Fig. 105.—Supports for Elevator Guides and Cables.
If there is a kitchen porch to your house, construct
The Outdoor Elevator shown in [Fig. 104] to run from the ground up to that porch. If you live in an upper story of an apartment building, your elevator can be made to run to a greater height, which, of course, will make more fun.
It will save considerable work to use the porch, because for one thing you will not have to build an upper platform to stand upon to reach the elevator car when it runs to the top, and for another thing the supports for the guides and cable can be fastened directly to one of the porch posts.
[Figure 105] shows a large detail of
The Guide Supports. Cross strips A, B, and C should be 18 or 20 inches long, about 2 inches wide, and 1 inch thick. At a distance of about 1 inch from one end of strips A and B screw a screw-eye into one edge, and 8 inches from those eyes screw a second screw-eye (D, [Fig. 105]). Screw-eyes with ½ inch eyes are large enough. A dozen will cost about 5 cents at the hardward store. The elevator guides are fastened to these.
Besides the screw-eyes there must be two clothes-line pulleys for the cable to run over. These cost 5 cents apiece. Screw one pulley into the edge of strip B, halfway between the two screw-eyes D (E, [Fig. 105]), the other into an edge of strip C at the same distance from the end that you have placed the pulley in strip B (F, [Fig. 105]).
Nail strip A to the porch post as close to the ground as you can get it, strip B to the same face of the same post, about 18 inches above the porch railing, and strip C to the opposite face of the post at the same height as strip B. Nail these strips securely in place.