A use for old garage door counterbalance pulleys

[Mainer]

I got a new garage door installed a while ago, with new tracks and hardware. Among the salvage from the old door was four pulleys that had been used for the steel cable counterbalance setup. I turned them into a pair of two-sheave blocks to rig a 4:1 block and tackle.

As you can see from the photos the design evolved between the two blocks. The one with the wood cheeks may be more artistic, but the all-aluminum one is perhaps more practical. I estimate they have a safe working load of about 500 pounds and an ultimate strength of about a ton.

 

[jwcnc1911]

Wow! That's beautiful! Now this has just made it's way onto my to do list.

Thanks for sharing!

 

[Mainer]

The secret (if any) to making them is to make a fixture to go on your rotary table so it's easy to position the pieces. I made one out of a scrap of plastic lumber with push-fit pins at the proper spacing. If I were to do it again I might make it a little better, with built-in clamping screws for the part being worked on. There wasn't a whole lot of space for clamps (typical rotary table problem).