In article 42,
Bill wrote:

Most of the problems that people had with the idea of a home made
elevator was of using a winch to move the carriage up and down. None of
the designs had a good failure mode or means of stopping the carriage
from dropping 8 feet or so either with someone in it or the drop
happening when someone would be entering the carriage.

Why not have the operating switch inside the dumbwaiter mounted on a
bolt that locks the carriage to the rail by a spring? Pull the bolt out
and the carriage moves, release it and it stops at the next bolthole.

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