Dumbwaiters care and feeding

Our Dumbwaiter is a luxury that few apartment houses can match. Used primarily to dispatch trash, but in the old days it got more use. Deliveries from neighborhood merchants were placed on the dumbwaiter, along with firewood and various packages, saving us from having to deal with delivery people.

Nowadays, some of the historic district co-ops have abandoned them, but we consider it indispensable. Operated manually with an original 1920's rope pulley system, they really meet our needs. There aren't a lot of people who can maintain the things, and so we do our best to take care of the minor issues ourselves. That Once or twice a year, the pulleys need basic lubrication, these are photos of how to do this task.

NOTE- want to see these pictures larger? Right click and hit 'save target as' and save it to a file for future reference. When saved to your computer hard drive, they open up in a larger size.

On the roof, inside the shaftway, is a giant pulley that, when spun by the rope, lifts the car up and down. The mechanism is a wood cradle holding the rod, which has the pulley and a primitive break system, so a heavy load won't cause the thing to plummet to the basement.

Periodically, this mechanism needs oiling. You'll know when the rope is so hard to pull you are sweating by the time the car is at the 2nd floor. So, when this happens, it's time to lubricate. Get the little key for the dumbwaiter doors from the rack in the meter room, open the doors and look inside. You'll see the large round wheel with a smaller wheel behind it (that's the brake). Generously squirt WD-40 on the rod that attaches to the wooden ends, and reach behind the large wheel to squirt the oil into the openings on the smaller one. Pull the ropes up and down, they should be measurably easier to operate. If not, repeat squirting the oil. For some reason, the dumbwaiter serving apts 2. 22. 32 42 side stiffens up sooner, the other one is usually easier to pull in general.

This maintenance is required every 6 months to a year, or when the ropes become hard to pull. All in all, easy maintenance job that saves the house money bringing in an expert to squirt the same can of oil. These photos are from last week, when I oiled the pulleys on both sides.