Wheelchair Lift (modeled)

Over the weekend we straightened up in the garage and re-checked dimensions in the space where the wheelchair lift will be positioned. I also placed Dan Oss’s SolidWorks 3D model in the photograph below of the newly cleaned-up area using Photoshop. Arrows in the sketch show the lift platform movement as well as the wheelchair path. I think we are all now confident that this design is going to work nicely.

The next order of business is to “tweak” the structural elements of the lift mechanism as we decide on some important properties … like the size and shape of the rectangular steel tubing, and the thickness of the lifting bars. We might even subject the model to some simple finite element analysis.

Wheelchair lift (refined design)

One day of  review and refinements has resulted in this final(?) design for the accessibility lift in the garage at the “L” Shaped house. The first sketch shows the lift with the platform raised a little less than halfway up it’s travel.

 

The second sketch shows the lift platform fully extended at the top of it’s travel. The transparent platform exposes the lifting mechanism under the far side.

The last sketch shows two hydraulic cylinders (crudely) placed in the assembly for clarity.

Wheelchair Lift

From the very beginning we have been paying close attention to accessibility issues at the “L” Shaped House. The original design of our home included a ramp from the garage to the mudroom entrance (here).  The elevation issue encountered early in the construction process forced us to change course and turn our attention toward a lift in the garage. After carefully considering many options we have decided to build our own lift mechanism designed by the world class engineering staff at Professional Instruments Co. Dan Oss, and Byron Knapp have come up with the ingenious scissors lift mechanism (that lifts the platform through center) shown in the Solid Works 3D model below. Hydraulic cylinders connected to the off-center vertical linkage (visible in the bottom two sketches) will actuate the the lift and requires only 12” of stoke to raise the platform to it’s full height of 41”.

A refined view of this design showing one of the lifting cylinders in place below…

We plan to start fabricating the lift assembly shortly and hope to have it in place in the garage before the end of the year. The composite sketch below shows the lift mechanism superimposed on a photo of the end wall of the garage with some faint pen and ink additions to the design.

Meadow in the Making (Day 7)

By mid morning Schmitty and his crew had finished up all of the landscaping work at the “L” Shaped House and the planting beds were ready for mulch. Mulching by Mark showed up about 10:30 and got right to work installing the pine bark mulch with their amazing mulch blowing system. The small plants in much of the front yard made this method of application the best choice. The photo below shows the crew as they worked their way across the top section of the front yard.

The video below shows the mulch blowing operation in detail.

Meadow in the Making (Day 6)

Schmitty and his crew are working on the dry creek bed that runs between our property and the Wright’s on the East side of the “L” Shaped House. Matt Wolf’s plan calls for nine weathered limestone boulders randomly placed throughout the creek bed. The buff limestone bed begins at the driveway and “meanders”  to the top edge of the rain garden. We plan to encourage the moss currently growing in this corner of the property to climb onto the rock bed and boulders.

The extended video below captures the JLM crew as they work to place one of the last boulders near the top of the dry creek bed.

Buckthorn Eradication

Before and after photos showing the buckthorn eradication from our breezeway porch. This view shows just how thick the buckthorn had become in this area.

Meadow in the Making (Day 5)

Schmitty and his crew are busy placing plants throughout the new meadow at the “L” Shaped House. The first two photos below show the front corner of the driveway during and after their efforts around noon today. They drilled holes all over the front lawn using a modified ice auger and place the plantings by hand.

The next two photos show the rest of Schmitty’s crew working in the opposite corner of the front yard planting Blue Gamma grass using Matt’s home made plant spacing tool. The Blue Gramma, Bottle Brush, and Sweet grass arrived in “flats” as very small plantings. The individual plants are just barely visible in the foreground. Matt assures us they will take over the entire area nicely.

The last photo shows the area between the houses as the JLM guys prepare to start planting the Quaking Aspen, Hazelnut, Witch Hazel, and Service Berry plants. This is going to be a wonderful area once we get everything established.

Meadow in the Making (Day 4)

Schmitty and the JLM Landscaping spent the day (Friday) sculpting the new earthen berms and placing boulders in the front yard. Matt and I decided to use five large weathered limestone pieces as our “sitting rocks”  in the meadow. The photo below shows the crew working to shape and smooth the black dirt and sand “top dressing” spread across the entire front yard.

The next photo shows Sarah from Gerten’s working to unload plantings from the truck load of landscaping materials delivered to the “L” Shaped House.

The last photo shows the JLM crew stockpiling plant materials in a nice shady spot along the driveway.

Meadow in the Making (Day 3)

Schmitty and his crew finished up the buckthorn eradication along the property line between our home and the Wright’s next door late yesterday afternoon. There were an amazing number of buckthorn plants growing there … as a matter of fact there was almost nothing but buckthorn in there.

The result is shocking!

The photo below shows the Cat skid-steer taking a well deserved rest after a whole day prying tree roots from the hard clay soil. The hackberry, blue spruce, and maple trees are all breathing a huge sigh of relief  now that the buckthorn is gone.

Amazingly … this little chipper turned all of the big piles into just one truck load of wood chips.

Good riddance!

Meadow in the Making (Day 2)

Day two of the meadow-in-the-Making operations at the “L” Shaped House finds Schmitty and his JLM crew hard at work preparing the front lawn and tackling the buckthorn out back. The first photo below shows the erosion control “wattle” material ready to be installed along the bottom of the front yard.

Next … The tiller breaking up the top couple of inches of soil in the area where the meadow will be planted.

The last two photos show the area between our home and the neighbor’s as Schmitty and his crew work to remove as much of the Buckthorn as possible. The area is absolutely overgrown with this invasive species and removing it is a really big task. While most of the trees are just a few inches in diameter there are more than a dozen trees bigger than 6”.

The Cat skid-steer is the weapon of choice in this battle. Here Schmitty is preparing to ram the forks under one of the bigger plants as he “pries” it out of the ground.

A video of the action…

Schmitty on the skid-steer

“L” Shaped Workshop…

Nearly 1 year on … We have the workshop in the garage set up and running!

The first photo below is a wide shot of the third stall with the workbench top fitted to the mid-rise scissors lift. The plan is to make this stall into a “convertible” workspace that will accommodate both auto maintenance and big wood working projects. The mid-rise lift provides a wonderful adjustable height base for the workbench. The only problem is what to do with the work surface when a car is in place?

The next two photos show the back wall of the third garage stall with our toolboxes, metal pegboard, and teardown bench in place. The galvanized metal pegboard from Wall-Control is absolutely great! Their product is well conceived and provides for not only tool storage and shelving … but light brackets as well. A few hours of organizing resulted in the arrangement seen here (it will probably evolve from here).

The last photo here shows our first project nearly complete. We are building three Nordic ski waxing stations to be used during the High School racing season this year.

First … the plan (Google Sketch-Up)

Next … the (nearly complete) project. The adjustable height 4’ x 8’ work surface made this effort convenient and fun!