Homemade capstan

I needed to bring flat rocks from a creek bed and logs from a gorge at a friends house. We can not get a vehicle in so we decided to string a 250 foot steel cable and pull up the rocks and logs using a trolley and pull rope. It's a 40 degree incline so we need a capstan to pull the 200+ feet of rope. I could not afford the $600 and up for a commercial capstan, so I made one for about $150. The biggest expense was the 2.5 HP motor for $80 and the reduction gear which was $40. The pulleys were purchased for $20. The rest was made from bedframes, exercise machine, toilet flange, and misc. steel I had laying around. This was my first real test of the system and it seems to work fine. Had fun making it!

[@shigatsuningen]

A tip on improving automation: Freeze the video at 1:16 to follow my description. step 1: Add one more wheel to the left of the white wheel where you form the loop of the rope. Make sure there is a free rolling wheel right underneath this springing so it locks the now held by hand rope. step 2: Make sure the second wheel, (not present in picture) is connected to the first by gears on both the white and the newly added wheel. (This makes the newly added wheel spin in the reverse direction of the white wheel.) step 3: loop the rope as now (up over the white wheel) and the down under the second wheel. As the newly added wheel (and counter roller) friction locks the rope, the white wheel will do your pulling for you. All you should have to do is turn the machine on and off.

[@HTTAPBIH]

Thanks! Gear does take the load. End project allowed me to bring 500 lb logs up a gorge via a cable system I made. Added the 6.5 to increase the speed to 40 feet /min but reduced the loads to about 200 lb. Ground draging was too hard unless we could clear a good path. Decided to go over the mess with the cable system. Engine from Harbor Freight. Reduction gear ebay (no part#). The remaining parts were PVC pipe, toilet flange, bed frame, and misc parts. The whole thing worked well for the money.

[@pauls466]

I can only say NICE JOB

[@HTTAPBIH]

Thanks! It was the best I could do with my limited budget, materials, and tools. It was fun to do it though.

[@HTTAPBIH]

Fun project! I don't remember the reduction ratio, but I calced the pulleys to get the speed at the output. Sometimes ebay has some cheaper reduction units, but not many. Try a motor shop that repairs motors. They sometimes have units or would have contacts for the reduction boxes. Some machine shops might have contacts. The type needed depends on engine shaft position. Hope this helps you.

[@HTTAPBIH]

There are s few changes that I would make, but I needed something quick and cheap. You are right about the tapper on the capstan, but since I didn't have equipment to manufacture pieces, I went with the straight PVC pipe. Actually, the block wasn't wearing down. It just lost the paint. The incline was pretty step so speed was not that important and the setup worked okay. Thanks for your suggestion regarding the clutch mechanism. If I ever make another, I would take some time to improve the design. Thanks again!

[@leandrop7]

Exelente ideia - execelent idea

[@HTTAPBIH]

I know that to be true. The plan was to pull logs and rocks up from a gorge on a cable/dolley systembehind a friends home. Some of the flat rocks weigh under 100 lbs. and the loss of power would not be an issue. The distance from top to bottom is about 200 feet. As you can see, the speed is not great, but it pulled the 100 pound log across the ground. The cable system would be easier even with the incline. If the load is lighter, I wanted to find that maximum speed so more loads could be run. Thanks for you input though because it was a valid consideration.

[@gregperson5304]

Nice 🤗

[@jimmytate7587]

remember you will trade power for speed. increase in diameter of the capstan will cause a significant loss in pulling power.

[@homeandfamilyservices2650]

Any help. My line keeps snagging on the drum.

[@magicone9327]

Any way to up size over the pipe u have with a coupler.?

[@Givum1]

This is exactly what I'm trying to make. I have a 6 hp Honda pressure washer motor that I'm going to use. I'm having problems trying to find a gear reduction unit that I could use. Do you know what ratio your gear box is? Everything that I can find is is pretty expensive when getting to the 50:1 ratio and up. I'm knot sure I need that much reduction since I'm just pulling kayaks up steep sand slope. Any help would be appreciated!! Thanks in advance.

[@jimmytate7587]

instead of trying to get the gear ratio the way you need it , you might try doing the reduction with the driven and driver pullys. That would be a very inexpensive way to do it.