DIY Stair Lift

DIY Stair Lift FARM HOME Building Techniques Tired of carrying hundreds of quart jars and more up and down basement stairs Norm Sieting built his own stair lift With garage door tracks mounted to the steps and a winch under the steps the lift does the hard work “My wife put up 84 quarts of apple juice alone last year That was 11 trips up and down the stairs ” recalls Sieting “We have a big garden and we can a lot of fruit and vegetables Then there are the two freezers and a refrigerator that we fill Our washing machine and dryer are also in the basement ” Sieting is an active 78-year-old but he knows the day will come when the stairs will likely be even more challenging He made the platform of the lift 18 in wide and 22 in deep with four wheels that ride in the track “It holds three rows of canning jars and is big enough to hold a chair ” says Sieting “I don’t have to ride it yet but the day will come ” The depth requires the platform to span two stairs in depth and height “I had to build a false step at the bottom so we can step off the platform to the floor ” says Sieting The two biggest challenges to installing the chair lift were mounting the 2 500-lb 12-volt Harbor Freight winch and battery under the top of the stairs and obtaining garage door opener tracks “It was a tight fit to place the winch with ductwork from the furnace and a washer and dryer under the steps ” says Sieting “However the hardest part was finding the tracks No dealer would sell me either new or used track Finally a friend gave me a set of tracks ” Sieting quickly discovered that the tracks spliced at 8 ft didn’t run smoothly Luckily his friend had a set of 12-ft tracks enough for the full stair run With the tracks mounted to either side of the stairs and the winch in place Sieting added a hard-wired remote for the winch The cable is long enough to be used at either end of the stairs When not in use it hangs at the top of the stairs with the lift platform at the bottom A Harbor Freight battery tender keeps the battery charged “The winch cable runs down the center of the stairs with plenty of room for our feet to either side ” says Sieting “If we step on it it just moves the platform a little until we step off it ” Contact: FARM SHOW Followup Norman Sieting 6112 Walker Rd NW Rapid City Mich 49676 ph 231-564-1031; normansieting@gmail com

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