Antique 1939 Shepard Home Lift Elevator, Removed from a abandoned Nunnery In Fort Smith Arkansas then Restored and installed in a 1920 Downtown Building.
PAelevators for what it's worth, I also have a 1920 car elevator in my building that I use to put automobiles on the second floor, originally back in the day it was a auto body shop upstairs auto mechanic shop downstairs and showroom in the front
DieselDucy let's do it, let me know if you get close to Kansas. I have all the original features on this elevator and they are all operational. In addition to this I have a 1920 purpose-built car elevator you could check out.
We have one of these in our home we are remodeling and it has power but does not work. Any information you can provide on this would be amazing and appreciated. We would love to have ours working again and restored/serviced, but we live in a very rural area in southwest kansas and we don't have service companies in our area as there are very few elevators. The closest elevator company would be amarillo, TX or Wichita, KS which is about an 8 hour round trip! I think ours is exactly the same one!
Hello, I have a Shepard home lift type 90321 and am trying to restore it. After trying and failing to find wiring schematics I found your videos. If you could please help me that would be great.
DieselDucy I would love to have you come document it, I have everything 100% working on it as original. While you're here if you want I could show you a 1920 purpose-built car elevator.
hi scott, we have a similar Shepard elevator in our home. We can't find the year on it! Its got a 500 lbs capacity and same exact door! You don't happen to have the original control buttons do you? One of ours just broke. I'm going to retrofit it, but would have been nice to find the original black ones.
Looks like it has been a while since anyone posted, but I have the Shepard in an 1894 home in Redlands, CA. Its currently operating and I'm trying to keep it that way. Any suggestions on expertise in Southern California? I'm just looking for basic maintenance help at this point. Thanks!
Hi, Did you replace the motor when you refurbished your elevator? I've been asked to work on one of these that hums but won't move. I suspect the motor needs replacing. Do you have any motor specs or a replacement motor recommendation? If the motor that's in there is original it would have 80 years of wear. There's probably a plate on the old motor in the one I'm attempting to fix but I don't have easy access. I found the hand crank and can lower the car to gain access to the motor but I'm not on site very often. Any sources of parts or hints would be appreciated. Thanks, Tom
Thanks for the video. We just bought a house that has the same one in it and love it. Its working well...or it was. But from the ground floor, when it was coming down, I pressed up on the bottom of the car. The manual i found online says it is the safety platform. It says "slight pressure against the platform when it is descending automatically shuts off power, applies brake and stops car." After that, I could only get the elevator to go up. Do you know if there is something that needs to be reset at the top? Thank you!
@@scotturnot could you please contact me as well? I have the same elevator in the home I purchased it was working when I first bought but I had my dad shut it off at the breaker. 4 years later I decied to try and use it. We turned the power back on. The light inside comes on but the elevator will not move at all. Its stuck on the second level. I have a tri-level home. Any ideas what it could be?
Beautiful restoration and installation! We just purchased an 1880's home in NC with a 1942 model HomeLIFT installed. It was working, but has stopped. I have the original manual to guide me in repairs, but it is missing pages 7-10. Any idea where I can locate a copy of these pages? It would appear that these pages may contain diagrams that I could use for understanding the mechanicals of this. Thanks for any guidance you can provide.
Do you know of an online source for the manual? I've been asked to work on one that hums but won't move. I'm thinking about trying to find a replacement motor. A manual, or at least the motor specs would really help. An agricultural high torque, low RPM, motor that runs on 110-120v house current would probably be a suitable replacement.
Good afternoon Paul this is Randy Woods in Oklahoma just purchased a 1936 Shepherd Home Lift I need electrical drawings and a manual if you have one would be willing to pay you for them if you could scan and email to me please thank you for your time spacesolutionsrandy@gmail.com
Kimberly Hood I am sorry, I just seen this question. I would say there's a very good chance the elevator could be repaired. I am Mayfair drive from you but hennything is possible depending on the financial situation.
Very unusual elevator. I have some questions. 1. Is the car door interlock (it might be called a door restrictor) original to the elevator? If so, is it a purely mechanical device, or an electromechanical device? Is there a gate switch that prevents the elevator from running with the door open? 2. Is there a hoistway door interlock? And does the elevator only run when the hoistway door is closed? 3. Is the elevator chain driven from the rails on the back side? 4. Did you modify the elevator controller (I assume just a few relays) in any way, such as allowing the elevator to go up with 1 pull of the switch instead of holding down the switch? There is another video of one of these where you have to hold the switch down or it will stop mid travel. That one is different from this one, it has a full shaft, and no car door, but the same panel/fixture inside. 5. How is an elevator like this one regulated in Kansas? Does it have to be inspected periodically?
1. The car Door (gate) is equipped with two devices, It has a interrupt circuit switch that will prevent the elevator from running if the gate is not closed, I currently do not have this switch in the circuit but plan to hook it back up, wires are just jumpered at the moment. The second safety function of the gate is a mechanical lock. This lock prevents the door from opening anywhere in the cycle except top or bottom. It is actuated by cams on the track. I added a small pull chain in the car's ceiling to allow a override in the event the car were to get stuck anywhere.2. The upper door has a lock mechanism, I did not have it on yet during the video but its installed now. It is a two function lock. First function is a mechanical lock, it physically wont let the upper door open unless the car is present. This is done by a cam on the car that releases a lock. The second function of this lock is a electrical circuit interrupt. If the door is not closed the elevator is disabled. So basically you cant get in the car and go down unless the upper door is latched.3. It is chain driven from a overhead motor house, there is a square frame assembly on the second floor that is supported by the upper floor, the back wall and the lower floor via the track. I will try to put up a second video this weekend explaining all the mechanical/electrical working of the elevator.4. The unit is factory, they built it with locking relays. I have seen the other video you refer too. That unit is apparently been made to operate by rewiring to manual operation, I am guessing due to lack of knowledge or missing parts. I feel that unit is just the cart and track with a winch or something installed up top to make it work, I assure you that it is not original workings. This elevator is very advanced for its age, it is fully automated with call feature and all, just like a modern elevator. I will include a overview of the motor house electrical set up in the follow up video.5. In my home town there is limited regulations for home personal units, it would be quite different if its was used in a public/commercial/leased situation. This thing has a ton of safety features though, I will try to cover all those in the next video, your going to love it.Its a cool elevator, I am in search for another one, They are tough to find, especially good complete units like this one.
Do you know if they made these without car gates when there is a shaft? Or did the one I saw in the other video formerly have a car gate and they removed it for some reason?
upanddownadventures according to all the research I have done I have never seen them made without doors. I can tell you that the doors if not adjusted properly and dialed in are prone to failure. Took me quite a bit to restore these doors to good working condition. I have collected some original sales advertisement, original sales literature explaining everything about the elevator as well as managed to download the original 1936 patent, everything outlines it with the bi-fold door mechanism. I have seen two other representations of this elevator and have not found one as complete as this one. I got kind of lucky because this elevator was basically taken out of service somewhere in the 70s and just left abandoned. When I removed it I literally removed absolutely every nut bolt screw wire Etc, to include tearing out the door frame original trim and such. The only three items that were missing from mine are the upper wooden cars out panel that goes over the upstairs door, the upper wooden access panel that is on the front top of the car and some sort of adapter for the manual crank. I had to recreate the two wooden panels but as of now can not use the manual crank.
I just absolutely love this elevator and all the features it includes for the time era it was made. It was truly created for a home personal elevator for older people and invalids. From what I understand Shepherd elevator car was purchased by Warner was later acquired by thyssen Corp. If you look at the modern-day thyssen Corp elevators for home personal use they really are not that far away from the design of this unit. Really neat
Did the original installation have no hall stations (call buttons), and thus the elevator could not be called from outside? Or were there originally call buttons and they either were missing, or you didn't use them because they were damaged or replacements? (since I notice you said the call button panels were not original to the elevator). Does the elevator in this video have a single phase AC motor (as 3 phase power would usually not be readily available in single family homes), or a DC motor? I have heard of a large mansion with an antique (early 1930s I think) Otis elevator with swing doors and a gated car door that still exists. I think it might be a commercial elevator installed in a private residence, though there are no machine room photos so very hard to say for sure.
Ok not everyone understands this joke but what I was trying to say is that I, along with many other youtubers, have a pet peeve of when videos are recorded vertically. You probably filmed this on your phone vertically and it just makes the video a real struggle to view since most screens prefer full horizontal filming
ElevatorMan5482 ElevExperiencing Productions oh, gotcha. Yeah, it was on my phone. I actually have another one I need to polish that's down horizontally with all the detail workings and safety features of the elevator, just haven't got it posted yet. Sorry for the vertical film
Oh that's a thing of beauty!! Thanks for posting!
Would love to check this out. Amazing
PAelevators I would be more than happy to show it to you if you are ever in the area.
PAelevators for what it's worth, I also have a 1920 car elevator in my building that I use to put automobiles on the second floor, originally back in the day it was a auto body shop upstairs auto mechanic shop downstairs and showroom in the front
What state you in?
PAelevators I am in Hutchinson Kansas
I LOVED this :) I will have my video up next month.
DieselDucy I'm still waiting for your video, I hadn't forgot. Hopefully when you post it you'll send me a link.
I will :) I just have to get some footage from jason to edit. I am seeing him next month. Hope to post it on my birthday ! :)
I am run a channel geared towards autistic people and my fans would LOVE LOVE this elevator.
DieselDucy let's do it, let me know if you get close to Kansas. I have all the original features on this elevator and they are all operational. In addition to this I have a 1920 purpose-built car elevator you could check out.
Good Stuff!
That is so cool wish I had one in my place!!!
it is so cool and amazing lift inside a room wow surprised i wish i could ride it
Hope you have been doing well! hope to see you again sometime! Come out to VA and ride motorcycles with me sometime!
This is absolutely amazing. I’m envious of you haha
VanLuedewich thank you, I do like it quite a bit, it's a great conversation piece and quite functional.
We have one of these in our home we are remodeling and it has power but does not work. Any information you can provide on this would be amazing and appreciated. We would love to have ours working again and restored/serviced, but we live in a very rural area in southwest kansas and we don't have service companies in our area as there are very few elevators. The closest elevator company would be amarillo, TX or Wichita, KS which is about an 8 hour round trip! I think ours is exactly the same one!
That’s neat! Andrew and Jason Also rode this
He knows. This was taken by the owner.
Beautyful!
That's pretty neat scott
EpicNova thank you
0:33 switches😊😊😊
I will be out there in may. Can you plz email me again, I lost my emails.
Hello, I have a Shepard home lift type 90321 and am trying to restore it. After trying and failing to find wiring schematics I found your videos. If you could please help me that would be great.
I'm looking for one of these... If you hear of one for sale, please give a shout!
I WOULD LOVE to come and see your elevator.
DieselDucy I would love to have you come document it, I have everything 100% working on it as original. While you're here if you want I could show you a 1920 purpose-built car elevator.
Please let me know to contact. i left my email. be willing to make a trip just to see those!!!
DieselDucy I sent you an email with my contact info, if you didn't get it, let me know and I will try again.
DieselDucy did you receive my email
hi scott, we have a similar Shepard elevator in our home. We can't find the year on it! Its got a 500 lbs capacity and same exact door! You don't happen to have the original control buttons do you? One of ours just broke. I'm going to retrofit it, but would have been nice to find the original black ones.
nice!!
Wow, that’s really cool to have an elevator like that at home!
Also, what are you planning to use the second floor for?
Additional living space
I have that same elevator but it stopped working, any ideas what it could be?
Looks like it has been a while since anyone posted, but I have the Shepard in an 1894 home in Redlands, CA. Its currently operating and I'm trying to keep it that way. Any suggestions on expertise in Southern California? I'm just looking for basic maintenance help at this point. Thanks!
Do you work on them still
Hi, Did you replace the motor when you refurbished your elevator? I've been asked to work on one of these that hums but won't move. I suspect the motor needs replacing. Do you have any motor specs or a replacement motor recommendation? If the motor that's in there is original it would have 80 years of wear. There's probably a plate on the old motor in the one I'm attempting to fix but I don't have easy access. I found the hand crank and can lower the car to gain access to the motor but I'm not on site very often. Any sources of parts or hints would be appreciated. Thanks, Tom
Thanks for the video. We just bought a house that has the same one in it and love it. Its working well...or it was. But from the ground floor, when it was coming down, I pressed up on the bottom of the car. The manual i found online says it is the safety platform. It says "slight pressure against the platform when it is descending automatically shuts off power, applies brake and stops car." After that, I could only get the elevator to go up. Do you know if there is something that needs to be reset at the top? Thank you!
We probably need to visit on the phone about it, so I can fully understand what's going on. You can get my contact info off my website, saltycycles.us
@@scotturnot could you please contact me as well? I have the same elevator in the home I purchased it was working when I first bought but I had my dad shut it off at the breaker. 4 years later I decied to try and use it. We turned the power back on. The light inside comes on but the elevator will not move at all. Its stuck on the second level. I have a tri-level home. Any ideas what it could be?
@@scotturnot wyhester@gmail.com
You should show the motor running. Where does the other end of the chsin go?
There are a couple other videos of this where the motor is shown.
Beautiful restoration and installation! We just purchased an 1880's home in NC with a 1942 model HomeLIFT installed. It was working, but has stopped. I have the original manual to guide me in repairs, but it is missing pages 7-10. Any idea where I can locate a copy of these pages? It would appear that these pages may contain diagrams that I could use for understanding the mechanicals of this. Thanks for any guidance you can provide.
Do you know of an online source for the manual? I've been asked to work on one that hums but won't move. I'm thinking about trying to find a replacement motor. A manual, or at least the motor specs would really help. An agricultural high torque, low RPM, motor that runs on 110-120v house current would probably be a suitable replacement.
Answering my own question. Just found this online.
archive.org/details/ShepardHomeLift
Good afternoon Paul this is Randy Woods in Oklahoma just purchased a 1936 Shepherd Home Lift I need electrical drawings and a manual if you have one would be willing to pay you for them if you could scan and email to me please thank you for your time spacesolutionsrandy@gmail.com
I have one bur I need some work on it, do you know anyone?
Hello, I'm restoring the same elevator. Does anyone happen to know where to get parts. I just need the man door "pecker"
Miguel Arroyo not sure what you mean?
We have the exact same elevator. Would you be able to fix ours? We live in Austin TX
Kimberly Hood I am sorry, I just seen this question. I would say there's a very good chance the elevator could be repaired. I am Mayfair drive from you but hennything is possible depending on the financial situation.
Paul Sink, how could I get a copy of your manual? I have a similar homelift also in NC that does not work. Thanks, John
We need to speak, when was the last time it ran
Hi John, I'd be glad to scan and email you a copy of the pages that I have. What is a contact address for you?
Could i also get a copy of the manual, I have one that needs repaired. My number is 321 795 8367 and email is capron2000@yahoo.com
@@paulsink1599 Thanks. Address is jaow@jwebster.org
@@scotturnot about a year ago
What do you do for a living?
douro20 really nice place looks like he does well, I’m guessing he’s out on comp
Very unusual elevator. I have some questions.
1. Is the car door interlock (it might be called a door restrictor) original to the elevator? If so, is it a purely mechanical device, or an electromechanical device? Is there a gate switch that prevents the elevator from running with the door open?
2. Is there a hoistway door interlock? And does the elevator only run when the hoistway door is closed?
3. Is the elevator chain driven from the rails on the back side?
4. Did you modify the elevator controller (I assume just a few relays) in any way, such as allowing the elevator to go up with 1 pull of the switch instead of holding down the switch? There is another video of one of these where you have to hold the switch down or it will stop mid travel. That one is different from this one, it has a full shaft, and no car door, but the same panel/fixture inside.
5. How is an elevator like this one regulated in Kansas? Does it have to be inspected periodically?
1. The car Door (gate) is equipped with two devices, It has a interrupt circuit switch that will prevent the elevator from running if the gate is not closed, I currently do not have this switch in the circuit but plan to hook it back up, wires are just jumpered at the moment. The second safety function of the gate is a mechanical lock. This lock prevents the door from opening anywhere in the cycle except top or bottom. It is actuated by cams on the track. I added a small pull chain in the car's ceiling to allow a override in the event the car were to get stuck anywhere.2. The upper door has a lock mechanism, I did not have it on yet during the video but its installed now. It is a two function lock. First function is a mechanical lock, it physically wont let the upper door open unless the car is present. This is done by a cam on the car that releases a lock. The second function of this lock is a electrical circuit interrupt. If the door is not closed the elevator is disabled. So basically you cant get in the car and go down unless the upper door is latched.3. It is chain driven from a overhead motor house, there is a square frame assembly on the second floor that is supported by the upper floor, the back wall and the lower floor via the track. I will try to put up a second video this weekend explaining all the mechanical/electrical working of the elevator.4. The unit is factory, they built it with locking relays. I have seen the other video you refer too. That unit is apparently been made to operate by rewiring to manual operation, I am guessing due to lack of knowledge or missing parts. I feel that unit is just the cart and track with a winch or something installed up top to make it work, I assure you that it is not original workings. This elevator is very advanced for its age, it is fully automated with call feature and all, just like a modern elevator. I will include a overview of the motor house electrical set up in the follow up video.5. In my home town there is limited regulations for home personal units, it would be quite different if its was used in a public/commercial/leased situation. This thing has a ton of safety features though, I will try to cover all those in the next video, your going to love it.Its a cool elevator, I am in search for another one, They are tough to find, especially good complete units like this one.
Do you know if they made these without car gates when there is a shaft? Or did the one I saw in the other video formerly have a car gate and they removed it for some reason?
upanddownadventures according to all the research I have done I have never seen them made without doors. I can tell you that the doors if not adjusted properly and dialed in are prone to failure. Took me quite a bit to restore these doors to good working condition. I have collected some original sales advertisement, original sales literature explaining everything about the elevator as well as managed to download the original 1936 patent, everything outlines it with the bi-fold door mechanism. I have seen two other representations of this elevator and have not found one as complete as this one. I got kind of lucky because this elevator was basically taken out of service somewhere in the 70s and just left abandoned. When I removed it I literally removed absolutely every nut bolt screw wire Etc, to include tearing out the door frame original trim and such. The only three items that were missing from mine are the upper wooden cars out panel that goes over the upstairs door, the upper wooden access panel that is on the front top of the car and some sort of adapter for the manual crank. I had to recreate the two wooden panels but as of now can not use the manual crank.
I just absolutely love this elevator and all the features it includes for the time era it was made. It was truly created for a home personal elevator for older people and invalids. From what I understand Shepherd elevator car was purchased by Warner was later acquired by thyssen Corp. If you look at the modern-day thyssen Corp elevators for home personal use they really are not that far away from the design of this unit. Really neat
Did the original installation have no hall stations (call buttons), and thus the elevator could not be called from outside? Or were there originally call buttons and they either were missing, or you didn't use them because they were damaged or replacements? (since I notice you said the call button panels were not original to the elevator).
Does the elevator in this video have a single phase AC motor (as 3 phase power would usually not be readily available in single family homes), or a DC motor?
I have heard of a large mansion with an antique (early 1930s I think) Otis elevator with swing doors and a gated car door that still exists. I think it might be a commercial elevator installed in a private residence, though there are no machine room photos so very hard to say for sure.
As cool as this is, apparently vertical video ought to be illegal
ElevatorMan5482 ElevExperiencing Productions I'm not 100% sure I understand what you're saying?
Ok not everyone understands this joke but what I was trying to say is that I, along with many other youtubers, have a pet peeve of when videos are recorded vertically. You probably filmed this on your phone vertically and it just makes the video a real struggle to view since most screens prefer full horizontal filming
ElevatorMan5482 ElevExperiencing Productions oh, gotcha. Yeah, it was on my phone. I actually have another one I need to polish that's down horizontally with all the detail workings and safety features of the elevator, just haven't got it posted yet. Sorry for the vertical film
ok
'