The first rule of using blocks and rigging that my dad taught me is to always plan out what will happen when it breaks. The second rule is that will only break at the worst possible time.
Great video. I work in the tower industry and got my truck stuck pretty badly on site one day. I was just about to call a wrecker when I decided to try and use my capstan and every block I had on the truck. I rigged an 8:1 and was able to pull a 9,000 lb truck out of the mud with a 1,000 lb capacity rope and capstan. I had a lot of feelings at that moment, just absolutely covered in mud and exhausted 80 miles from home at 5 pm on a Friday.
I live in a house that was built in 1911. When my wife and I bought the house we knew the brick work needed some pointing up in the mortar joints. But the top of the chimney was the worst. I hired a mason because I don’t compete with someone at their own game. Everything about masonry is heavy…. scaffold, bricks or blocks, mortar tubs and so on. Conveniently, there’s a big walnut tree that overhangs above the roof. The mason and I used a limb and snatch blocks to get his material to roof height. No sketchy ladder climbs with material in hand. I also believe it saved him time. He was thrilled when he showed up to do the work and I had a system in place to make it easier.
Another great demonstration of the mechanics of our world. When I was about 20, I was helping a friend getting an old station wagon out of the bush. He was renting a cabin on the land owned by a logging engineer, who stood patiently watching four fools pushing and pulling and cursing as the car moved a few inches at a time. His patience ran out, “STOP! “ he shouted and he sent me to his tool shed with a list of things to bring to the site. He had us looping lines around tree limbs and laying out a rig with blocks that our poor little under developed brains could not begin to comprehend. A half hour later he handed us a single line which we pulled and watched with amazement as the car started crawling out of the bush. What a day, never to be forgotten. Thanks again for your stories.
I was a sailor on a tall ship, a barquentine, so I got familiar with blocks (and occasional deadeyes). When I was a cub scout leader, I arranged a system of blocks so that 1 cub scout would win a tug of war going against an entire high school football team, all 43 of them. The team was sure that there was no way a random 8 year old could beat their combined effort. The coach was hacked when the random choice was my 8 year old niece and she won. She almost didn't. This was not because of the mechanical advantage but because the purchase was extremely slow moving for her. She got tired of beating the boys and dropped her end. She was saved by them all falling down and that gave her time to pick up her end again.
In the Navy to go to Chief Warrant Officer 3, I believe that's right, part of the exam was to rig on a sand beach to pull a large vessel onto the beach with rope and blocks. It was amazing to see a 4 cylinder jeep pull that large vessel onto the beach with a rope. It took a day for 4 sailors and a lot of rope, steel rods and a bunch of sheaves to accomplish that feat, but it worked.
I’m a logger and use these quite frequently. The most complex was, like you setting a rail car bridge in place without being able to have a machine on the other side. Used our Yoder as a skyline and the skid drum to guide the car. Darn trees are never where you need them. Had a long drum line on the cat to pull the bridge across. Things got a little sketchy and the lines were sining before we were done but we set a 90’ rail car in place for about 1/4 the cost of a crane. And it was on our schedule.
I was never a logger but I've always been an offroader.... It never ceases to amaze me how you can double or triple the amount of pulling power or redirect it with a simple little pulley. I generally have no less than 3 snatch blocks in my truck when I go on an offroading trip and usually have atleast one when I'm just driving down the road... you never know when it will come in handy Thank you Sir for your videos you are a wealth of knowledge and craftsmanship! I always learn something new when I click on one of your videos
Every fall and winter my son and I use a block and tackle to dress our deer. So simple, yet so necessary to do what we do which are anatomy lessons while butchering and processing our food. Thanks for the video!
🍻Good on ya picking up that 100 lb anvil with the rope. Lots of folks, a lot younger, couldn't do that. Great video. I also use blocks to slow things down, and allow finer movement. I added an ATV winch to a Harbor Freight "crane". Adding pulleys slowed things down to allow for an easier/slower picking up and lowering of the load. This isn't about capacity, but rather trying to avoid shock loads to the crane when picking up heavy, near capacity, loads.
Rigging is invaluable. One of the uncountable benefits of a technical theatre education I got in college was learning all about pro grade rigging. Theatre as a trade uses many old world maritime techniques. While those are dwindling in use on commercial theatre shows, (much like hand wood working tools) they're still a reliable and safe method for getting the job done..this video was thorough and responsibly done. Thank you sir.
Just recently I "discovered" the power of pulleys when I had to move an old school bus 200 feet over soft ground using a 2 ton capacity come-a-long and some cable and chain. I ended up with 4 cables going to the bus tow hooks and back to various big trees in the woods. Lots of slow going work got it done, eventually. One thing you didn't mention, the more pulleys you use, the more length of line you have to pull to move the weight....with 4 cables on the bus, each click of the come a long was a whopping 1/8 inch or less of bus movement! I had to reset the whole rigging many times....but, it was much better than calling a giant tow truck. Many days of hard work, but it's done and my upper body has never been so strong!
I love this. Didn’t know anything about mechanical advantage terminology. Was trying to figure out how to hang a heavy bag in my garage then be able to remove it & store it when done working out. Then found a product called Nifty-Lift. Made in US by a Veteran. Most useful tool/product I ever bought. Not an advertisement. Just very satisfied.
Wouldn't surprise me to know it was a 40' flat car and a 20' creek/whatever needing bridged. Leaves a 10' margin of safety on either bank. I've seen it done with a shipping container flat rack, too.
The example that I would use in the classroom about reducing the effort with pulleys and lines was if you pick up something heavy by yourself, it's harder than getting one or more people to help you lift. Each person added to help reduces the load each has to lift.
Hello Master, Thank you for all the ideas I´ve received from your videos. The reasson why you are receiving diferent measurments, is because there are three basic ways to calculate (MA) or Mechanical Advantage: Theoretical, Real and Actual. What you are getting is the actual which refers to all of those different parameters that are not cosider in the theoretical calculation and go even farther than the Real calculation. Being said, even with pulleys you will have friction which reduces the MA. and if in addition to that you have what we could call Factor "X" (lets say the calibration of your meassuring device) could modify those resulting calculations. Very respectful. And then again, thank you Master. You have no idea how many times I have improve my performance using things I learned form you with your videos.
When I was a poor, skinny kid, I bought a small block Chevrolet engine from a scrap yard(for $50). With my friends chain hoist (I can't remember how many chains in it), I lifted out of the back of my pickup using a beam in my fathers shed (a full dimension oak 2x4). It was almost effortless. I'd love to have that chain hoist, for no real reason other than memories. Thank you
used lots of pulleys when doing recovery of off road vehicles. depending on the set it can be used to increase the pulling power of the winch or to contorl the direction of the pulls. the set up can be an art form onto itself. thank you for the great videos.
Every man used to be aware of pulleys back in the day. Every home would have a clothes airer/drier that consisted of several lengths of wood that you put your damp clothes over. These would have a rope that would pull (usually 4) up to the ceiling in the kitchen where they would quickly dry! After I started work for the Electric Board we would often need to dress large 3"+ cables into a "U" shape to terminate into an electrical panel. There is no way even a group of muscly guys could do that neatly without a trick to it. Our trick was to bend the cable to the nearest we could manage and then wrap half a dozen turns of rope around the cable and use a short length of conduit (metal wiring tube) pushed through the rope and twisted like a tourniquet! This had the same force magnifying action as a pulley. Later on I was made aware of one of the few uses of rope under compression rather than tension, on canal barges! Rope was wound round the propeller shaft in the boat and was heavily covered in grease. A handle would put the rope under compression enough to stop water getting in! Useless in your shop, I know! ;o) I do have a great story about using force to aid work that had a whole factory of Navvies up in arms when they saw it in action, but it is way too long to tell here ......
Ropes , cables, snatch blocks, clevis etc. was a big part of my life when growing up. Both my dad and grandpa taught us that with these tools and a bit of brain power, you can essentially move the world without having to buy expensive equipment. They also taught us that a high lift jack(farm jack) was a great addition to the rest of this combo
I am a retired electrician. I have used pulleys and block and tackle to pull overhead electrical wires tight and to pull wires through conduit on numerous occasions.
When I was a kid I remember going to a children’s museum where they had an atv rigged with blocks and pulleys where you could lift it yourself. It blew me away
Years back I'd bought an old 8" wood block at a garage sale. When I was building my cabin, I wanted log rafters for the front deck. I had an independent, named Don, leading the work and he left the site saying we'd set the log rafters together the next day. Well, after dinner I setup my block with some 1/2" rope and using my Jeep, moved all the rafters up in place that evening. When Don arrived the next morning, he was dumbfounded about how I'd moved all the rafters myself. I showed him the block setup, leaving him impressed. Some weeks later, when I was gone on business, I received a voice mail from Don mentioning that he'd swung by my place and borrowed the block because he had log rafters to set.
G'day from Australia 🇦🇺 Thanks for your videos Scott, always informative and interesting. In my time ive used rigging and pulleys from block and tackle to a hauling and rescue system to raising and lowering a 150 Tonne dredge ladder and Bucket Wheel. With enough length of rope or cable, and enough pulleys, we can move ANYTHING!!
Excellent video. Don't use Block & Tackles as much being mostly in the Shop now days but used them on a regular basis rigging Speakers, large projection screens, etc. from 100's lbs to over 1000 lbs. I don't know how I would have done it without Block & Tackles. Having enough headroom above sometimes was a problem.
Just this evening i used a tiny 20mm block and pulley to lift a 150kg generator so i could drop off the sump to retrieve a piece of broken piston ring. That's all i needed, decent cord and tiny hardware shop pulleys you described suitable for sliding doors. It's surprisingly easy to overlook the usefulness of simple machines.
@feelthepayne88 it's absolutely real! It means best in Chinook Wawa, which is the collective languages of the native peoples around the salish sea. Lived around this area almost my entire life.
I'm fascinated by mechanical advantage machines. My favorite as of late has been the concept of the Chinese windlass. Exploring that might lead to learning about, and falling in love with the concepts of the differential chain hoists. Thanks for a fun demo!
Years ago I bought pulley and rope for my young grandsons thinking we could make a simple zip line in the backyard, or a lift system they could use in their tree house. Instead, they got led into gaming by their Dad and that was the end of that effort. One of them is now married and is now interested in learning things, so all is not lost.
I think the Chinese winlass is pretty ingenious. Look at one of those and you'll begin to see how a chain fall works. There is some clever rigging on the trucks that deliver and set septic tanks. Even the biggest coal shovels rely on wire rope and sheaves. It's just too bad that so few houses have draw bridges anymore.
I'm 57yrs. Old and knew a little bit about the physics of pulleys block and tackle but the rope demo really showed the multiplying power and speed thanks for making it make sense
I’ve started using rope and pulleys to pull logs up the river bank during the winter when an ample free supply of firewood just floats down river, been able to move some big logs!!!
The extra 2 pounds you describe around 2:40 is because you are moving the weight against gravity. 100 (or 110) pounds is the exact force needed to match gravity. But 2 pounds is the additional force needed to counter gravity and move the anvil up at the speed you are doing it. If you had the physical ability to turn that crank 1000 rpm, you'd see much more than 2 pounds shown on that scale.
It is the force to accelerate the anvil. At the end of your stroke when you stop lifting the anvil, you should see a similar decrease in the weight (scale should read 2 pounds less than it does at rest). We don't live in a perfect world, so there should be some force to overcome friction but I would expect it to be less than the acceleration forces. If not, oil your pulleys.
There is a large difference between lifting and pulling. Many components will even say "not for lifting ",and/or have a lessor rating for lifting. Growing up on a farm 3 tools were always around, handyman jack,chains,and ropes and pulleys. At capacity they can store up a substantial amount of energy, that can be released when something breaks.
A relative of mine was a ships Rigger during WWII, he told me you you can move anything in the world with the right amount of pulleys. Good episode, thanks.
This would be a great video to show my Boy Scouts to explain the mechanical advantage that pulleys provide before presenting them with a real world application.
I use 2-4" swivel blocks for space saving storage solutions in my shop. I store ropes in my open attic space by hanging a swivel block from a rafter, a block w/ a hanging 5-6" ring & 2 tie offs. The lift rope attaches to a tie off a foot or so from the rafter block, travels through the block & ring, back up to the rafter hung swivel block, then down to a tie-off on the wall. I bundle like type rope together w/ velcro & a hook; these bundles hang on the ring. It's easy to grab whichever type rope I need w/o disturbing the rest. I have a loop in the rope, which I slip onto the wall tie off, which leaves the ropes chest high, w/o me holding the load. I have a 100+#'s of rope out of the way, at easy access for selection or stowing away. I have similar riggings for V-belts,c oils of wire/plastic tube/hose & light wgt chain. Gotta get creative when you're tight on floor space. ≈======== So, THAT'S where 'Skookum' originated. I completely forgot about Skookum blocks! LOL
I was trained to use a block and tackle to raise a 35 foot antenna mast in the Army, it became a fun competition to who could offload the antenna mass from the equipment van and erect the antenna system fastness. Later this experience proved valuable in civilian life, adding coax cables and antenna on communications towers.
I got to play with pulleys as a kid, and found them wonderful. I also got to play with hydraulics (had a bathtub set to start with) and saw how that provides advantage. There are so many places where having something that can take your personal strength and multiply it to a force that gets the job done. I would have brought up the cost of that advantage, though. When you get twice the force, you get half the movement. Pull a rope on a pulley that doubles your strength, and you pull twice as much rope as the lift you get. If that phrasing makes sense.
Same as the Gardner Denver Mayhew 1000 table drive i worked on as a trainee driller. Single line pull was roughly 4,500kg, or change to a Doubleline (from drawworks to Crown Wheel, back through a pulley block and finish at a 50ton shackle mounted near the Crown Wheel), you could pull 10,000kg safely & easily (which we did 99% of the time for the safety factor; was a bit slower on pipe trips/ casing runs and unscrewing the haul plug due to pulley block in the way, but far far safer than the Singleline)
You _can_ push with a rope - I've done it. I pushed a tree over with a rope one time. The tree was middle of three in a line, with considerable backlean. To much to risk wedging it over and a septic tank and other stuff on the back side of the tree. It had to fall one direction only and there was no way to pull it in that direction easily. The terrain wouldn't allow for it, no anchor points, etc. As I say, this tree was between two trees, about the same mass (fir trees, about 20 inch diameter). It was set slightly back from an imaginary straight line between the other two trees. I rigged a 4 tonne snatch block in both of the neighboring trees, about 20 feet up. Then I routed a 1.6 tonne grip hoist tirfor cable (steel rope) from the base of one tree, up to the pulley on that tree, and across to the pulley on the other tree, _behind_ the tree to be felled, and down to the grip hoist anchored to the base of yet another tree. So what I had was basically a shallow cradle of steel rope, "holding" the tree marked for felling, at a height of 20 feet. The angle of this cradle was maybe seven degrees or so. I tensioned the cable, made my cuts, and had my guy keep tensioning the cable as I whittled the hinge thinner and thinner. At a certain point the sideways force of the tensioning cable exceeded the force of the backlean and the hinge wood, and the cable pushed the tree to vertical as it straightened under tension. We actually pushed that tree right over into free fall.
Tree house elevator with a counter weight was an enclosed box, heavy rope and pulley system that could lift 2 people with a bit of effort and one person with very little effort.
Chain calls are an example of distance and travel around pullies . The top 2 are fasten together with one being slightly smaller and the chain is engaged to the pulley. The distance traveled around each is different and either shortens the traveling distance lifting up or lengthing traveling distance lowering the load . The size of the chain drive pullies equate to leverage, the larger they are the more power and chain speed generated.
I just discovered Dyneema ropes after a friend parted my good 3/4” nylon rope in two when he borrowed it to directionally pull some trees he was cutting. This new Dyneema rope was the investment I’ve made for a while. This new rope is a beast and an uncompromising workhorse. Cheers! Whipple
Skookum, I have finally found a non need to use compound d trucking hitches in a factory job im at, and the fork lift drivers love it. AND what is the knot on the bottom of your anvil?
I’ve used blocks and pulleys for all kinds of lifts. Sails, spars, motors, anchors, trees, walls, tanks, and numerous other heavy items. I’ve seen you use your berke bar as a lever to move heavy items. How about a video about leverage?
Somebody once said, If you give me a leaver long enough I could move the world . But I choose cable ,rope ,cord and string .From pipe wrench to pullers .Even string can do a lot of work if it has a good advantage. Have you ever seen the set up of falling trees with a pulley system ? Impressive but hard to explain, I have only seen it in books .
I recently learned all about block and tackle when I took up the hobby of sailing, and I quickly learned just how dangerous they can be when I was able to flex my 20' aluminum mast backwards with nothing but my hands and a fiddle block
@EssentialCraftsman I have arthritis in every joint and carpal tunnel in both wrists yet I choose not to give up on woodworking! Can you please suggest a pulley system that will allow me to lift full sized sheets of mdf or plywood to a work bench?
The extra 2 pounds that the scale showed when lifting the 100 pound anvil. Was the chain come-a-long overcoming the load. There must be extra energy applied to lift it. When the rope is tied off it has 100 pounds on it as the scale should.
Another interesting note about pulleys is that not only does each line used halve the effort to lift the travel distance of the line doubles. So make sure you have enough length for the task.
Rigging is a valued skill in most trades working around cranes and powered equipment in various industries around the world. One of the best paying trades is heavy lifting and equipment moving trade, crane operators and skilled riggers make good money and earn it every day when a job is safely performed.
As a young electrical contractor. I couldn't afford a tugger to pull electrical feeders, but bolt a pulley to the floor and run the rope to a truck, or scissor lift, we always got it done.
The first rule of using blocks and rigging that my dad taught me is to always plan out what will happen when it breaks. The second rule is that will only break at the worst possible time.
Your dad sounds very wise, hopefully he was never injured learning these lessons!
Lines always snap when you're standing over them, with one leg on each side....
Good information.
@@ja8898 Ouch!
@@ja8898 ouch
Great video. I work in the tower industry and got my truck stuck pretty badly on site one day. I was just about to call a wrecker when I decided to try and use my capstan and every block I had on the truck. I rigged an 8:1 and was able to pull a 9,000 lb truck out of the mud with a 1,000 lb capacity rope and capstan. I had a lot of feelings at that moment, just absolutely covered in mud and exhausted 80 miles from home at 5 pm on a Friday.
These things never happen at any other time than last thing on a Friday!
@@Jack-vt2mu first thing on a Monday? Lol
Great job and resourcefulness!
Yeah bud!
Can we just appreciate Scott lifting a 100lbs anvil by a rope with ease? Very impressive!
I live in a house that was built in 1911. When my wife and I bought the house we knew the brick work needed some pointing up in the mortar joints. But the top of the chimney was the worst. I hired a mason because I don’t compete with someone at their own game. Everything about masonry is heavy…. scaffold, bricks or blocks, mortar tubs and so on. Conveniently, there’s a big walnut tree that overhangs above the roof. The mason and I used a limb and snatch blocks to get his material to roof height. No sketchy ladder climbs with material in hand. I also believe it saved him time. He was thrilled when he showed up to do the work and I had a system in place to make it easier.
Another great demonstration of the mechanics of our world. When I was about 20, I was helping a friend getting an old station wagon out of the bush. He was renting a cabin on the land owned by a logging engineer, who stood patiently watching four fools pushing and pulling and cursing as the car moved a few inches at a time. His patience ran out, “STOP! “ he shouted and he sent me to his tool shed with a list of things to bring to the site. He had us looping lines around tree limbs and laying out a rig with blocks that our poor little under developed brains could not begin to comprehend. A half hour later he handed us a single line which we pulled and watched with amazement as the car started crawling out of the bush. What a day, never to be forgotten. Thanks again for your stories.
I was a sailor on a tall ship, a barquentine, so I got familiar with blocks (and occasional deadeyes). When I was a cub scout leader, I arranged a system of blocks so that 1 cub scout would win a tug of war going against an entire high school football team, all 43 of them. The team was sure that there was no way a random 8 year old could beat their combined effort. The coach was hacked when the random choice was my 8 year old niece and she won. She almost didn't. This was not because of the mechanical advantage but because the purchase was extremely slow moving for her. She got tired of beating the boys and dropped her end. She was saved by them all falling down and that gave her time to pick up her end again.
KEK!
Something to be aware of on the 1 to1 set up is the load doubles at the beam. 100lb anvil + 100lbs lifting force = 200lbs on the beam.
that isnt how it works
In the Navy to go to Chief Warrant Officer 3, I believe that's right, part of the exam was to rig on a sand beach to pull a large vessel onto the beach with rope and blocks. It was amazing to see a 4 cylinder jeep pull that large vessel onto the beach with a rope. It took a day for 4 sailors and a lot of rope, steel rods and a bunch of sheaves to accomplish that feat, but it worked.
I’m a logger and use these quite frequently. The most complex was, like you setting a rail car bridge in place without being able to have a machine on the other side. Used our Yoder as a skyline and the skid drum to guide the car. Darn trees are never where you need them. Had a long drum line on the cat to pull the bridge across. Things got a little sketchy and the lines were sining before we were done but we set a 90’ rail car in place for about 1/4 the cost of a crane. And it was on our schedule.
What I enjoy most about watching your videos is that they always remind me of conversations, experiences, and lessons with my late grandfather
I was never a logger but I've always been an offroader.... It never ceases to amaze me how you can double or triple the amount of pulling power or redirect it with a simple little pulley. I generally have no less than 3 snatch blocks in my truck when I go on an offroading trip and usually have atleast one when I'm just driving down the road... you never know when it will come in handy
Thank you Sir for your videos you are a wealth of knowledge and craftsmanship! I always learn something new when I click on one of your videos
Every fall and winter my son and I use a block and tackle to dress our deer. So simple, yet so necessary to do what we do which are anatomy lessons while butchering and processing our food. Thanks for the video!
Thanks sir ! You were born to teach, when ever I need to know something I look through your videos first. Appreciate you sharing your knowledge
🍻Good on ya picking up that 100 lb anvil with the rope. Lots of folks, a lot younger, couldn't do that.
Great video. I also use blocks to slow things down, and allow finer movement. I added an ATV winch to a Harbor Freight "crane". Adding pulleys slowed things down to allow for an easier/slower picking up and lowering of the load. This isn't about capacity, but rather trying to avoid shock loads to the crane when picking up heavy, near capacity, loads.
Rigging is invaluable. One of the uncountable benefits of a technical theatre education I got in college was learning all about pro grade rigging. Theatre as a trade uses many old world maritime techniques. While those are dwindling in use on commercial theatre shows, (much like hand wood working tools) they're still a reliable and safe method for getting the job done..this video was thorough and responsibly done. Thank you sir.
Just recently I "discovered" the power of pulleys when I had to move an old school bus 200 feet over soft ground using a 2 ton capacity come-a-long and some cable and chain. I ended up with 4 cables going to the bus tow hooks and back to various big trees in the woods. Lots of slow going work got it done, eventually. One thing you didn't mention, the more pulleys you use, the more length of line you have to pull to move the weight....with 4 cables on the bus, each click of the come a long was a whopping 1/8 inch or less of bus movement! I had to reset the whole rigging many times....but, it was much better than calling a giant tow truck. Many days of hard work, but it's done and my upper body has never been so strong!
Don't forget that your anchor will feel double the weight in a 2:1 system and it goes up from there. Great video!
My favorite takeaway? “Kids, go play with your pulleys!” Great video with great information.
I love this. Didn’t know anything about mechanical advantage terminology. Was trying to figure out how to hang a heavy bag in my garage then be able to remove it & store it when done working out. Then found a product called Nifty-Lift. Made in US by a Veteran. Most useful tool/product I ever bought. Not an advertisement. Just very satisfied.
I know all about pulleys and I absolutely enjoyed this video. I love seeing the old equipment and you sir are an excellent teacher.
I'd like to hear that story about the flat car becoming a bridge!
Wouldn't surprise me to know it was a 40' flat car and a 20' creek/whatever needing bridged.
Leaves a 10' margin of safety on either bank.
I've seen it done with a shipping container flat rack, too.
The example that I would use in the classroom about reducing the effort with pulleys and lines was if you pick up something heavy by yourself, it's harder than getting one or more people to help you lift. Each person added to help reduces the load each has to lift.
Hello Master, Thank you for all the ideas I´ve received from your videos.
The reasson why you are receiving diferent measurments, is because there are three basic ways to calculate (MA) or Mechanical Advantage: Theoretical, Real and Actual. What you are getting is the actual which refers to all of those different parameters that are not cosider in the theoretical calculation and go even farther than the Real calculation.
Being said, even with pulleys you will have friction which reduces the MA. and if in addition to that you have what we could call Factor "X" (lets say the calibration of your meassuring device) could modify those resulting calculations.
Very respectful.
And then again, thank you Master. You have no idea how many times I have improve my performance using things I learned form you with your videos.
Excellent ❤
I'd love to hear more about pulling the railroad flatcar.
When I was a poor, skinny kid, I bought a small block Chevrolet engine from a scrap yard(for $50). With my friends chain hoist (I can't remember how many chains in it), I lifted out of the back of my pickup using a beam in my fathers shed (a full dimension oak 2x4). It was almost effortless. I'd love to have that chain hoist, for no real reason other than memories. Thank you
I learned the principles of block tackles trimming sails on Flying Dutchmen's and Lighting's.
used lots of pulleys when doing recovery of off road vehicles. depending on the set it can be used to increase the pulling power of the winch or to contorl the direction of the pulls. the set up can be an art form onto itself. thank you for the great videos.
We had a rope block and tackle on the property and that's what I used to pull the 6 cylinder engine from the old '69 Camaro and put in a junkyard 327.
One can install a pulley above the attic hatch to lift heavy stuff up.
Maybe a video of the essential craftsmans most used knots.
Excellent video. I knew there was mechanical advantage to using pulleys, but never knew how a snatch block differed from a pulley. Thanks.
@smartereveryday has some interesting videos on pullies. Worth to check them.
Fantastic visual examples. Love how these are explained! Thanks so much!
Every man used to be aware of pulleys back in the day. Every home would have a clothes airer/drier that consisted of several lengths of wood that you put your damp clothes over. These would have a rope that would pull (usually 4) up to the ceiling in the kitchen where they would quickly dry!
After I started work for the Electric Board we would often need to dress large 3"+ cables into a "U" shape to terminate into an electrical panel. There is no way even a group of muscly guys could do that neatly without a trick to it. Our trick was to bend the cable to the nearest we could manage and then wrap half a dozen turns of rope around the cable and use a short length of conduit (metal wiring tube) pushed through the rope and twisted like a tourniquet! This had the same force magnifying action as a pulley.
Later on I was made aware of one of the few uses of rope under compression rather than tension, on canal barges! Rope was wound round the propeller shaft in the boat and was heavily covered in grease. A handle would put the rope under compression enough to stop water getting in! Useless in your shop, I know! ;o)
I do have a great story about using force to aid work that had a whole factory of Navvies up in arms when they saw it in action, but it is way too long to tell here ......
Ropes , cables, snatch blocks, clevis etc. was a big part of my life when growing up. Both my dad and grandpa taught us that with these tools and a bit of brain power, you can essentially move the world without having to buy expensive equipment. They also taught us that a high lift jack(farm jack) was a great addition to the rest of this combo
I am a retired electrician. I have used pulleys and block and tackle to pull overhead electrical wires tight and to pull wires through conduit on numerous occasions.
When I was a kid I remember going to a children’s museum where they had an atv rigged with blocks and pulleys where you could lift it yourself. It blew me away
Years back I'd bought an old 8" wood block at a garage sale. When I was building my cabin, I wanted log rafters for the front deck. I had an independent, named Don, leading the work and he left the site saying we'd set the log rafters together the next day. Well, after dinner I setup my block with some 1/2" rope and using my Jeep, moved all the rafters up in place that evening. When Don arrived the next morning, he was dumbfounded about how I'd moved all the rafters myself. I showed him the block setup, leaving him impressed. Some weeks later, when I was gone on business, I received a voice mail from Don mentioning that he'd swung by my place and borrowed the block because he had log rafters to set.
Yaaaawn...Can we please see/hear more from Nate.
The compilation of b-roll footage is done so well for the intro. Pulls you into the video!
G'day from Australia 🇦🇺
Thanks for your videos Scott, always informative and interesting.
In my time ive used rigging and pulleys from block and tackle to a hauling and rescue system to raising and lowering a 150 Tonne dredge ladder and Bucket Wheel.
With enough length of rope or cable, and enough pulleys, we can move ANYTHING!!
Excellent video. Don't use Block & Tackles as much being mostly in the Shop now days but used them on a regular basis rigging Speakers, large projection screens, etc. from 100's lbs to over 1000 lbs. I don't know how I would have done it without Block & Tackles. Having enough headroom above sometimes was a problem.
Just this evening i used a tiny 20mm block and pulley to lift a 150kg generator so i could drop off the sump to retrieve a piece of broken piston ring.
That's all i needed, decent cord and tiny hardware shop pulleys you described suitable for sliding doors.
It's surprisingly easy to overlook the usefulness of simple machines.
Some skookum choochers for sure 💪
The S on every tierlist stands for Skookum.
When you do the job so well, your performance rewrites and defines the parameters.
I had no idea skookum was not a made up Canadian word 😂
@feelthepayne88 it's absolutely real! It means best in Chinook Wawa, which is the collective languages of the native peoples around the salish sea. Lived around this area almost my entire life.
@ave would approve!
Fellow boltr approves
Smarter Every day have really good video about pulleys.
I'm fascinated by mechanical advantage machines. My favorite as of late has been the concept of the Chinese windlass. Exploring that might lead to learning about, and falling in love with the concepts of the differential chain hoists. Thanks for a fun demo!
Just used a pair of block pulleys to drag a heavy tree that fell down today. I don't know what it is but it feels good to use those pulleys.
Years ago I bought pulley and rope for my young grandsons thinking we could make a simple zip line in the backyard, or a lift system they could use in their tree house. Instead, they got led into gaming by their Dad and that was the end of that effort. One of them is now married and is now interested in learning things, so all is not lost.
Terrible that they shared a hobby with their father. Thank goodness at least one of them learned the error of their ways.
Flips breaker.
"Well! Looks like the power is out. Who wants to play with pulleys?"
I think the Chinese winlass is pretty ingenious. Look at one of those and you'll begin to see how a chain fall works. There is some clever rigging on the trucks that deliver and set septic tanks. Even the biggest coal shovels rely on wire rope and sheaves. It's just too bad that so few houses have draw bridges anymore.
I'm 57yrs. Old and knew a little bit about the physics of pulleys block and tackle but the rope demo really showed the multiplying power and speed thanks for making it make sense
I’ve started using rope and pulleys to pull logs up the river bank during the winter when an ample free supply of firewood just floats down river, been able to move some big logs!!!
Thanks Scott! Levers and fulcrums lesson next week? 🙂
The extra 2 pounds you describe around 2:40 is because you are moving the weight against gravity. 100 (or 110) pounds is the exact force needed to match gravity. But 2 pounds is the additional force needed to counter gravity and move the anvil up at the speed you are doing it. If you had the physical ability to turn that crank 1000 rpm, you'd see much more than 2 pounds shown on that scale.
It is the force to accelerate the anvil. At the end of your stroke when you stop lifting the anvil, you should see a similar decrease in the weight (scale should read 2 pounds less than it does at rest). We don't live in a perfect world, so there should be some force to overcome friction but I would expect it to be less than the acceleration forces. If not, oil your pulleys.
You are a treasure and wealth of knowledge Sir! Thank you.
There is a large difference between lifting and pulling.
Many components will even say "not for lifting ",and/or have a lessor rating for lifting.
Growing up on a farm 3 tools were always around, handyman jack,chains,and ropes and pulleys.
At capacity they can store up a substantial amount of energy, that can be released when something breaks.
Another great video. You and Nates voices are vary similar. Keep up the good work.
My grandfather had shown all of us boys tackle block and it's power. I use mine regularly and pull wood with winch and snatch block.
A relative of mine was a ships Rigger during WWII, he told me you you can move anything in the world with the right amount of pulleys.
Good episode, thanks.
This would be a great video to show my Boy Scouts to explain the mechanical advantage that pulleys provide before presenting them with a real world application.
I use 2-4" swivel blocks for space saving storage solutions in my shop.
I store ropes in my open attic space by hanging a swivel block from a rafter, a block w/ a hanging 5-6" ring & 2 tie offs.
The lift rope attaches to a tie off a foot or so from the rafter block, travels through the block & ring, back up to the rafter hung swivel block, then down to a tie-off on the wall.
I bundle like type rope together w/ velcro & a hook; these bundles hang on the ring.
It's easy to grab whichever type rope I need w/o disturbing the rest.
I have a loop in the rope, which I slip onto the wall tie off, which leaves the ropes chest high, w/o me holding the load.
I have a 100+#'s of rope out of the way, at easy access for selection or stowing away.
I have similar riggings for V-belts,c oils of wire/plastic tube/hose & light wgt chain.
Gotta get creative when you're tight on floor space.
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So, THAT'S where 'Skookum' originated. I completely forgot about Skookum blocks! LOL
Love this!!! Would love some practical application examples and what knots you use. Thanks for such a great share
Yes this is something I need to get on to
I was trained to use a block and tackle to raise a 35 foot antenna mast in the Army,
it became a fun competition to who could offload the antenna mass from the equipment van and erect the antenna system fastness. Later this experience proved valuable in civilian life, adding coax cables and antenna on communications towers.
I got to play with pulleys as a kid, and found them wonderful. I also got to play with hydraulics (had a bathtub set to start with) and saw how that provides advantage. There are so many places where having something that can take your personal strength and multiply it to a force that gets the job done. I would have brought up the cost of that advantage, though. When you get twice the force, you get half the movement. Pull a rope on a pulley that doubles your strength, and you pull twice as much rope as the lift you get. If that phrasing makes sense.
Thank you again internet dad 🙏🏻
Same as the Gardner Denver Mayhew 1000 table drive i worked on as a trainee driller.
Single line pull was roughly 4,500kg, or change to a Doubleline (from drawworks to Crown Wheel, back through a pulley block and finish at a 50ton shackle mounted near the Crown Wheel), you could pull 10,000kg safely & easily (which we did 99% of the time for the safety factor; was a bit slower on pipe trips/ casing runs and unscrewing the haul plug due to pulley block in the way, but far far safer than the Singleline)
great video full of interesting and useful information. Thanks!
Great demonstrations
5:50 why did the block and tackle not reduce the tension at the bitter end?
This is an awesome video and I love watching and using information like this.
Smarter everyday also did a video like this and that on is awesome too
Great tutorial Scott! Thanks for the useful information.
You _can_ push with a rope - I've done it. I pushed a tree over with a rope one time. The tree was middle of three in a line, with considerable backlean. To much to risk wedging it over and a septic tank and other stuff on the back side of the tree. It had to fall one direction only and there was no way to pull it in that direction easily. The terrain wouldn't allow for it, no anchor points, etc.
As I say, this tree was between two trees, about the same mass (fir trees, about 20 inch diameter). It was set slightly back from an imaginary straight line between the other two trees.
I rigged a 4 tonne snatch block in both of the neighboring trees, about 20 feet up. Then I routed a 1.6 tonne grip hoist tirfor cable (steel rope) from the base of one tree, up to the pulley on that tree, and across to the pulley on the other tree, _behind_ the tree to be felled, and down to the grip hoist anchored to the base of yet another tree. So what I had was basically a shallow cradle of steel rope, "holding" the tree marked for felling, at a height of 20 feet. The angle of this cradle was maybe seven degrees or so.
I tensioned the cable, made my cuts, and had my guy keep tensioning the cable as I whittled the hinge thinner and thinner.
At a certain point the sideways force of the tensioning cable exceeded the force of the backlean and the hinge wood, and the cable pushed the tree to vertical as it straightened under tension. We actually pushed that tree right over into free fall.
Great presentation way to educate
Tree house elevator with a counter weight was an enclosed box, heavy rope and pulley system that could lift 2 people with a bit of effort and one person with very little effort.
Chain calls are an example of distance and travel around pullies . The top 2 are fasten together with one being slightly smaller and the chain is engaged to the pulley. The distance traveled around each is different and either shortens the traveling distance lifting up or lengthing traveling distance lowering the load . The size of the chain drive pullies equate to leverage, the larger they are the more power and chain speed generated.
Love it! What about different types of ropes and their limitations? Natural, synthetic, static, dynamic etc.
I just discovered Dyneema ropes after a friend parted my good 3/4” nylon rope in two when he borrowed it to directionally pull some trees he was cutting. This new Dyneema rope was the investment I’ve made for a while. This new rope is a beast and an uncompromising workhorse.
Cheers!
Whipple
Hey what kind of come along is that at the beginning? I need a new one and that thing looks sweet!
You're a great teacher!
Skookum, I have finally found a non need to use compound d trucking hitches in a factory job im at, and the fork lift drivers love it. AND what is the knot on the bottom of your anvil?
Interesting stuff…again! Thanks for sharing.
Thanks for the awesome content and great videos!!
I’ve used blocks and pulleys for all kinds of lifts. Sails, spars, motors, anchors, trees, walls, tanks, and numerous other heavy items. I’ve seen you use your berke bar as a lever to move heavy items. How about a video about leverage?
Somebody once said, If you give me a leaver long enough I could move the world . But I choose cable ,rope ,cord and string .From pipe wrench to pullers .Even string can do a lot of work if it has a good advantage.
Have you ever seen the set up of falling trees with a pulley system ? Impressive but hard to explain, I have only seen it in books .
I thought I was the only kid who spent hours playing with pulleys. LOL Oh the fun I had. Great video, Scott.
Absolutely love your videos
Great video, thanks!
The way I learned to think about this in my college Statics class is that all the lines attached to the load have equal tensile force.
thanks for sharing
THANK YOU . KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK
Really interesting and cool.
Simple machines!
I recently learned all about block and tackle when I took up the hobby of sailing, and I quickly learned just how dangerous they can be when I was able to flex my 20' aluminum mast backwards with nothing but my hands and a fiddle block
very interesting thanks
@EssentialCraftsman I have arthritis in every joint and carpal tunnel in both wrists yet I choose not to give up on woodworking! Can you please suggest a pulley system that will allow me to lift full sized sheets of mdf or plywood to a work bench?
The extra 2 pounds that the scale showed when lifting the 100 pound anvil. Was the chain come-a-long overcoming the load.
There must be extra energy applied to lift it. When the rope is tied off it has 100 pounds on it as the scale should.
Another interesting note about pulleys is that not only does each line used halve the effort to lift the travel distance of the line doubles. So make sure you have enough length for the task.
very cool. love your videos!
Rigging is a valued skill in most trades working around cranes and powered equipment in various industries around the world. One of the best paying trades is heavy lifting and equipment moving trade, crane operators and skilled riggers make good money and earn it every day when a job is safely performed.
As a young electrical contractor. I couldn't afford a tugger to pull electrical feeders, but bolt a pulley to the floor and run the rope to a truck, or scissor lift, we always got it done.
Simple inexpensive tools like a come-along are still very effective
Someone get Destin Sandlin on the horn!