On Friday, 6 December 2019 20:34:00 UTC, wrote:
On 06/12/2019 16:07, tabbypurr wrote:

If you're not short of headroom just use a 1 piece ladder with weight on a pulley.
That's an interesting idea. A 1-piece ladder mounted to the trapdoor on
some sort of rollers so the ladder pushes-up until the bottom clears the
edge of the door and latches in place, the top of the ladder then drops
down onto the attic floor as the door is closed. The trapdoor needs to
be hinged at ceiling level so, with 8" joists, the ladder would need to
be held at least 9" above the door to be able to lie flat on the floor.
At the moment I can't see how a pulley and counterweight could be made
to work when the top of the ladder would be swinging through a large
arc, but it might be possible to use a long spring, rope and pulley
between somewhere on the door and somewhere on the ladder.

When using multisections the pulley mech doesn't need to balance it, just needs to keep it within workable limits.


NT


I think you may be overthinking this counterweight thing. Mine has no counterweight or spring and is just fine. If you make one that's awkwardly heavy, a partial counterweight should be enough. A 1 storey ladder is not normally overly heavy.


NT