Building A Manual Dumb Waiter Design Plans
Also spelled 'dumbwaiter,' a dumb waiter is a small elevator made especially for freight. First popularized in aristocratic homes overseas, the dumb waiter made its way to the United States beginning in the 1840s.
When people employed servants to handle domestic chores and tasks, the dumb waiter was a handy way to transport food, laundry, dishes, and other small items between floors. Dumb waiters grew so popular in the early 1900s, it is still possible to find featuring dumb waiters. Today, dumb waiters have experienced a revival among people who enjoy renovating older homes. These simple devices inspire feelings of nostalgia.
Manual Dumbwaiter Kit
Dumb waiters can also serve a practical purpose by sending food, medication, and other items to upper floors for individuals who are disabled or experience limited mobility. The term 'dumb waiter' can also refer to stationary furniture, especially tables, with multiple surfaces.
These tables make it easy to serve several dishes to guests at once. Some people also use them to transport groceries from a garage to a kitchen located on an upper floor. If you live in an older home, or you just want the convenience of a dumb waiter, it is fairly easy to build one. If you're fortunate to live in a home with a dumb waiter shaft already installed, you can build a dumb waiter in as little as a weekend. Decide whether you want a manual dumb waiter or an electric model. If you are trying to preserve historical accuracy, you will probably want to choose a manual dumb waiter. If your home does not contain a space for a dumb waiter, it is easier to install the dumb waiter on the outside of your home's walls.
Although it's certainly possible to install a dumb waiter in a home without the shaft installed first, this type of project will likely involve removing or relocating walls, rerouting plumbing pipes, and rewiring electricity. Know your skill level before tackling such a complex project.
Home Made Dumb Waiters
At the midpoint of your deck railing, affix a post and pulley arm made out of an I-beam assembled from three 2 x 4s. Where you join the post to the arm, miter it at a 45-degree angle for a nicer-looking, sturdier joint. Use weather-resistant structural screws for everything, and add an angle brace for strength. Attach a 4-inch pulley to the arm using a large hot-dipped galvanized eyebolt. For the rope, pick something that will fit in the pulley with room to spare.
A thinner rope will also be easier to tie off on the cleat you attach to the post. In terms of the dumbwaiter's general design, you want the tray to be far enough from the deck to leave you room to build the shaft and a track for the tray, but not so far that you can't reach the tray comfortably.
A good rule of thumb is to use half the width of the tray plus a couple of inches for clearance. The pulley arm should be high enough above the deck so that you can pull the tray toward you and over the railing. Attach the tray to the rope with a shackle or a carabiner, and tie the rope to each corner using a bowline knot.
The carabiner permits easy removal of the tray. (This is an important child-safety feature.
Always remove the tray when the dumbwaiter is not in use to make sure that no one takes it for a joyride.) Finally, build a frame out of pressure-treated 2 x 4s for the base of the dumbwaiter tracks and shaft. Note that the dumbwaiter shaft's height and width are dimensioned to suit the size of the tray and the height of your deck. The shaft itself is not structural; it just houses the dumbwaiter. In many cases it doesn't need to be built with 16-inch on-center framing or the same sort of rigidity you would use for building a house. (The exception to this is a tall shaft—say, 20 feet.) Extra framing is necessary to support tall shafts or those built in windy areas. In all cases the shaft framing needs to be rigidly attached to the deck framing using structural screws— and definitely painted or stained.