How does he get toys up to his loft? With a dumbwaiter

Sunset, May, 1988

A dumbwaiter for toys takes the burden out of Colin Reingold's climb to his play loft. Since he needs two hands to get up and down the laddr, he can't carry his toys safely. This problem was solved with the wall-mounted toy lift, which could also carry toys to tree houses or attic play spaces.

Designed by David Reingold and Andy Balmer of Portland, the dumbwaiter rides up and down tracks made of two 10-foot lengths of 1/2-inch aluminum pipe.

At the top, the rods run into an 11-inch-long piece of wood ripped from a 2-by-4 to 1 by 1 1/2 inches. At the bottom, each rod ends on a small block of wood with a piece of sponge on top to cushion the shock of occasional runaways. The wood is secured to the wall with expansion bolts.

Made of 3/4-inch PVC sprinkler pipe and fittings, the fold-out shelf has an inner and an outer frame (see sketch). The outer frame (11 inches on each side) is shaped like an inverted U. The parallel aluminum pipes run through its vertical sections.

To let the inner frame pivot up and store flat against the wall, the pieces joining the inner and outer frames weren't glued. (In factT hey were sanded for a looser fit.)

A 7 1/2-by 9-inch piece of 1/4-inch tempered hardboard mounted to the top of the inner frame makes a shelf. Two short lengths of 1/4-inch nylon rope run through the outer frame and connect to the shelf to hold it horizontal when folded out.

To lift his toys up to his high retreat, Colin pulls on a long length of rope running from an eye screw centered in the top of the outer frame to a pulley at the top of the tracks.

Photo: Aluminum pipes act as tracks for fold-down platform that can be hauled up to the play loft

Photo: Shelf pivots on pipe pieces inserted, but not glued, into outer frame's bottom joints

Photo: Elbows, pipe, and Ts make frame. Shelf (color tone) screws to inner frame