Greatest Labor Saver I've Ever Built

Greatest Labor Saver I've Ever Built ENERGY Wood Handling 18-5-8 "It's the greatest labor saving idea I've ever come up with," says Ken Anderson, Trenton, Mo, of the automatic firewood elevator he built to lift wood from the basement in his big farm house up to the woodstove on the main floor. Anderson made the wood elevator using the shaft and motor off a slightly damaged heavy-duty garage door opener. He bought it as damaged freight for $60. The opener consisted of an electric motor with a right angle gear box with speed reduction that slows it down to 10 rpm's. It's also equipped with automatic shut-off. "I got a weld-on sprocket - you can buy them at any farm supply store for $10 or $15 - and welded it to the motor's hub and slid it onto the output shaft of the opener," Anderson explains. "Then I made a little drum for cable to wrap around and ran a roller chain from it to the sprocket on the opener." He then built a 2-ft. deep by 3-ft. wide by 5-ft. tall cage that holds about 1/10 of a cord of wood. Steel cable pulls the cage up to a storage closet with the floor removed that's near Anderson's woodstove. Eight lawnmower wheels attached to the corners of the cage guide it up and down on the track Anderson made out of 2 by 4's between the basement and main floor. The garage door opener is anchored in the top of the closet's ceiling with 2 by 4's. Anderson's total investment in the wood elevator was about $150. "It's awful handy and you don't have any of the mess of hauling wood through the house," he says. Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Ken Anderson, R.R. 5, Box 134, Trenton, Mo. 64683 (ph 816 684 6506).

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