bracket for top of ship's ladder

[Joel Mumford]

The loft in my barn is accessed by a 2ft square opening framed by 2x10s. I have a 10ft ship's ladder for access from the barn floor ( barn floor to ceiling is 9 feet). I want to fabricate a bracket on each side of the top end so the ladder will move from 90deg. upright against the wall to its usable position at an angle to the wall. The ladder was fabricated to lie at 22deg. from the wall. The top sides and bottom ends are cut to that angle to both lie flush with the floor and the 2x10 at the back-side of the loft opening. The bracket would allow positioning for climbing up and anchor it at that point and allow return to vertical against wall for best use of space.

I can envision a sort of bracket that has a heavy steel rod through two sides of the square-opening and mating with a steel bracket that is slotted to allow the rod to run with it, and this slotted-channel then secured to each side of the ladder. Cannot quite picture how this slotted bracket on each side of the ship's ladder would be positioned or how much play there has to be between the steel rod and the slotted-channel to allow free movement as it goes from vertical to its final position. The ladder starts from vertical upright against the wall, and then the top end has to move both downward and inward to its final position 22deg from the vertical but now flush with back wall of ceiling opening while the bottom footing of ladder ends up about 18in. out from the back wall.

Anyone fabricated such a mechanism? A commercial ladder firm has something similar but not quite adaptable to my particular situation--and they charge $500 for one bracket! I can do a lot of welding for that price.

Appreciate your suggestions.

[Scott T Smith]

Joel, offhand I think that I would build a dual bracket system. Bracket "a" bolts onto the side of your wall right below your loft opening. It's about 30" wide and made from 1/4" x 2" flat bar stock. I would determine how far away from the bracket that the ladder needed to be, and then make a spacer that was tapped in the middle for a bolt. On the other end I would make a hook to catch the ladder mount. See drawing below.

Scott

268492

[Joel Mumford]

Scott,

Thanks for idea, I would never have thought of storing the ladder horizontally. I guess I should have posted a picture of my setup as it would worth a lot of words. My ship's "ladder" is really heavy and more a set of stairs than a ladder with round rungs. The ship's ladder is 5/4 red oak, the sides are 8" wide and the rungs are actually steps 6" wide (10 steps in total). So in storage-mode it seems most practical for it to rest vertically against the back wall with the top end up into the loft opening, and then swing out and down to about 22deg. from vertical in position to be able to climb up the "ladder"---but be secrured at that angle by the bracket at the top-end in the loft opening and not slip downwards.

I would need a winch to hoist it up horizontal for storage---although that would give me more space on floor of barn with all my equipment in there! Interesting idea and your drawing is great. Thanks, I appreciate your taking time to offer a solution.

[Scott T Smith]

Joel, instead of winching it up vertical, using my design what about simply pivoting the base of the ladder a couple of feet to the right and then walking the base over next to the wall, and set it back down? It should stay there w/o any additional support required.

You would need to build the bracket so that the hook that supports the right side of the ladder at the top was positioned so that the ladder wouldn't hit it when pivoted right.

[ray hampton]

Scott,

Thanks for idea, I would never have thought of storing the ladder horizontally. I guess I should have posted a picture of my setup as it would worth a lot of words. My ship's "ladder" is really heavy and more a set of stairs than a ladder with round rungs. The ship's ladder is 5/4 red oak, the sides are 8" wide and the rungs are actually steps 6" wide (10 steps in total). So in storage-mode it seems most practical for it to rest vertically against the back wall with the top end up into the loft opening, and then swing out and down to about 22deg. from vertical in position to be able to climb up the "ladder"---but be secrured at that angle by the bracket at the top-end in the loft opening and not slip downwards.

I would need a winch to hoist it up horizontal for storage---although that would give me more space on floor of barn with all my equipment in there! Interesting idea and your drawing is great. Thanks, I appreciate your taking time to offer a solution.

A winch is one idea but a counter-weight will work if the space are available