saw this on ebay sunday…  i was look’n at drywall lifts

http://www.raycraftinc.com

problem is i have 18-19ft walls  and at the top of many walls the drywall will have to be notched to fit around ceiling joists as it’s a firewall with exposed ceiling..frame…decking…

so yesterday i scrounge and then… today i built a version of the one in the link  but  mine can reach 20ft  i used 2″ 14ga square tube for the bottom half and 11ga 1 1/2″ sq tube for the top have… it will retract to do as low as an 11ft wall i added a 2″ sq 34″ foot ( think upside down T) on the bottom for added support vs what looks like a ladders foot on the one in the picture… i also used a harbor freight 400lb $60 electric winch mounted near the bottom… with the 1/8th cable run’n out of the winch down to a pulley i inset into the 2″ sq tubing then the cable goes inside the mast where it exits around another inset pulley 10″ from the top of the inner mast (the 1 1/2″ sq tubing) i have 2 set screws to lock the mast at any height…  I have a metal fab shop set up onsite with racks of material  so the only thing i purchased was the winch  took me 4hrs to build some of that was head scratch’n time because my design had to allow the drywall to pass above the T part that they show braced against the ceiling… my idea was to raise the drywall  mark & cut the notches in place and raise the drywall into it final place….then fasten…

did a test run with 3/4 4×8 osb….  this thing works better than i could have expected right out of the box… carries the material up & down so well that it’d be no problem to mark it for cuts… drop it back down  make the cuts then reraise it into place… if you check the link… works just like the one pictured except mine is electric and goes higher and has the added steel on the bottom (just though it’d be more stable that way) anyway mine is still bare steel i’ll paint it and post a pic with it lift’n… pretty neat tool

p