Chain winch

[Neeves]

No, not a windlass!

What do you, variously, call a winch that uses chain and chain wheels/gypsies?

I do have one and call it, for want of another term a 'Chain winch'.

The device is normally used vertically (I'm contrary and usually use it horizontally), you attach one set of chain wheels to something substantial at the top and lift 'whatever' (usually on a big hook) at the bottom and the chain is endless and it all rattles as you apply tension. If you leave the chain not under tension - the load stays where you left it - it does not run back.

It is boaty, don't ask.

I recall from distant memory, secondary education, they had a 22:1 ratio - is this correct or do they vary? And from the same, defective, memory cells I thought the device had a name, other than 'chain winch'. The name might have been peculiarly Scots, possibly named after the company that made them, as we now use the word Hoover etc

Jonathan

 

[Sticky Fingers]

Weston differential.

 

[Poignard]

Chain hoist.

I think it's called a come-along in the USA.

 

[coopec]

Chain hoist.

I think it's called a come-along in the USA.

I have no argument with that.

I think in Australia we would just call it a "Chain Block" and we used to use one to lift motors out of our cars (which we did quite often)

\

 

[thinwater]

In the US either chain hoist, chain tackle, or chain fall, although the terms have become interchangeable. They have not made these in at least 75 years.

I have several and use them for pulling. Here is on in use on my boat (the pic was in PS). They were my grandfather's and date to ~ 1920-1940.

Gear ratios vary, depending on the rating.

Come alongs (in the US) are normally based on steel cable. Otherwise they are called chain hoists or chain falls.

 

[rogerthebodger]

I call then chain block normally used vertical and operated by a continuous hand chain.

A come along is normally operated by a ratchet lever and can be have a chain or wire rope.

 

[Neeves]

Thank you all for your replies. I'll stick with chain winch, or hoist, or block (whichever I recall at the time). They seem accepted and everyone, or the few that answered, appears to understand what it means.

I'm amazed at Thinwater's comment

'They have not made these in at least 75 years.'

Given that Coopec illustrates a string of them for sale and that much loved store 'Bunnings' I am sure hold them in stock (possibly made in China). Considering what they do, in Coopec's post - lift 3t for just under A$100 for a finger tips effort - they are amazing. How else do you, easily, get 100m of 8mm chain out of the back of a car?

As Coopec says they are an essential bit of kit - what do Americans use to remove their inboard diesel (or that chain) when they take it home for a rebuild over winter! I have one (a chain hoist), my neighbour across the road has one and I see them in every small car mechanics workshop (though often electric powered).

I did like Scala's answer - the suggestion being that a Mr Weston has not been entirely forgotten.

Again,

Thanks, Jonathan

 

[John the kiwi]

Chain Blocks!
I have used lots of different ones over my years as a tradesman Fitter and Turner. Of course they still make them, and they come in many different sizes and ratios.

 

[LittleSister]

How else do you, easily, get 100m of 8mm chain out of the back of a car?

About a third of a metre at a time: hand over hand, about three hundred times, with a bit of carpet to protect the car bodywork. Probably take less time than going to buy a chain hoist, let alone rigging it up.

Alternatively, tie one end of the chain to a fixed object and drive off!

 

[John the kiwi]

Thread extrapolation:
My experience as a Fitter involved moving and positioning machinery weighing many tonnes. We did most of it including raising the machinery up a floor level or two with muscle powered devices: Chain blocks, Come-alongs (lever and ratchet devices utilising roller chain) simple levers, load skates, Tirfa cable blocks and yes, rollers!
It wasn't that powered devices weren't available, just that for control and precision in the final stages where cranes couldn't reach, manual devices ruled. We didn't often break a sweat either.
So i always laugh when bearded academics with soft lily white hands pontificate about the impossibility of building the pyramids by human muscle! Given the right tools, multi tonne loads are easily handled by just a few people.

 

[rogerthebodger]

About a third of a metre at a time: hand over hand, about three hundred times, with a bit of carpet to protect the car bodywork. Probably take less time than going to buy a chain hoist, let alone rigging it up.

Alternatively, tie one end of the chain to a fixed object and drive off!

That the only way even if you have a chain block if you don't and anything overhead to attach the chain block to

 

[coopec]

If someone went overboard and they were (say) unconscious how would you get them back on deck? Maybe you could use a chain block?

After reading a sad story of a couple who were sailing together. The guy went OB and was injured. The wife didn't have the strength to haul him onboard so she tied him to the transom ladder.

I've thought of making up a rope block and tackle using pulleys. Maybe just one pulley attached to the pushpit and a rope to a sheet winch?

 

[coopec]

About a third of a metre at a time: hand over hand, about three hundred times, with a bit of carpet to protect the car bodywork. Probably take less time than going to buy a chain hoist, let alone rigging it up.

Alternatively, tie one end of the chain to a fixed object and drive off!

Maybe I'll have to use that technique to get my 80 M chain from my shed to the lawn in front of the yacht where I'll use my winch to lift it into the locker. No problems?

 

[rogerthebodger]

Some times where there is plenty of labour it can be easier to use it



Rather that using machines

 

[LittleSister]

If someone went overboard and they were (say) unconscious how would you get them back on deck? Maybe you could use a chain block?

After reading a sad story of a couple who were sailing together. The guy went OB and was injured. The wife didn't have the strength to haul him onboard so she tied him to the transom ladder.

I've thought of making up a rope block and tackle using pulleys. Maybe just one pulley attached to the pushpit and a rope to a sheet winch?

I very much doubt you'd be able to do it with a single pulley, even from a winch unless a huge one. Also, the pulpit will not lift the MOB high enough for a single person to get him/her back on board. (I doubt there's much apart from a halyard or topping lift (if strong enough) to do that.)

You've identified a genuine problem, though, and perhaps a chain hoist could be part of an answer.

 

[rogerthebodger]

If someone went overboard and they were (say) unconscious how would you get them back on deck? Maybe you could use a chain block?

After reading a sad story of a couple who were sailing together. The guy went OB and was injured. The wife didn't have the strength to haul him onboard so she tied him to the transom ladder.

I've thought of making up a rope block and tackle using pulleys. Maybe just one pulley attached to the pushpit and a rope to a sheet winch?

This is a jib crane I made to lift my dingy outboard but could be used for SWMBO to lift me from the water as it has a rope block and can be feed to the sheet winch in the cockpit.

If anyone thinks it not strong enough I have tested it by hanging from it

I also have rope blocks attached to my taga /goal posts for lifting my dinghy for short trips

 

[LittleSister]

Maybe I'll have to use that technique to get my 80 M chain from my shed to the lawn in front of the yacht where I'll use my winch to lift it into the locker. No problems?

Try a trebuchet, and let us know how you get on.

trebuchet
Trebuchet - Wikipedia

 

[coopec]

Try a trebuchet, and let us know how you get on.

trebuchet
Trebuchet - Wikipedia

I wish you wouldn't waste my damned time! ?
I'm fascinated now: I'll have to research those for sure

 

[Neeves]

I decanted our 50m of 8mm chain from the bow roller into the dinghy. And thought nothing of it

Until I got to the beach and had to move it from the dinghy to the back of the car. Felt VERY foolish. Fortunately I had decanted into a paint pail and had another in the car - I split the length and carried each pail a metre at a time, 'leapfrogging' each pail

But I have a hook in a reinforced concrete floor under which I can centre the car - and lift what ever I want from the boot. Hang up chain hoist - easy - though would be difficult without the hook

I bought 25l of antifoul once - it was the same issue, you can drag it across a floor - but cannot lift it out of the back of a car (or not with serious danger of mischief). Though maybe I (and Coopec?) need to pay membership of gyms

Coopec (I'm sure you know this and were just being flippant) - you need to feed the chain though the windlass, not pour it into the locker. If you do the latter it will inevitably be twisted and will jamb in the gypsy the first time you try to deploy.

Jonathan

 

[coopec]

Try a trebuchet, and let us know how you get on.

trebuchet
Trebuchet - Wikipedia

It astonishes me how people did gigantic projects 100 years ago. Digging the Panama Canal or Suez Canal didn't daunt them