Looking for a gizmo...

[aferguson]

i'm thinking of making an aircraft carrier elevator display for one of my 1/18 planes to sit on. I've spotted a nice little table top i'm going to use for the elevator. I thought it would be neat if i could set it on top of some kind of gizmo that would raise and lower it.

So, what kind of gizmo is there? Motorized would be ideal but hand crank is fine too. Nothing as big and bulky as a car jack. Just some little thingy that i can set a 36" by 24" table top on and have it be able to raise and lower it. Need about 16 inches vertical travel.

Suggestions?

[pickelhaube]

Easy.

Stuff needed.

A length of all thread.
nut to fit all thread.
epoxy
drill motor
90 degree drill attachment.

Set up the board /table so that it has some sort of runners to hold it in place.

Drill a hole in one of the sides ( or in the middle towards the back of the table /board ) bigger than the all thread so it spins freely.

Epoxy the nut on the bottom of the board.

Run the all thread through the nut.

Attach 90 degree attachment to drill

Chuck attachment to drill motor.

Secure drill motor so it does not move.

Turn drill on and it levitates.

Switch drill to reverse and it will gravitate.

[aferguson]

lol.....easy?

that's easy for you maybe, not me.

easy is: go to canadian tire store, buy gizmo. Come home.

i'm leaning towards using an auto jack as it's cheap and readily available. The downsides are that it will have jerky motion in between pumps on the jack and there's only about 8 inches of vertical travel.

there must be other types of little jacks available, other than automobile jacks, but i can't think of anything.

[ram04]

This may not help, but at least give you something to look for, but my daughters had this barbie house that had a elevator, it used a little winch type thing to raise and lower it, its been years ago that they had that, but who knows, maybe someone has one.

[pickelhaube]

Or you could use a rope and a pulley.

Use an old bicycle crank for a handle.

[Ruger]

Try looking into a screw type jack. They are commonly used as the factory jack on many cars. They can go down to about 3" and usually up, well, I don't think I've ever measured, but quite a way. Use raise/lower them by turning a fitting on one end, so they needn't be "jerky", and could be motorized like Pickle mentioned. Lemme do some Googling and get back to you.

MV

[aferguson]

hm...now that sounds interesting. I was thinking that the jack on my old car turned smoothly but all the ones i can find now are pump action. Screw action would definitely be the way to go.

[Ruger]

Sorry, had my terminology wrong, not screw jack, scissor jack. Maybe a bit like this:

LINK

MV

[aferguson]

yeah that looks ideal. I just mount it to the bottom of my table top, somehow, and then crank it up and down smoothly, to raise and lower.

Very helpful, thanks.

[aferguson]

if anyone's interested: i picked up a scissors jack today. It's a smallish one, maximum travel is only 9 inches. Didn't dawn on me when i got it that longer jacks would be able to have a longer range of travel. Oh well, i didn't feel like spending more than $20 anyway.

Useful travel is only about 8 inches as it takes forever to go up the last inch...seems to barely move no matter how fast i wind as it gets near the end of its travel. Nature of the design shape. 8 inches is 12 feet; japanese hangars were 14 feet 6 inches high, so it's not quite enough travel but will do.

I jimmy rigged a nice little handle out of an old plastic cork screw. Turns easy and smoothly in a very compact motion. Takes about 17 seconds to go up the 8 inches, which sounds slow but actually looks pretty good. I have no idea how fast ship elevators moved but it looks reasonable.

So now i just have to figure out how to securely attach my 'elevator' to the top of the jack. Could be tricky as i want to have it removable for easier storage. I'm using a shelf i got at Ikea for the elevator itself...it was an ideal size and cost $12. Just need to paint it up, plunk my Zero on it and that'll be it.

So for a total cost of under $40, i have a scale, working aircraft elevator to display my folded wing tip Zero custom on.

[Jesse James]

Start looking around at cabinet rollers/shelving things at the hardware store. You'll get inspired I think.

[Folkwulfe]

I know its kind of late....but I had the same idea for one of my TBF Avengers a while back. When I started looking into possible inner workings, I discovered that electric car window motors and scissors work great. Powered by a (rechargeable) 12V motorcycle battery, the overall box would have been attractive and fit just about anywhere. I never got past the "planning" stage though.

[ram04]

Whatever you end up with, make sure to post some pictures, this sounds like a really cool idea.

[aferguson]

the electric window is a great idea.