Winch

thingiverse

We have a 40 foot long washing line between wall mounted pulley and tree meaning it is approx 12 feet off the ground when pulled tight. This winch is mounted to wall so that washing line can be lowered and tightened. Instructions Please be nice, I am new to all this. Winch is probably way over engineered, but a 40 foot line can hold a great deal of weight, so I was being cautious. Not for the faint hearted, this winch is heavy chunks of plastic, it will take most of a 1KG reel to print. Pictures show winch printed on RepRap Metric Mendel Prusa with LM8UU bearings, printed in translucent red 3mm PLA. Top shown in photos is a previous version (15mm thick instead of final 10mm). Winch.scad is main file, it pulls M45 threads from ISOThread.scad, vertical bearings from vert_bear.scad and horizontal bearings from horiz_bear.scad. Needs approx 116 off 6mm steel ball bearings. Near top of Winch.scad are 4 lines: //winch(); //winch_base(); //winch_top(); //winch_reel(); uncommenting top line allows viewing of all parts as assembled. uncommenting any of next three lines allows rendering three components for rendering to STL. Vertical and horizontal bearings include lips so that bearings may be clipped in and will then be held in place. Allways leave space for one bearing when loading. Photo shows ball bearings loaded. Winch base has built in support material for vertical bearings, 'generate support' in Slic3r should be off to print this. Winch reel will not print unless 'generate support' is ON. We have actually had a washing line winch in place in our garden for about 10 years, one of the photos shows one of the 'prototypes'. Currently had the new winch in place and working for 2 weeks, I don't know how well it will wear or anything else, but it works well so far. Winch now been installed and fully working for almost 2 years, red PLA has faded slightly, but wooden ball handle could not cope with weather, split in half, so new file Winch2.scad and knob.stl are a PLA replacement, fitted and working very well. Current heat was too much, winch wilted and jammed, but not bad, 6 years for a chunk of plastic. So valuable that I have my orders and am currently printing a replacement.