A project (not on the list though)

Leo is my wife’s second son, by a previous marriage, which makes him my stepson. Does that make his wife Ellen my step-daughter-in-law? I find relationships quite confusing. Anyway, they have a daughter Layla (see Day Three), who is six months old, disarmingly cute, something of an insomniac, and (I can only presume) my step-grand-daughter. This little family lives in what I like to call “The House of Luuurve”, but The House of Luuurve is about to be extended, which will render it temporarily uninhabitable and cause it to be renamed “The House of Brickdust”. This will lead to an accommodation shortage which has only been partially filled by planning, so there’s a chance that the house of luuurve will need to come and live with us for a while. We don’t have enough proper bedrooms for that, so we may have to bring the loft into play. The loft is quite nice when you’re up there, but access is by a folding ladder and there’s no way to lift it from inside the loft – yet. I sense a project, with all the right ingredients! I have a vision of a fully-automated thing like a fancy electrically powered soft-top car roof – preferably driven by one or more battery drills which you can’t get replacement batteries for any more. I have at least two of those, both in excellent condition, just waiting for an opportunity like this.
First, how to operate the folding ladder from above? It’s a z-shaped ladder when folded, mounted on a hatch flap which extends downwards to the appropriate angle for the straightened ladder to hit the ground. The first tricky bit is the lower part which needs to be straightened just before it lands on the way down. Gravity alone causes it to go vertical and jam.

Ladder jammed

I am going to attempt a cunningly calibrated over-centre thingy made of bungy rope to keep it straight when nearly vertical, but folded when nearly horizontal, using the weight of the lower part to switch between modes.  And here it is!

 

Held straight by bungy when near vertical...

...but folds when near horizontal

I'm proud to say that the only bits I had to buy were the little plastic eye and the crimp for the the main operating rope.  Total project cost so far, £1.  It is possible to operate the whole thing for above by hand, now.  Success!
Much sawing, drilling, filing and vice work to get this far - excellent.  Also, using bits of scrap from what used to be work to make nice little shouldered stand-offs so that the bungy doesn't chafe.

 Jolly good show!

The fully automated edition presents some more challenges though. In order to operate it with one main lifting cord you have to pull from various different places at different times during the lifting and lowering operations.  Visions of a thing like an enormous windcreen wiper with a pulley on the end or a three-foot long leadscrew keep occurring.  For now, I'll just keep on with the meds.