Gyro Gearloose Strikes Again . . .

Sometimes you don't see anyone for weeks at a time and then all your friends drop around.

This weekend was supposed to be a catchup weekend as the week was spent "out of retirement".

Never mind - you can't have too many friends (and besides they don't mind if you tell them to either help or piss off - in the nicest possible way of course :) ).

Lots of brackets to go under the floor joists which were put in last week.
You can't see them unless you know where to look and even then it's not very impressive but they have to be done.

Finally got to the bed guides and decided the tracks by themselves were probably not strong enough.
They don't do much other than guide the rollers, but will require a pulley at the top to lift the bed up with a wire rope pulled from underneath the floor. This will apply a fair amount of compressive load so it was decided to attach them to some 50 x 25 mm tube to help keep them straight. Hard to see but there they are welded into position at each corner of the bed frame.


















Now of course the rollers needed to be attached to the frame and be able to run in the guides.


















Hmmmm.
Not that hard to do!
Can't be!
Can it?

Well it can be put together without to much trouble but it had better never go wrong or need maintenance!
OK. Better go the long way round.
There goes another hour or two working that one out.
Finally : that ought to do it!















Now it can all be taken apart if it needs to be.
So all in all not too bad a weekend.
Progress is progress.



































It was interesting actually to weigh the bed frame as it is now.
20 kg.
Will probably end up about 50 kg. with trim, mattress and bedding etc.

Thinking . . .
There are some springs in the workshop left over from a previous project which will provide about 300 mm of travel with 50 kg compression.
Two of those on each corner will provide 600 mm of movement with a total 200 kg lift force.
Combined with a 3 to 1 pulley system that will provide about 65 kg of lift for 1800 mm of travel and I only need 1200 mm lift.
The springs will probably tend to weaken a little over time so it will only need about 5-10 kg to pull the bed down from the ceiling and it will lift up by itself when released.
A lot cheaper than electro-mechanical drive and controller.
Might have to give that a try. . .