tech E X P O
2009
Friction Winches
by Neil A Williamson
PlayMakers Repertory Company
exhibit no. 22
While a graduate student at the University of
North Carolina at Chapel Hill, we did the show,
Tuesdays with Morrie. The design required
hanging panels of textilene to track upstage and
downstage depending on the scene. We used Un-
istrut P-1000 as the track and milled Delrin as the
carriers. The space available to operate the panels
was only about 3 wide so a hand-driven drum
winch would not allow crew members space to
pass due to the width of the drum. Having had
previous experience with several variations of
friction winches, I was given the green light to
design and build three stock winches for the show.
This would be my third generation winch design
inspired by one used by F. Leonard Darby, tech-
nical director at my undergraduate school, East
Carolina University. The money came from the
show budget so for the first time I could actually
buy the proper parts and build them in a shop that
had all the necessary metal working tools. I had
waited a long time for this opportunity.
Figure 1.
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The friction winch is a simple design (fig.
1) but simplicity is good. There are not a lot of
moving parts to break during a show or parts that
need to be replaced often. They can work with
tracked platforms, scenery with the drive cable
close to the floor, bi-part curtains or tracked hang-
ing pieces. The drive cable can do any angle from
zero degrees to 90 degrees with no problem (fig.
3). Also the space requirement for the winches
was very small. The base is only 10 x 2-3 with
a total space needed of only about 2-3 x 2-3
(fig. 2). They fit easily into the box booms and
offstage.
The principle is simple. The drive cable is
wrapped around the two top V-belt pulleys (Mc-
Master-Carr # 1497K281) and the three tension-
ing sheaves (McMaster-Carr #3164T82) to create
the friction. The tension carriage is pivoted up
towards the V-belt pulleys and the cable is reeved
around the five sheaves. At this point it is good to
have the handles removed so as you run the cable
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through the sheaves the handles dont start spin-
ning. You run the return cable back to the knife,
dog, platform, etc. and you have a closed loop
system. This means you have relatively little re-
striction on the length of travel these winches can
accommodate. If you spike the cable with tape or
spray paint, the spike positions will never change
even if the sheaves slip on the cable. My friction
winches were made to use 3/16 outer diameter
aircraft cable. You can use 1/8 coated aircraft
cable with an overall 3/16 diameter if you want
a system that is whisper-quiet. The coating will
not last as long as the bare cable. The V-belt pul-
leys were chosen because they have three sides:
one side is a flat bottom and the other two sides
are angled outward in a V shape. This grabs the
cable on three sides and wedges the cable into the
pulley creating a lot of friction. The three tension
sheaves and two idlers sheaves (at the bottom)
(McMaster-Carr #3164T82) are designed for 5/8
Figure 2.
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cable. The larger groove on the sheaves allow for
the angle of the cable to enter and exit with no
problems (fig. 3). The tension and idler sheaves
ride on a 1 precision steel shaft (McMaster-Carr
#1346K38) and they are held in position by 1 set
screw, shaft collars (McMaster-Carr #9414T19).
The handle arms are 1-1/2 x 1/4 steel strap with a
two-piece, keyed shaft collar (McMaster-Carr #).
The bottom piece without the keyway is welded to
the handle and the top piece with the keyway and
machine screws is used to clamp the handle arms
to the 1 precision, rotary motion, keyed shaft
(McMaster-Carr # 1497K281) using a 1/4 x 1/4
key for the drive. The 1 drive shaft is mounted
onto the 1-1/2 x 1-1/2 x 1/4 angle iron (typical
for the entire frame) using two mounted bearings
(McMaster-Carr #6244K56) or pillow blocks
with four 3/8 Grade 5 bolts with washers and ny-
lon locknuts. This type of bearing allows for some
misalignment and has a grease fitting to lube the
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bearings for long, quiet, and smooth operation. steel shapes and thicknesses depending on your
The tension in the cables is created using a 1/2 usage and materials on hand. Other versions of the
eye-to-eye, forged turnbuckle (McMaster-Carr friction winch have been built out of 1 box and
#2999T56) that has a 12 take-up. The ends of 3/16 thick steel. If your shop can drill, cut, and
the turnbuckle are attached to the tension carriage weld steel then you can build these winches. The
and the frame base through 1/2 holes using large friction winch is efficient and versatile. They are
opening, quick links (McMaster-Carr #3711T25). great addition to our stock automation inventory
The handles can be turned wood or PVC mounted and I am sure they will continue to be used with
using a 1/2 grade 5 bolt. Using a locknut allows frequency and success.
the bolts to be rigid on the handle arm. There are
six 1/2 holes in the 1/4 angle iron on the bottom
for mounting to the floor. We have used lag bolts
and concrete anchors with much success. I used
1/4 thick steel throughout the entire frame be-
cause we were going to use these in the future and
you never know what the future holds.
We milled the 1 holes for the tension and
idler sheaves but if your shop cant then substitute
four additional pillow blocks to hold the sheave
shafts. The frame can be constructed with varying

Figure 3.

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