Currently, it is a huge production to get the doors opened and closed. Both doors must be held while they are put down, and physically pushed up to get them closed. The door on the left (the smaller) will stay up; the door on the right (the biggin) must have the rope tied in order for it to stay securely up. The ropes are tied to the eye-hook, which goes up to a fixed pulley (here’s a mighty close picture), which then goes through a hole in the wall where it ties to the ladder. So all the work getting the doors up and down is done by people; the ropes are there to keep the doors from falling down. It’s a bang-up setup we have going.
Does anyone have any suggestions on improving the current setup we have? Physics was never my strength, so I’m at a loss. I’d like something a bit safer (we’ve had two people get hit by the door), a bit more user friendly, and relatively period.
And having read the WHOLE post and seen the picture, I reiterate that a hand crank placed about hip high against the wall would make the whole operation easier.
If mounted on the wall, the crank shouldn’t pose a problem for traffic. As for period authenticity, the only suggestions I can give are use that coarse rope, maybe paint it flat black or something that would either A) not stand out or B) resemble wrought iron.
A hand cranked winch is not really different from a windlass on an arbalest. Mask off the internal bits that actually do the work, so you don’t gunk them up, and like feppytweed suggested, paint it flat black. Wrap the plastic handle with cord or something to cover up the material. Viola, period-ish windlass.
Alternatively, you could hang some cloth to cover them during the day. Wall hangings are definitely period.
I was gonna say, real drawbridges are generally linked to the portcullis so that when one went up, the other went down and they served as each other’s counterweights. Not feasible in your case.
