Sheppard Home Lift

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am currently in the process of refurbishing the interior of a sheppard home lift, circa early 60's and was looking for the electrical schematics or general manuals. seems that this thing is a real antique, and I have had no luck finding any information. it also appears to be mechanically sound and built to outlast me.

thanks in advance.

-- Steve (stoteda@pacbell.net), October 18, 2004

Answers

Hi There, Is that a chain driven drive elevator. Jim

-- Jim (ELEVATOR555@HOTMAIL.COM), October 18, 2004.

In the UK these were chain driven and sold through Hammond & Champness now part of Thyssen. They also had a poor gearbox which should be replaced if you are doing any refurbishment. Try your local office of Thyssen Lifts some one should have some information

-- geoff judge (geoff.judge@bchtgroup.org), October 19, 2004.

Hi Steve, I worked on one of those once and it worked pretty good, does the code still allow chain driven home lifts. Didnt Dover purchase Shepard many years ago. I might have a Shepard elevator print. Jim

-- Jim (elevator555@hotmail.com), October 19, 2004.

Even ThyssenKrupp won't want to know, they distanced them self's from this type of lift after a few bad accident in the uk a few years back. I look after some sites that still have these lift but they have been boarded up to prevent them being used

-- bil jac (fixerlift@hotmail.com), October 20, 2004.

The HomeLift was originally a product of Shepard Elevator Co. of Cincinnati, Ohio. This company was purchased by Dover Corp. in the 50's. The residence elevator product line was discontinued by DOVER in the 70's.

ThyssenKrupp purchased the elevator operations of DOVER in the late 90's.

Hammond and Champness made a version of the product under license in the UK.

I never heard of any significant accidents with the US product.

ThyssenKrupp's Access Elevator Division currently makes a product which is distinctly reminiscent of the HomeLift.

-- John Brannon (akaelevman@aol.com), October 20, 2004.



Wow John, just found them on the net, sent a shiver down my spine...... http://www.accessind.com/index.html

-- bil jac (fixerlift@hotmail.com), October 21, 2004.

For those unaware of the history of this company. It was originally called "Project and Design" and at the time sold the narrowest stairlift on the market which when folded was 7inch wide and was perfect on staircases in old cottages. They became part of TK years ago and started to sell their equipment. Some of the pictures on the "accessind" website are used in the UK for disabled pesrons in their home environment. The problem with the UK version of the Sheppard was the gearbox, and from memory it was a box manufactured by Jonas Webster. This was a 4inch gearbox and was running at or near its max weight carrying capacity at all times 2 elderly ladies were killed when all the teeth stripped from the worm wheel and others were found with badly worn teeth. I can remember one of these gears on a hoist which brought beer up to a bar in Bradford UK, which crashed and the shock loading threw the motor/gearbox assembly out through the motor room door on to the floor were the barstaff were working ,and dragging the conduit runs and 3 phase wiring (240v a.c. perphase) out with it, so that the bar staff dare not walk past it to leave

-- geoff judge (geoff.judge@bchtgroup.org), October 21, 2004.

used to work for hammonds and i worked on quite a few shepphard home lifts, cant remember ever seeing a drawing for one, pretty basic stuff though, up /down crash stop . one tip go careful if standing on the roof .. put my foot straight through one once. i did hear of an accident involving one a few years ago , anyone know details?

-- paul lacey (pielacey@hotmail.com), October 21, 2004.

Try Advavced lifts at Wigan Loads of ex H&C blokes there who were at H&C at the time of the accident

-- geoff judge (geoffjudge@bchtgroup.org), October 22, 2004.

The one accident I know about involed two old womem in a sheltered housing complex, one was trying to call the lift down, after waiting a while she pulled the door on the ground floor which opened and she walked in, not realising she had walked into the pit, the door closed behind her and she was trying to find the push buttons. (it was dark). Still talking to her friend outside, she called out the lifts not here, on hearing that her friend said I'll call it down for you. She place a call, the lift came down and kill the old lady. I believe they found a faulty ground floor lock as the cause of the accident. I have also had problems with the roof of the lift car, my apprentice had left a can of WD40 on top of the car, we called the lift up, can hit bottom of the controllor and went through roof. Have heard of an engineer who was changing a motor, stepped on the roof and went though it. Was once called to investigate why the floor levels were out, found insurance man had adjusted the brake tension, (thinking he was taking off a cover) we called the lift up to the top floor, when opening the door we saw the lift running back down the shaft through the brake. Not my most favourite lift

-- bil jac (fixerlift@hotmail.com), October 22, 2004.


we still have some of these on service!

We have lots of parts as we keep bits of ones we remove, to keep the others going.

Let me know what you need.

-- Richard (rnconduit@postmaster.co.uk), November 03, 2004.


Hi Dont wat to frighten you.... but......is this the one with no couterweight and 2 chains? These type of lifts suffered gearbox failure and there are some serious notices about them at HSE. The 3 & 1/2 inch gears used to fail, dropping the lift. The slack chain safety gear was sometimes ineffective in this situation. The ones in service should have a proper overspeed governor and rope fitted, & tested to prove its efficacy in pulling in the safety gear, and usually a 4inch gear fitted and regular exams. - See the special HSE safety notices and the accident reports on this item. Make sure that you dont add ANY weight (timber, mirrors, trim) when refurbing the car else you might end up compromising yourself and the integrity of the lift. Is it insured and Thorough Examed (F54) regards theliftman

-- theliftman (theliftman@hotmail.com), November 30, 2004.

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