How To Make a Chandelier Lift
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- Опубліковано 30 лип 2024
- Chandelier Lifts lower high chandeliers, so light bulbs can be changed. They cost between over $1,000 to purchase and install. This video shows how to build and install your own for under $150.
There will soon also be a part two at HowToLou.com.
HowToLou
Thank you for this video. I just installed mine, following your instructions, and a few tweeks ...... I am in complete awe!
I didn't think I would be able to do it - let along if it would work ...... I'm glad I did and saved myself a couple of thousands dollars.
I now feel the purchase of a two grand chandelier was worth it, now that I am able to realistically keep up the maintenance (cleaning) with this DIY lift.
Great Work! Please send a short video of it to HowToLou@gmail.com. I would like to post in my gallery.
rats
The retractable plug is a great idea, I was trying to figure out how I was going to handle the excess wire when dropping it and pulling it up
Thanks for the responses and for a GREAT video...The way you mitigated things is incredible!
Thanks for making this. I was looking at several of the other lift systems out there and was really upset at the price. By using this system, I'll save a bit of green and be able to keep clean (see what I did there). Seriously, our chandelier has been up for a year and there was no way we could clean it.. now we can once we install this. I'll update my post once I follow your instructions and install the hoist.
++1
I installed my lift.Remember that bar I had on my junction box i asked you about? I was able to just slide it out from the box once I got the winch attached to it. The most difficult part was the 2 trips to the chandelier position bringing the winch & tools, and the limited access due to angled beams from the floor to the ceiling around the chandelier position! Thanks to your video, it was a breeze!
Thanks again!
Great! I am glad the bar did not need to be cut out. Yes, you get quite a workout climbing in and out of the attic. I took WAY more than two trips :)
I just did this. A little different but same concepts. Works great. I installed upright 2×6s from the ceiling joists to the roof rafters and hung the motor between them on the square tubing. For mine you have to go up in the attic to work it. I also installed a safety cable as a back up that you hook up once the light is up.
Nice! That sounds like a good setup!
Hi - I had plans to do the same thing for a 25'-high ceiling and, from my reasearch, found two hoists (Vevor & Pittsburgh)...Vevor support says their hoist should NOT be used to pull & hold something up "permanently"...any comment? Is your chandlier still holding up?...thx
I love this sooooo much!! Thank you, thank you, thank you! Just found this video and my resolution for January 2019 is to get this project done :-)
Excellent job Lou , and to the folks saying it will fail , go look at any chandelier lighting chain and then look at what Lou has done and you will see the carabiner and winch cable are much heavier duty. The only thing I might add is full length brace between the joist .
Thank you for the general prices, parts you need and detailed instructions. 🙂
Lordy!! You're a genius. You should will your brain to science. As a lowly housewife without a husband, I love this kind of stuff even though I no longer have the house with that hard to reach chandelier. Oh, by the way, I love Harbor Freight, only found it a year ago and thought I'd died and gone to heaven...like a kid in a candy store,so many solutions to some of my household problems there.
I like this idea. I love chandeliers. After watching this, I think I'm going to get a second degree in electrical engineering... I think. It's making me think harder :)
Love this project; even though this project looks very complex it worth while to do it . This way I can change my chandelier once a year in matter of 15 minutesand impress all my guest. i can even recycle then every 6 months. It was very clever
Great video! Very detailed and comprehensive. Too bad I don't have a chandelier to try this on!
I see!!! OK, i'll chek that out. Thanks Lou!
This is a VERY nice & informative video! I had plans to do the same thing for a 25' high ceiling and, from my reasearch, found two hoists (Vevor & Pittsburgh)...Vevor support says their hoist should NOT be used to pull & hold something up "permanently"...any comment?your video is almost 11-years old...hoist still holding up...thx
Hey Lou, great video! # 2 as well-you're very creative. Why couldn't you have hung the lift from the floor joists in the attic as opposed to the ceiling ones where you did?
Thanks!
I just hung the motor on the ceiling, so I would have more room to work. It would be fine to hang it on the floor, too.
How is it holding up? I am planning on doing something similar but i have a pretty heavy chandelier (maybe 80lbs). Any recommendation? based on your experience?
Lou, great video, my question is what size outlet should I put up there? I see 15 amp, 20 amp, and some other choices as well. I just don't want to get the wrong size. Thanks!!
Start with your winch motor amp rating. Mine was 4. Yours will be close to that. Next you need to add up all your bulb watts. Mine has 15 bulbs at 40 watts each, for a total of 600 watts. Divide that by 120 volts to get amps. 600/120 = 5 in my case. Finally, add the motor amps to the bulb amps to get the total you need for the outlet. Mine was 9 amps.
You make that block long enough to fit between the to rafters it will double the strength.
+Richard Thomas - well I am using steel and wood to span the rafters. You are right though, I could gain a little more strength with a longer board
Thanks and thanks for the timely response. How would you recommend making a stop? I was thinking pulling the cable into position manually and marking it some how or putting something on the cable as a marker..
I make a limit (stop) switch in Part 2 at HowToLou(dot)com/chandelier-lift. Very slowly and carefully bring your chandelier all the way up so that the top shroud, or medallion, in your case, is just snug with the ceiling. You add the limit switch after that, so you know it is in the right place. I made mine adjustable, at first, and then screwed it down, when I found just the right spot.
thanks for posting this video - super helpful
now that's smart thinking
good idea i likes it,,thank you for the video..
Great video. Just bought the exact hoist from HF. Question, what would you have done if the mounting bracket for the light was dead center on the ceiling joist? The cable can't ride easily through the center of the hole. Still brainstorming, wondering your thought. Thanks! JD
+JD Rauls - I can think of two possible solutions. 1-Move the mounting bracket or replace with a side mounted bracket like mine. This is the easiest way to go, but makes a bigger hole in the drywall ceiling. The easiest way to fix this is with a decorative plate that goes against the ceiling. They available are anywhere from 10 to 20 inches in diameter in the lighting section of your hardware store. 2-sister in to joists on either side of that joist, and cut out the middle so you can run your cable straight down. I don't really like this option very well.
Thank you, but I have a question. We didn’t get to see how you put the wire to lift with into the motor?
The cable sticks into a hole in the pulley. When you buy a winch, the cable is already on the pulley.
Excellent. $800 is too much for a lift from Amazon, and I would have hoped to be around $400.
Now that I see your alternative idea, which is a great, I am going with your idea.
You did awesome!
Идея отличная! Особенно замаскированный замок под выключатель, 👍
an utter genius! you must be an engineer
+Chas Burns - You guessed it :) Thank you.
What about adding a medallion? Could you just place it on top of the canopy, and it will go up and down when the chandelier is lowered? I have an 18' high entrance way where I'm going to do the lift like you did. I don't have a ladder tall enough to go up and secure it to the ceiling, so i thought of that idea....your thoughts are appreciated Lou!
Yes, a medallion would work. I would suggest you glue it to the canopy, or it will slide around and get off center. Be very careful adjusting your top stop. The winch motor can lift 400 pounds and would have no problem shattering your medallion if it stopped even a quarter inch too late. Good idea and good luck. -Lou
Very clever. I was going to do the same, but after seeing your comment about the power winch pulling the chandelier through the ceiling, I decided to just use a hand winch instead. Seemed like too much work to try to set up the limit switch, etc.
Hand winch works great and was even cheaper ($30 for winch and pulley). And since I'm hand-cranking it, there is less chance of pulling the chandelier through the ceiling.
The only issue with a hand winch is that I needed clearance for the hand crank. I needed to mount the winch elsewhere and mount a pulley over top of the hole. This worked fine, but it was a bit harder to line up the pulley to the exact center of the hole. My pulley was mounted on an S-hook and would move when weight was applied. Maybe a fixed pulley (not dangling from an S-hook) would have worked better. I may add a block of wood or something to help with alignment.
One addition to mine is a chunk of foam rubber at the top of the chandelier hole plate. This seals the hole nicely to prevent heat loss and also adds a bit of cushion when it approaches the ceiling.
Thanks for the inspiration! My wife is very happy and I am very proud of my creation!
Very nice! A hand-crank winch is a great way of doing this. With another pulley or two, you could mount your winch within easy reach of your attic access, so you don't have to climb through the insulation. Of course, you would have to also add the retractable cord reel, featured in Part 2. By the way, in the old days, when chandeliers were made with candles or oil lamps, they ALL had hand-crank winches. The permanent chandelier is a modern inconvenience :) Excellent project. The foam seal is a nice add and a happy wife is the perfect outcome.
I am somewhat of a motor nut. Check out HowToLou.com/ping-pong to see my other winch motor project. -Lou
Fantastic video! This is the only way to swap out our 90's chandelier with a new one, other than renting a scissor lift!
I'm trying to decide on a hand winch or an electric one, just for the cost, since it will be so seldom used. With a hand winch, won't it fall when lowering it, or do they have hand winches that you have to crank to lower too?
Regarding an electric winch, is there anything special I need to look for as far as what type of brake it has, etc?
A BOAT WINCH WILL WORK NEW OR USED.
I've had a nasty chandelier in my foyer since I bought my house six years ago. Been waiting for an inexpensive solution to lower it for cleaning and such (I'll probably replace it entirely....it's ugly). Looks like this will work nicely. I won't get as fancy, but I'll definitely use the manual winch from the attic method. I doubt I'll have to do it more than twice a year. Do you know the model of the motor you used?
Agreed, for one-time sue, or to prototype, bailing wire away. However the video makes it seem that is his permanent solution
You were right! I put it back in and it works fine. New chandelier installed and in place. The medallion worked great also!
1 final question for you: I connected the chandelier's ground wire to the ground screw on the new plug I put on to the chandelier's wire so it can plug into the new attic outlet. That is correct, right? Versus connecting the ground wire to the metal bracket that you bent in your video?
Congratulations!! Nicely done. I bet that medallion looks great. You did exactly the right thing with your ground wire. The goal is to connect the frame of the chandelier to the outlet ground. Since you added a three prong plug to your chandelier, the ground wire, that is attached to the frame of the chandelier, goes into your new plug and then plugs into the outlet ground. If you are not doing Part 2 of the video, that is the only thing you can do. Thanks for pointing that out! Since I also did Part 2, I was able to tie the metal lift wire to to the retractable extension cord that plugs into the outlet. The frame of the chandelier is then grounded to the lift wire.
Great video
HowToLou - I have been reading all the positive comments about your DIY chandelier device. I have a chandelier suspended from an A-frame roof. There’s no attic to install a hoist - any suggestions for me on how to overcome this problem.
In the old days, chandeliers were suspended with ropes and an exposed pulley. You could have two pulleys side by side. One with the steel cable and one with the long black power cord on the reel. Have another set of pulleys where the roof meets the wall and bolt the winch motor and the cord reel on the floor, hidden a decorative box or maybe behind a chair
so i'm probably going to do this same thing, i have one question however. i'm either going to get the same winch you have or the Badlands 2500 winch with the wireless remote. can i do the shut off switch with that winch as well or is the shutoff switch only on the model your using?
+Antonio Battista - To shut off the winch, you just cut the power. I added that switch to turn off the power at just the right time, in part 2 of the video, I think. The problem with the 2500 is that as soon as you shut off power to the winch, it will no longer be able to recieve signals from the wireless remote. I would just get a wired winch.
Ah I see. Thank you for that info, very helpful!
How did you mount it back when you removed screws from the back of the bracket? Did you mount motor from the front?
+Mimi Taylor - There are 6 bolt holes in the bracket. I used 2 on each end to mount the bracket to the rafters. There was plenty of room to reach behind the bracket and bolt the motor back in to the middle two holes.
+HowToLou
Thanks sooo much!!! Didn't think you would reply... My husband and I have everything and we will try to install this weekend. Thanks again!!!
+Mimi Taylor - Great! When you are done, if you wouldn't mind sending me a short video to add to my gallery at howtolou.com/chandelier-lift My email is HowToLou@gmail.com
*****
Will do!
***New issue Lou.*** SO today I went to run the lift down to put on a new chandelier (the main reason for doing the lift) and it would not work. The existing light fixture does work though in the new outlet box I made as per your instructions in the video. I took the lift down from the attic and plugged it into another outlet in my kitchen and it worked!! #%*%!!! Any idea why this would happen??? I tired both outlets in the box while in the attic and tried the reset button, none of which did anything. The existing chandelier works when plugged into either outlet. I'm stuck now.
Remember, the lift will not run, unless the chandelier switch is on. You now have a switched outlet box in the attic, and the lift is plugged into it.
Can I ask what winch you used. All the motorized winches I'm finding will unwind with tension once it has stop winding up.
+Dale Crowder - Most winches have breaks,so they won't unwind. I bought mine at Harbor Freight.
+HowToLou OK, thanks for the quick response
u got all the material and hardware at Harbor Freights??
+Albert R - I got the winch at Harbor Freight and everything else at a regular hardware store.
Hi, can I use long fluorescent for my chandelier this is not dangerous? I searched and most are bulbs. I hope to get answer. thank you.
+Lanesc Kri - I am not sure i understand the question so I will answer it two ways. 1 - If you are asking if you can replace the screw in bulbs with screw in compact flourescent lights (CFLs), Yes you can, no problem. They are not as pretty, and my wife would kill me if I did that, but they are far more energy efficient, so if you can get away with it, go for it. 2 - If you are asking if you can use a 4-foot flourescent tube light fixture as your chandelier, Yes you can do that too. You would have to make sure it hung exactly the way you wanted it, from one cable or chain. Most, that I have seen, mount flat against the ceiling, but it sure is possible, and not any more dangerous than regular bulbs. My wife would kill me twice if I did that. She would consider that an abomination!!! :) After just being in the light bulb section at the hardware store, my suggestion is that you get a standard bulb chandelier and screw in LED lights. They are getting really cheap now.
Thank you for your kind reply.
one quick might be also stupid question, what if the power is off, is the winch still going to work and hold the chandelier? Tell me it is not going to fall, many thanks!
Excellent question! Winches are always locked up with no power.
it's probably been said, but i'll say it again. you probably should have attached a cross-member from chord-to-chord on the trusses to mount your wench to. unless you used 8 inch screws to mount that second board onto the truss, i don't see it holding more than a few years of use before ripping out and down to the floor below. great work otherwise! had i been in a similar situation I would have loved to do the same
wolfy02 ....”WENCH”. .....LOL....
genius
sometimes i see some huge chandeliers in a luxury hotel's lobby. That thing gotta be weight a ton. I wonder how they put it up there.
I bet there are special large chandelier installer crews that have some sort of platform lift that they can set the chandelier on and "push" it up. Just guessing. That is how I would do it.
+Ben Whoever I was on the opening team at the Ritz-Carlton in New Orleans and they do have installation crews who hang the chandelier bodies with no crystals and then they "dress" the chandelier that can take a few weeks depending on how many and how intricate they are.
Ues, I know. I watched it several times. I want to keep ot as simple as possible though
I may not quite understand what you are asking. I think putting the chandelier where you want it and then positioning the limit switch is the simplest and most fool-proof method of getting it exactly in the right place. If you don't want to use a limit switch, and are just doing Part 1, you don't need to mark the wire. Just watch the gap close and stop the motor. I hope this helps. Lou
Haha awesome
Question. My junction box has a bar on top of it connected to a joist on either side. The bar and the box appear to be one piece upon 1st look. Any ideas how to get around this, as I cannot simply connect the winch and lower down due to this bar being in the way. I can unscrew it from the joists, but then what?
Attach your winch cable and then use a hacksaw, an angle grinder or a Dremel, with a steel cutting blade, to cut the bars off right at the box, so you can lower it through the hole.
Your a engineer or a rocket scientist
U could of used two ladders with a walk board in the middle?
I used to do something like that. I bolted a plank to my plant shelf and walked out there to change bulbs. Few things scare me, but being on a narrow board, 12 feet above a hardwood floor, lets just say, made me think it was a bad idea.
This is a really neat project and all... but why not just use LED bulbs? They pretty much last forever.
I agree, this mod has re-enforced the rafter...
Quiero uno exactamente como ese
se puede construir este
if you add up the time and money to do this you can buy one for less that is accually ul listed that your insurance company will cover if somethong goes wrong
Yes, you can pay to have someone install it too. I would rather do it myself for under $150, total. I don't count my time, when I am having fun :)
thegreanmonsterable Trust me, having dealt with insurance companies, they wrote the book on coming up with ways to avoid paying settlements no matter how much a customer complies with all the small print and minutia in their contracts. I applaud this ingenious home owner for coming up with and executing an idea for solving a problem. I say screw the insurance companies and don't let them hold you back from using your creative talent whenever you want to do something around your home, just use common sense and good judgment.
The idea is clever, but the execution is not. The main issues are with the incorrect use of various materials. Extension cords are not listed for use in the attic or the way it is being used. The receptacle is not to be anywhere near the insulation. No professional would have installed the blocking that way. Could have used a metal ceiling fan bracket instead. I would have double nutted the bolt and used a size or 2 larger. There are clamps made for looping the support wire, not looping "something" around it. I am certain there's hardware made to do what is being done, especially for the final connections. People trying to save a few bucks can easily spend just a few more more and make the solution much safer.
@@stevar4505 Steve: I am a master electrician. Instead of knocking this kind gentleman's youtube, why not just do your own, your self professed correct way. I see nothing that he did that would cause an electrical or fire issue if common sense is used!
So not to rain on your parade and I love the idea of a project as fun as this but a 16' ladder only costs $25 to rent. LED bulbs are available for your chandalier for a few bucks. Since the LEDs will last for decades why not skip the time and huge expense involved in something this complex and technical and just install LEDs? You can easily climb a stable 16' step ladder and for $25 every 20 years this seems like the smartest route.
+Rick Larson - LED lights were much more expensive when I did this project. Also, my wife likes to take it down and clean it, a couple times a year. She also does not like the color of LED or fluorescent light.
Very cool and I get it.....I admire your solution and cleverness. Im a handyman who has installed a lot of chandaliers high up but never thought of such a great solution considering needing to regularly clean. You are right, cobwebs and dirt would make your gorgeous fixture look terrible. I will keep your idea in my repertoire of services. Of course, I would charge $150 to climb up and clean one this high, job security :-)
No residential home can't exceed 36 ft. Your Chandler is not 50 ft. off the floor . Your Chandler doesn't waight 50 Lbs.
I know this video is old but could have just wired the real to the chandelier. Just cut the triple tap off the cord real
I did it that way on purpose. We can easily unplug and unhook the chandelier and replace with a giant pumpkin for Halloween and Santa for Xmas.
But, bailing wire?!
Your degree has nothing to say about building codes. Additionally wrapping bailing wire is a terrible idea, that's going to slowly come undone with time and end up dropping your chandelier on someone's head. No safety clip for the chandelier after it's in place? All in the name of looking cool? Very not-cool.
Talk about unsafe. Why wouldn't you cut the board to attach to both rafters? You seem to know about electrical but you lack structural common sense. Also why wouldn't you use the proper clamps to hold the loop in the wire and you used a clip that is not rated for over head lifting? I guess common sense isn't too common, the simple and proper fix is to go to home depot and buy a 15 ft ladder.