DIY Vertical Electric Rope Winch

[grahamb]

Originally Posted by Chotu

Do you remember how the gearing went?

….sadly....no......yacht is Janaway…….built by Brian Perry.....the yacht survived him …….yacht last seen on the Gold Coast......Australia...…..could be in Singapore maybe.....perhaps another forum member knows her whereabouts now...……..

[slug]

High torque pancake motors mounted to the appropriate gear box is a common solution

You might google PMI flight link pancake motor

Lewmar uses these motors on Mamba gearbox drives

You might also google wheel motors , the type electric vehicles forklifts golf carts use

[slug]

And find an Anderson winch drive unit and control circuit

Then determine it's torque motor. component supplier

Lewmar typically uses italian gearbox’s
https://www.stmspa.com/eng/products/

[RaymondR]

Electric wheels for push bikes.

[zstine]

Originally Posted by Chotu

That's a good point. I feel like I need a large diameter drum because the marine winches are large diameter. Might be left over from that.

WOW! Would you look at that! The five oceans might be exactly what I need.


https://www.amazon.com/Five-Oceans-A.../dp/B0167L0OY2

Is this a joke? max load is 396lbs! haha... good luck sheeting your jib with that!

[Pauls]

Hi Chotu,

Years ago I had a very similar requirement. At the time aircraft starter motors which included a built in planetary gear reduction were available surplus and cheap. I mated this to a mount/capstan which used heavy duty bearings to support the capstan. It ran for years.

As previous posters have mentioned there are a large variety of DC motors and reduction gearboxes available and you can mix and match to meet your requirements. There are also a number of DC gearmotors which are a gearbox/motor already mated together. Most of the gearmotors are too small for your application though.

However, what also needs to be addressed is the loads on the capstan. The capstan is only supported from below, ie loads are cantilevered. So the capstan needs to be well supported. This leaves out the offroad vehicle winches.

I think a likely combination would consist of a standard marine winch sized for the loads you need and modified so that it can be driven by a vertical shaft coming from below the winch. If you can work out a modification that will allow this drive from below then you can add a DC motor mated to a gear box with the reduction ratio you need. Note - gear reductions are available as angle drives, meaning that the input shaft (from the motor) is perpendicular to the output shaft going to the winch.

[wtmf]

wheel chair motors

[tml]

I have Barient 32's and would be very interested in the contact info for the AU supplier to electrify mine as well
Tom

[Chotu]

A lot of good input here. Thank you. The project is really humming along right now so I’m not on here as much. But definitely actively watching this thread.

[Jim Cate]

Originally Posted by tml

I have Barient 32's and would be very interested in the contact info for the AU supplier to electrify mine as well
Tom

Try Arco-Hutton in Sydney NSW Oz. I think they are the guilty party.

Jim

[betwys1]

WOW! Would you look at that! The five oceans might be exactly what I need.

https://www.amazon.com/Five-Oceans-A.../dp/B0167L0OY2

Originally Posted by zstine

Is this a joke? max load is 396lbs! haha... good luck sheeting your jib with that!

******************

When a responder turns his nose up at a device that uses 75 amps/12 volts to pull near 400 lb(f) at up to 98 ft/min and thinks this is WAY low for hauling in a sheet then I deduce he is looking for a ?? windlass, not a capstan.

Since reading a recent thread here on hauling out a dinghy with a battery drill I have been ploughing through ads for winches , capstans and windlasses. Even a manual trailer winch in all stainless goes for several hundred bucks, I think Chotu did well to find this marine-duty capstan.
A cordless drill that could offer enough energy reserve to pull a 400 lb load for an aggregate 12 minutes before recharge involves a 12 volt 15 A.hr lithium -ion battery. For an idea of size, I looked at a Milwaukee HD 1/2 drill at $430 with a 3A.hr (18v) battery and scaled it up - to a battery about the size and weight of a house brick. I conclude that cordless drills as a power source for heavy duty winches are a longing for "something for nothing".
Brian W

[Oohla]

I obtained a foredeck capstan and installed it on the cabin top.

It's an old Lewmar capstan without a gypsy used for retrieving a rope such as an anchor rode. Obviously not suitable for chain. The motor is the same that is used for Lewmar anchor winches. I looked for the capstan until one turned up on eBay.

Prior to that purchase I had a similar Lewmar motor and a stainless shaft. I was going to have a drum contructed, but then I found the capstan. I still have the extra motor and the stainless shaft.

I have a new Lewmar anchor which up forward. It has a gypsy and a capstan.

It appears that capstans such as mine are still manufactured. I deleted the websites after my eBay purchase.

I use the cabin top capstan to hoist the mainsail. I single hand so it's a big help. I do have to grind it up the last few feet.

FWIW I have big Harken electric winches for the foresail sheets and these seem to have more torque than the Lewmar. They cost a lot. The Lewmar set up was $200 for used equipment. Installation by a boat yard was about $1000.

[zstine]

Originally Posted by betwys1

, I think Chotu did well to find this marine-duty capstan.
Brian W

In post 1 Chotu says he's looking for a sail handling winch, I assume meaning he's going to be sheeting in sails with it, raising halyards, etc.. In post 8 Chotu insinuates that it is for a 50 foot Catamaran. I would expect his jib sheet loading requirements to be 2,000 to 3,000 lbs with inefficiency in blocks. So, what's the point of finding an anchor windlass for a 35ft boat? He would have to rip it down and build a custom gear box to achieve the load handling capability he needs, throw out the little capstan as it won't handle his line size, and then it would go super slow and defeat his off-the-shelf purpose.. If he's got a 50ft cat, and wants anything like normal line speeds, he's needs to look at 1600W or more... He's going to need to run it with a relay/contactor set-up as well. He's going to need to ensure his batteries and charge system can keep up with a 150Amp load repeatedly as he tacks up a channel. Personally, I think Chotu needs to do some basic back of the napkin math before he asks if he can DIY a cheap electric capstan. There's a big difference between pulling a dink up on davits and running all your sail control lines to 1 winch that then becomes a big single point failure problem... oh, he better engineer some manual override into his off-the-shelf capstan too. I would hate to see him unable to furl sails in 35knots because a burned up $25 breaker!

[GrowleyMonster]

What voltage? DC or AC? If you had a 48vdc bank of around 5kWhr, the obvious choice would be something like an ME0907 and a 300w Kelly controller with a belt reduction drive of about 10:1, and I will let you calculate required torque for desired cathead diameter. Stick with a normal small boat winch size and you SHOULD I am guessing here, be good to go with that setup.

Probably you are looking at a gearhead motor. Think large scale conveyor belt driver. A starter motor won't work. They have a very low duty cycle. A forklift motor with a belt reduction drive would work. How about a regular ordinary 12v anchor windlass? Most have a gypsy as well as a wildcat, just ignore the wildcat. They are made for that. All you need is to make sure your bank is big enough and your cables are big enough. And what looks big enough BTW is not big enough. If the run is more than a couple feet you should be looking at 2/0 copper. Cheapest and easiest to work with is welding cable but don't go below 2/0. Oh if you go for a really big gypsy or capstan or cathead you need a really big motor to turn it. A smaller one will work with a smaller motor. You could also go with a two speed manual winch and a big drill. As Scotty says, ye canna change the laws o physics.

I will point something out. When such an obvious idea is not commonly put into practice, there is usually a reason. If you go the road more traveled you will find more, better, and easier solutions. Go off the beaten path and you usually will be frustrated and spend a lot of money for very poor results.


There were several posts with pretty good ideas for off the shelf stuff, but you need to figure out where you stand on torque and speed. Smaller will be easier. Too small for your lines would be a bad idea though.


Since it is down below I think a two speed manual winch would be the thing. Use an angle grinder type drill on AC power for rapid hauling at low loads, switch to the hand crank for higher loads, bring it home tight with the low gear. The ones I am familiar with, you simply turn one way for high speed and the other way for low speed and higher torque. The well trodden path is the easiest way to go.

[drcat]

Look at Amazon or Google Truck Tarp motors. They run around $130-$190 for a 600w to 900w 12v dc motors. They are geared down between 50:1 to 90:1 so they turn 45-60 rpm. They are reversible using a $20 switch and $20 solenoid. That way they could be used on a 2 speed winch. The turning axle is usually 3.5"-4" long so they could be mounted underneath a cabin top below the winch. The primary design issues I see are:
1) mating the axle to the winch spindle- you would need to sq off end of axle and make a square hole in the bottom of the winch spindle, or grind a slot in bottom of spindle that accepts a horizontal rod/pin that goes thru the predrilled holes in axle, or you create/find a gear that will fit on axle and mesh with gear(s) at the bottom of the winch.
2) disconnecting the axle from winch in an emergency and you have to use a winchhandle. A well known maker winches and and electric conversion kits solves this by having the inside of the spindle be a spring loaded rod. When you put in a winch handle it pushes down the rod which pushes down the geared motor axle and disengages it. This would be too complicated for a DIY and is just for emergency use but someone more mechanical then me might have a solution
3) does it have enough torque ? I would think it would. If a Milwaukee 90 deg 20v drill develops 150-200 ft lbs- a 600-900w 12v DC motor geared 50 to 90:1 should be strong enough and be able to be run long enough (its duty cycle) to handle sailboat sheets.
PS I've wondered it this same type of motor could be adaped to be a DIY electric anchor Windlass
Hope this helps.