Bonza wrote:

I have an talanted engineering group here at work. We design and
build equipment for in house use and a couple of devices that we sell.

To address a safety issue of carying parts and materials up to a
mezanine, we designed a dumbwaiter. There were a lot of constraints
such as missing electrical conduits, air ducts, roof girders, etc and
the guys came up with a good design. It had to fit, and met the needs
of the crew that would actually use it. Doors were located in the
right place (with interlocks) and the heights were right, and so on.

We started to build the unit and all was well until the city was
informed. Then red flags flew and we were told that we were
unqualified, not licensed, etc etc.

I have since contacted several manufacturers of dumwaiters and they
are not interested in either blessing our design, or providing a unit
that will meet the requirements.

Just so you understand the city's concern, let me tell you
a little story. The grade school/high school that I attended
had a kitchen and lunchroom on the second floor. Because of
overcrowding in the lunchroom, it was decided that the grade
school, on the 1st floor, would eat lunch in their classrooms.
This was around 1964.

A very talented maintainance man offered to build a dumbwaiter
between the kitchen and the grade school hallway. The unit
performed excellently and the maintainance man received much
praise for his efforts. No accidents and no problems.

Fast forward to about the early '90's. The school, which was
built in the 20's is empty and waiting to be converted into
condominiums. A pair of boys break in and decide it would be
fun to ride the dumbwaiter up to the kitchen. What exactly
they did, I don't know, but one of them ended up crushed to
death.

I'm sorry that I can't present any cites for this story, so
don't ask. To the best of my knowledge it it true.