Build an Airplane in your basement. Who does that?

 

It was not supposed to go this way. I had "planned" to do all the construction in my pole shed but the shed roof trusses were in the way of the Treehouse roof rafters. So I was left with no choice but to move it out. Would it go through the garage door opening? The thought brought back a memory of articles read long ago where someone had built an airplane in their basement only to realize that there was no way to get the finished plane out. Would I be suffering a similar fate?

As they say, "One more coat of paint and it would not have fit through the door." With a little bit of effort and manually raising the door it slipped through. My lucky day. Since it will now be outside for the rest of the construction I decided to give it a coat of finish. Now I can get to work on the elevator.

1 - 1/2" by 1/8" angle iron would make up the frame. The cage would be 24" square and 6' - 6" tall.

Just like the windows drove the size of the hexagon the elevator and hoist drive the roof design. So having the elevator cage made up will help in designing the roof line and hoist placement.

So this went better than I imagined. Two 2x6's are attached on edge to the hexagon post on the right. This is a temporary set-up just to test the proof of concept. The real ones will have a 2x4 stiffeners screwed to the back side forming a T for strength. Two pieces of garage door track are screwed to each 2x6. Garage door rollers are placed at the top and bottom of the cage. The hoist is squeezed into the soffit area just above the door. With 5 foot windows, and using one of them as a door there is a challenge in getting head clearance. This is solved by the elevator stopping 16 inches below the floor of the Treehouse. You can see the cement block in the bottom of the elevator. This represents the "step up" to get into the 5 foot high opening to the Treehouse. Likewise when exiting the Treehouse you step down and your head clears the top header. It works like a charm. Unless you are over 6 feet tall!

Here is a look at it from the inside. The top of the elevator stops at the bottom of the header. On exit you step down 6" to get into the elevator and avoid a "header". A recoil with inertia safety cable will be attached to the elevator frame and roof rafter as a fail safe should the cable snap. 

So next it will be on to finishing up the roof rafter attachments and placing some cable ties to strengthen up the roof system to hold the load of the roof sheathing. Tricky but doable.