Fixture Hoist

[Dennis Alwon]

Has anyone ever seen a fixture winch that can be used where there is no attic access. We have about a 75lb fixture that is 22 feet in the air and the ho wants to be able to clean it and change bulbs. There is no way to cable the winch to an accessible area. The motor would have to be surface mounted and built into a canopy or something. I can only imagine this working by the motor being mounted to a pole that the fixture hangs from. The ceiling is not flat either except for about 5" at the peak.

 

[Podagrower]

I've dealt with a couple of fixture winches and they can be a real labor saver. It's been a long time since I installed one, but I think I had to fabricate a mount for mine (frame wouldn't bolt to two trusses).
How about using a fixture medallian to cover up an access to the winch? At 22' up, you could use a big enough medallion to hide a pretty big hole?

 

[Dennis Alwon]

I've dealt with a couple of fixture winches and they can be a real labor saver. It's been a long time since I installed one, but I think I had to fabricate a mount for mine (frame wouldn't bolt to two trusses).
How about using a fixture medallian to cover up an access to the winch? At 22' up, you could use a big enough medallion to hide a pretty big hole?

There is no attic. It is a cathedral ceiling sloping up from 4 sides to a point.

 

[Podagrower]

Hey, that second tick mark behind the 5 makes a big difference--5", 5' whats the difference

 

[Joe Villani]

Chandlier lift

Chandlier lift

Dennis,

Did you check Aladdin light lifts? They have a remote type set up.

http://www.aladdinlightlift.com/quickreference1.html


Joe Villani

 

[Dennis Alwon]

Dennis,

Did you check Aladdin light lifts? They have a remote type set up.

http://www.aladdinlightlift.com/quickreference1.html


Joe Villani

Thanks Joe. I had seen that but I probably should call them. I don't think it will work since the pulleys would have to be hidden and there would have to be about 5 of them. There are 3 or 4 different pitches of roof and many rafter to get thru before the motor could be in an accessible place. Its a mess. It could possibly work for one but the cable would have to go thru about 6 rafters.

I will call them. Thanks

 

[tonyou812]

Imagine they could make a pully system in a similart set up to an ansul system wire "pull station" for that you just have to have it situation ....? Im not sure it would look to nice but it could work....... and the motor unit could be mounted anywhere.

 

[quogueelectric]

Has anyone ever seen a fixture winch that can be used where there is no attic access. We have about a 75lb fixture that is 22 feet in the air and the ho wants to be able to clean it and change bulbs. There is no way to cable the winch to an accessible area. The motor would have to be surface mounted and built into a canopy or something. I can only imagine this working by the motor being mounted to a pole that the fixture hangs from. The ceiling is not flat either except for about 5" at the peak.

Have done numerous chandelier lifts and sometimes have used pulley system to get cable around to an acccessable spot. Edit to say just have them pan out the cieling a little lower at the peak.

 

[Dennis Alwon]

Apparently the situation I have is not doable. The pulleys will work only if there is a change in elevation but not on left or right hand turns. This situation would need at least 3 elevation turns as well as 2 or 3 angled turns.

I talked them out of it. When the ho said she was worried about dust etc. I reminded her of the 12 windows that were up higher then the chandelier, etc. She said she'll have to hire someone to clean everything anyway.

Thanks for your efforts

 

[iwire]

Thanks for the update.

I reminded her of the 12 windows that were up higher then the chandelier, etc. She said she'll have to hire someone to clean everything anyway.

Perfect. :smile:

 

[electricalperson]

Dennis,

Did you check Aladdin light lifts? They have a remote type set up.

http://www.aladdinlightlift.com/quickreference1.html


Joe Villani

we use those all the time and work pretty well, they are a little heavy but they do the job. they come with a key switch to raise and lower the light but you can change it out to something better like a keypad

 

[quogueelectric]

A few things to take into consideration it would be too long a post for me to explain all of it.
1- put the controler comfortably in sight of the lift I can think of 2600 reasons why.
2-Make sure you look at the instructions as to the initial wind direction that the cable winds on to the drum of the winch unless you have a couple of extra hours to unwrap and reverse the direction and clamps.
And possibly the mounting orientation of the winch providing you didnt break anything because when the direction is reversed the control contacts like the STOP insnt understood by the controller correctly.
3- when lowering the fixture make sure you dont loose sight of your visual .
Because when it bottoms out in lower and no one is watching it starts to reverse wind back towards the top and the controls are now reversed.
Until it hits the stop at the top where it will either jam in a winch wedged position or the fixture could pop off from the pressure because the control stop at the top is only wired into the up control ckt not the down control loop.
I have seen all of these scenarios close up and even saved a security guards life by saying to him I wouldnt stand there if I were you seconds later the chandelier vaporized by ripping itself off the lift and falling 52 feet to the floor.
I was kind of pissed he didnt even say thank you he was an off duty cop working as a part time security guard who didnt like me telling him where to stand.
There were kids in this school at the time btw. Just kept staring at me like I owed him money. People are strange.

 

[mthead]

Fixture Hoist

I used the alladin lifts many times-Once we did one, every one in the area went for them-this was a high end area though.
Had similar situation,though not quite as bad as the one that seems to be confronting dennis.
It was as pictured in the diagram shown previosly-"A remote pulley in a tower--motor was in seperate gabled area so motor was accessible as installed--can't imagine a setup done as dennis requested un less you were to design and engineer the pulley set up yourself-and we know the liability aspects of that no matter how beautiful a job it could be--unfortunately ,I think a project like that would only be on a drawing board or in a classroom to show that it could be done.

 

[ZZZ]

We had a college building built in 1904 that had four large fixtures in the curved teir fixed seating area of the auditorium. They must have weighed 100 lbs each. There was a 2' space between the plaster ceiling and the concrete floor above. Inside it above each fixture was a pulley with a steel cable to the fixture. The cables went to a small hand crank winch that would lower all four at once. It was quite a nifty set up, and all original.