Proposal for CE : Hand powered winch for use by people in developing areas.
@lock-os-0SknMU
•
Oct 26, 2024
Oct 26, 2024
1.6K
Hey CE, I was thinking of something to build over Christmas break that would be simple yet useful. Being the eldest male in the home most of the day, (In other words: The oldest brother.) I am used to moving all sorts of things up and down stairs and around the house. It got me to thinking about building a portable hand winch to help me move large, bulky, but not necessarily heavy objects around.
Of course, I then though about other people, especially in remote or developing areas where smiler conditions of bulky large, and somewhat heavy loads are encountered on a daily basis in less than ideal terrain. It goes without saying that powered equipment out in these areas might be rare and costly. Even solar power might be unreasonable due to cloud cover or their less than durable nature.
Hence, I thought about developing a personal winch of sorts that could be built out of mostly local materials and thus keep costs down and expedite repairs. It would be mostly used to reduce the need for heavier machines in most light jobs, so that a worker could help move loads up to the top of a short cliff faster or maybe a woman could use it to haul up a larger bucket of water from the local well.
Overall, these are the general rough draft of specs that I came up with to get started with:
Weight: Under 30 pounds
Power source: Hand crank, but any human power could be considered. Electric is optional
Made mostly from local materials: Wood and Bamboo come to mind first. Plastics are a no-no for lack of ability to repair on the field. Also not available locally.
Easy to manufacture: Drill and saw to make parts, screws / bolts to hold them together. Also able to be easily repaired in the field.
Pull power: Be able to pull at least 100 pounds.
Mounted: The unit will be mountable to anything that can support it. Trees, carts, sides of buildings.
Reach: 30 meters at most.
Rope design: 30 Meters straight, attached to a metal ring at the end, then two smaller ropes attached to the ring with hooks on the ends to rap around the object to be moved and then attached to the ring. This creates a 'sling' to move the object.
Rope material: Twine / Burlap / whatever local rope is available. Thin steel cable possible if available. Wooden hooks and rings to secure load possible, but metal seems to be a better choice right now.
Ratcheting option: If possible, I'd like to add a simple ratcheting option to help ease the load down cliffs, walls, ect. It should be able to stop the load from suddenly falling down if the operator is having a hard time pulling the load up or is something should happen to otherwise make the load drop to fast, creating a risk for injury to anyone.
Well, here is where I need some help. Before I go on and start drawing up plans and what not for this device and getting all idealistic, I'm like some more level headed experienced people to add some realism to this project.
Some things to keep in mind:
1: I plan on not making these and shipping them en mass, rather, I want people to be able to get the blue prints and make it for themselves. I might make one or two examples so that people could see an actual model of it and see if it is something they would like to make on their own, but they will have to make any more on their own.
2: I have yet to take any courses in mechanics, so try to keep any math in relatively simple terms. Basically, if you don't think I will understand it, a link to a wiki or a simple explanation will do just fine, I can handle myself from there. Also keep in mind that people will be making this out of local materials, so any specs are general target areas, not precise standards that must be met.
3. Lastly, I plan on making this a more or less world wide-wide-available. I don't think it would be fair to help just one group of people like most projects do now. I want people down the street, as well people living oceans away, to be able to make and use this device. If it becomes successful enough, I'll put a patent (Under all of us.) to protect it from someone coping it and thus controlling it.
With that in mind, I need some help with the following things.
1) Would the people of CE be interested in helping out with this project? IE: can we transform this into a CE project that can help people as well as hopefully spread the word about us. I know people are busy, so I don't mind if only a few join up.
2) Are similar devices already in use in developing areas? If so, then their wouldn't need to be make something like this. Like I said, this is supposed to be a small, cheaper version of an electric or gas powered winch, but if people are just dandy with basic ropes and have a bunch of pulleys and cranes for cheep, then this kinda becomes useless.
3) If the above answer is no, and assuming this would be used, are the specs realistic and would the resulting device be useful? If not, how much would the specs have to change in order to achieve a more realistic design?
4) Would people use it? Or would people ignore it?
Thanks for any advice in advance and for reading this. I hope that this project can be something that we all can work on to improve the lives of people in developing nations in their lives as well as to spread the word about Crazy Engineers.
Of course, I then though about other people, especially in remote or developing areas where smiler conditions of bulky large, and somewhat heavy loads are encountered on a daily basis in less than ideal terrain. It goes without saying that powered equipment out in these areas might be rare and costly. Even solar power might be unreasonable due to cloud cover or their less than durable nature.
Hence, I thought about developing a personal winch of sorts that could be built out of mostly local materials and thus keep costs down and expedite repairs. It would be mostly used to reduce the need for heavier machines in most light jobs, so that a worker could help move loads up to the top of a short cliff faster or maybe a woman could use it to haul up a larger bucket of water from the local well.
Overall, these are the general rough draft of specs that I came up with to get started with:
Weight: Under 30 pounds
Power source: Hand crank, but any human power could be considered. Electric is optional
Made mostly from local materials: Wood and Bamboo come to mind first. Plastics are a no-no for lack of ability to repair on the field. Also not available locally.
Easy to manufacture: Drill and saw to make parts, screws / bolts to hold them together. Also able to be easily repaired in the field.
Pull power: Be able to pull at least 100 pounds.
Mounted: The unit will be mountable to anything that can support it. Trees, carts, sides of buildings.
Reach: 30 meters at most.
Rope design: 30 Meters straight, attached to a metal ring at the end, then two smaller ropes attached to the ring with hooks on the ends to rap around the object to be moved and then attached to the ring. This creates a 'sling' to move the object.
Rope material: Twine / Burlap / whatever local rope is available. Thin steel cable possible if available. Wooden hooks and rings to secure load possible, but metal seems to be a better choice right now.
Ratcheting option: If possible, I'd like to add a simple ratcheting option to help ease the load down cliffs, walls, ect. It should be able to stop the load from suddenly falling down if the operator is having a hard time pulling the load up or is something should happen to otherwise make the load drop to fast, creating a risk for injury to anyone.
Well, here is where I need some help. Before I go on and start drawing up plans and what not for this device and getting all idealistic, I'm like some more level headed experienced people to add some realism to this project.
Some things to keep in mind:
1: I plan on not making these and shipping them en mass, rather, I want people to be able to get the blue prints and make it for themselves. I might make one or two examples so that people could see an actual model of it and see if it is something they would like to make on their own, but they will have to make any more on their own.
2: I have yet to take any courses in mechanics, so try to keep any math in relatively simple terms. Basically, if you don't think I will understand it, a link to a wiki or a simple explanation will do just fine, I can handle myself from there. Also keep in mind that people will be making this out of local materials, so any specs are general target areas, not precise standards that must be met.
3. Lastly, I plan on making this a more or less world wide-wide-available. I don't think it would be fair to help just one group of people like most projects do now. I want people down the street, as well people living oceans away, to be able to make and use this device. If it becomes successful enough, I'll put a patent (Under all of us.) to protect it from someone coping it and thus controlling it.
With that in mind, I need some help with the following things.
1) Would the people of CE be interested in helping out with this project? IE: can we transform this into a CE project that can help people as well as hopefully spread the word about us. I know people are busy, so I don't mind if only a few join up.
2) Are similar devices already in use in developing areas? If so, then their wouldn't need to be make something like this. Like I said, this is supposed to be a small, cheaper version of an electric or gas powered winch, but if people are just dandy with basic ropes and have a bunch of pulleys and cranes for cheep, then this kinda becomes useless.
3) If the above answer is no, and assuming this would be used, are the specs realistic and would the resulting device be useful? If not, how much would the specs have to change in order to achieve a more realistic design?
4) Would people use it? Or would people ignore it?
Thanks for any advice in advance and for reading this. I hope that this project can be something that we all can work on to improve the lives of people in developing nations in their lives as well as to spread the word about Crazy Engineers.
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