply; that stuff is all in the marketplace; DC power controls are so beyond my level, but this is simple stuff.

The idea is to continuosly recharge the batteries so they are always at full charge (well, not completely full, don't wanna overcharge a lithium polymer battery; but the power controls are going to do that for me; regulate the charging)... the question becomes, what kind of drain am I looking at when the hoist climbs the entire building in continuous up; and that happens, so that's my benchmark, I have to have enough laser feed to be sure the batteries never deep well. Those things are some of the fun stuff you work out with the prototype. If I get that far, it means I have a hoist. Right now, all I have is a hoist design and an investment opportunity for someone with a few million burning a hole in their pocket.
A lot of letters later...

The hoist has evolved, and, I think, settled into a size and speed: in some form of wierd karma, I have settled on a 15" OD drum tube to wrap wire rope on... 15" was where I started, over 30 years ago. I'm settling on 7/16" wire rope so I can build a heavier frame, exactly 50 lays of 7/16" wire rope fit into the 22" horizontal space between the drum rims. I'm going with 1400 RPM motor/generators; running through 150:1 gear ratio; my base wrap ends up being 36 1/2 feet per minute. But the speed jumps 1 3/4 feet per minute with each level of wire rope on the drum tube. The maximum size for drum rims is 6 1/2 inches; 15 levels of wire rope fits into that space. This yields a max reach of 3960 feet, or 1207 meters, or 3/4 mile. The run time per level is 5 minutes, 20 seconds; so it takes 80 minutes to climb the entire 3/4 mile. Unless I build a prototype, which if I do build a PROTOTYPE, it will be 6 1/2" drum rims, but otherwise, 5" drum rims reach 2680 feet, and that's 500+ feet higher than the highest roof on the planet at this time. The next about to be the tallest building in the world is the Jeddah Tower, in Saudi Arabia, and it's roof level will push to 2300 feet. So, in reality, any hoist I build in my lifetime, is going to 5" drum rims, with the exception that by advertising the design, an architect seizes upon the opportunity to build a 3/4 mile high roof; and that is becoming very doable; so it might happen.

If this hoist happens, it might get bought by the Willis Tower (formerly the Sears Tower) for that one drop they have: 1460 foot roof straight to sidewalk. I would love to see that, cuz that side of the Willis Tower stares directly down at UIC engineering building; UIC has never even responded to my e-mail back in February, their last one liner to me was saying they were looking into how to receive intellectual property as a gift (really? just do it) and they would be getting right back to me with that... well, it was my contacting UIC that got the ball rolling on design, that's what kick started this effort.

April and May letters have covered a lot of ground but I will need another 5-6 weeks to finish the whole design. It's going to be really interesting to see how my brothers and my friend respond to this, after all these years.
 
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Days

Commentator
tri-sected angle explained...

If you begin with the tools, you can not get there. But if you reproduce the angle itself, and set the angle three times in itself, it has to tri-sect the angle. That's absolute, the question isn't whether reproducing the angle 3 times and setting it within itself tri-sects - that absolutely tri-sects - the question is; did you reproduce the angle 3 times and did you set the 3 angles within itself?

Now, remember, we are talking about the angle, not the hypotenuse.

from my blog: (posted 10 years ago)



I still have this drawing somewhere in a desk drawer. This image was made with my wife's old cannon scanner, long since trashed, cuz the technology gets old. But I still have the pencil on paper... can you see where the angle is reproduced 3 times within itself? If you look for bi-section, you will think you are seeing bi-section, but it isn't there, the key is to look for the reproduction of the angle itself and the setting of that angle within itself 3 times; think angle, what is the angle? The angle is the arc produced by the compass intersecting the 2 straight lines that created the original angle; think of that arc, look for the reproduction of that arc 3 times... can you see it?
 
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Days

Commentator
You're over my head.
... speed and run time charts for the four hoists that I'm going to build to cover those heights. Well, I will build 'em if the world wants 'em, before I can offer 'em to the world, I need my two brothers and friend to agree to build the corporation that would build the hoist (and davit)... so, right now, I'm writing my brothers and friend and proposing the whole matter, which includes spelling out exactly what I would build.

These are my latest notes, just mailed... the speed and run time chart for the 7/16" wire rope version of the hoist should have arrived by now, the 3/8" hoist chart is still in the mail, and the height chart - which our sales would use to determine which hoist to sell to which height buildings - was just done, it hasn't even been mailed yet.

What I've done is... I've decided on which hoists to build for those heights; up til yesterday, I had a design, but now the design is settling into specific applications to rig the different heights.

I was still in the middle of explaining the hoist and davit to my brothers and friend when I started to do hoist and davit options... which led to choosing specific hoist options for specific heights. This includes the rigging applications on the davit for those hoists.

So there it is, the design I've been working on for over 30 years is ready to become parts lists for four different applications that would be applied to buildings all the way up to 3/4 mile in height. The design is coming down the final stretch and is about to cross the finish line.
 

Days

Commentator
... speed and run time charts for the four hoists that I'm going to build to cover those heights. Well, I will build 'em if the world wants 'em, before I can offer 'em to the world, I need my two brothers and friend to agree to build the corporation that would build the hoist (and davit)... so, right now, I'm writing my brothers and friend and proposing the whole matter, which includes spelling out exactly what I would build.

These are my latest notes, just mailed... the speed and run time chart for the 7/16" wire rope version of the hoist should have arrived by now, the 3/8" hoist chart is still in the mail, and the height chart - which our sales would use to determine which hoist to sell to which height buildings - was just done, it hasn't even been mailed yet.

What I've done is... I've decided on which hoists to build for those heights; up til yesterday, I had a design, but now the design is settling into specific applications to rig the different heights.

I was still in the middle of explaining the hoist and davit to my brothers and friend when I started to do hoist and davit options... which led to choosing specific hoist options for specific heights. This includes the rigging applications on the davit for those hoists.

So there it is, the design I've been working on for over 30 years is ready to become parts lists for four different applications that would be applied to buildings all the way up to 3/4 mile in height. The design is coming down the final stretch and is about to cross the finish line.
There's really only two hoists there; the 3/8" wire rope model and the 7/16" wire rope model. The 7/16" wire rope model has two versions; the 5" drum rim model and the 6 1/2" drum rim model; which, those are two different hoists, they share a lot of the same parts but they have different sized frames and will require their own parts lists. So, really, there is 3 different hoists there.

Let's say the Willis Tower (Sears Tower) wanted a hoist and davit. Look at the reach column on the 3/8" chart for their roof height (1460 feet)... they would wrap six levels of wire rope on that hoist; it would take 37 minutes to climb from the sidewalk to their roof.
 
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