# Forum Home Renovation Landscaping, Gardening & Outdoors  Renovating an old hills hoist

## Ned

G'day all, 
Over the weekend I decided to modify and relocate the old hills hoist that was smack bang in the middle of the back yard - a bit of an eyesore and preventing me from having backyard cricket matches over the summer. 
The existing line was over 5 metres in diameter which was a bit excessive for our needs and for the new spot I wanted to move it to, so I also decided to trim it down to a bit under 4.5 metres in diameter. It didn't look too complicated, but did a search on this forum to see if there were any tips or tricks, with none found, so I did what any red blooded aussie would do and had a go. The following is a description of what it entailed in case anyone is wanting to tackle the same thing in the future. I'm not a tradie so not the best on technical language and names of things but I hope it all makes sense. 
The first thing is - while it isn't difficult, it isn't a one person job, I commandeered my wife to help out. 
In addition to the four horizontal arms that have the clothes line threaded through, there are also four supports that are attached at or around the end of each arm, with the other end of the support connected to the very top of the hoist. It was these support arms that I had to remove, make shorter and reattach before I could trim each of the horizontal arms. 
The support arms were attached with a single bolt and nut at each end. At the top of the hoist (ladder required) there is a metal fitting with four slots into which each end of the support arms is recessed and secured by a vertical bolt which goes through the top of the fitting, into a hole in the support arm and out through the bottom hole of the fitting - the whole thing is then tightened up with a nut attached to bolt (of course). 
At the other end each support arm was attached to the horizontal arm with a bolt running perpendicular and horizontally, through the support arm end which was basically a male/female type fitting arrangement. 
Of course after years of exposure to the elements - all the nuts and bolts were rusted and despite a good spray of WD40 the night before tackling the job, they refused to budge - not a good start and bloody typical I thought to myself. They did not refuse my angle grinder.  
Note - after removing the bolts from one of the support arms I then had to go to the local hardware store to get replacements (taking the originals with me). Rather than leave my wife standing there (yeah right) holding up the horizontal arm (which now had no support), I stuck a couple of sturdy nails in as a temporary measure until returning with the new ones. 
Once I had new hardware, it was then a case of removing the support arm, shortening it and putting it back up. Couple of things to watch out for here. 
My hoist had a series of upside down u-shaped metal fitting attached at regular intervals along the top of each of the horizontal arms - these provide the fixture for the wire clothes line to run through. There was an additional one of these on each arm which was specifically for the support arm to attach to - exactly the same as the others, however no clothes wire ran through it.  
To reduce the diameter of my hoist I was going to remove about 60cm off the end of each horizontal arm, and the bit I was going to remove included the fitting where the support arm attached. This mean't that each support arm would need to be attached to one of the fittings with the clothes line running through it - so this was the point that the measurement had to be taken from to work out how much I needed to cut off the support arm. 
To do this I stood on a ladder at the centre of the hoist, while my wife had the unsupported horizontal arm on her shoulder while she place the support arm on it's new fitting location. I then marked off the other end at the top of the hoist. There are two things to be careful off here. The first is that you need to make sure you allow for the length of the support arm that is recessed into the fitting at the top of the hoist (about 20 - 25mm) - if you don't the support arm will obviously be too short and much swearing with result. The second is to make sure your helper lifts the horizontal arm back up to it's original position (rather than it resting on their shoulder, which would mean your measurement would be too long). 
The next bit is easy - once you've marked off your cut line, remove the support arm, put it in a vice, cut it to length with an angle grinder with a metal cutting blade - or a hacksaw - while your helper rests the horizontal arm on their shoulder and hums a tune. 
To reattach the support arm you will also need to drill a new vertical hole for the bolt that will sucure it to the fitting at the top of the hoist. I climbed up the ladder again with the support arm, my wife slotted it on the fitting on the horizontal arm while it was resting on her shoulder (i.e slightly below horizontal), I then fitted my end of the support arm into the recessed slot in at the top of the hoist and then asked my wife to lift the horizontal arms back up to horizontal again. I could then use the existing bolt hole in the fitting to mark the spot for the new hole location to be drilled in the support arm - I then removed the support arm again, put it in a vice, and drilled the new hole. 
On the home stretch now - gave my wife the bolt and nut for her end of the support arm, took mine, with the support arm up the ladder (again) secured both ends of the support arm, then repeated all of the above three more times. 
Finally with all support arms shortened and reattached, it was then a 5 minute job to measure, mark and cut 60cm off each of the four horizontal arms with the angle grinder. I tried to get new end caps from the hardware store with no luck, have fitted grey plastic stoppers in the interim pending getting onto the hills company to see if they still produce them. 
This took about half a day - the other half taken up by digging up the concrete pyramid that was used to keep the clothesline steady all these years. No tricks to that ! 
With the exception of having to cut the original bolts off with an angle grinder, the rest of the job was pretty easy and without any hitches - which was unexpected, but very welcome. Hope this helps anyone looking to do the same sometime.

----------


## flang51

We need a photo please!! :Biggrin:

----------


## Compleat Amateu

Remind me again why you did it?  Cost or effort saving?  I got tired reading through the thread! 
I love these jobs that get a bit outta hand and just need 2-3 trips to hardware store for bits to fix the problem ..... always a way of saving money ..not ...

----------


## Ned

Did it cos we couldn't afford to buy a new one. There was nothing wrong with the existing hoist apart from it's location, and being a bit bigger than what I needed for putting in the new spot. It was a bit of stuffing around for half a day, but cost me $30 including a couple of bags of concrete.

----------


## piscean

it sounds like a great bit of aussie ingenuity  :2thumbsup: 
I hate the throwaway society we've become so why not  I say  
we removed our rotary (we had a paralline as well so we didnt need it). I cut out some shadecloth and hand stitched it on (with a nail that DH fashioned into a big needle for me)  and we put it in near the pool as an umbrella. Only problem is it was some cheap type and not a genuine hills so during a storm it bent over  :Rolleyes:  
DH straighten it back up and tied some star pickets to it but it still makes a great umbrella   :Biggrin:   and cost next to nothing to make

----------


## pawnhead

Good job Ned. I cut mine down as well but it wasn't as involved what your job entailed. It just required cutting the outriggers back to the next line, and the braces didn't have to be moved. Now if I could only fix the wind-up mechanism. I'll have to open up that wind-up box and have a look at it one of these days. It may be something that I can fix, but then again, it's probably a broken cog wheel or some such, that I won't be able to get parts for.  :Rolleyes:

----------


## Ned

Appreciate the comments everyone. John, if you get around to looking at the wind up problem and it is an issue to get a replacement part let me know - both my neighbours are renovating and planning on getting rid of their old hoists at some stage so I might be able to canabilise something for you. A friend had what sounds like the same problem where he could turn the handle but the hoist wouldn't extend so it was really low - he didn't exactly solve the problem, but raised the level of the hoist permanently by lifting the whole top section of the hoist out and sticking a piece of wood in the barrel then putting the top section back in. Not elegant but effective. 
Sorry flang51 no photos available.

----------


## pawnhead

> he didn't exactly solve the problem, but raised the level of the hoist permanently by lifting the whole top section of the hoist out and sticking a piece of wood in the barrel then putting the top section back in. Not elegant but effective..

  I drilled a couple of holes in the pipe of the top section, and I just lift it by hand and insert a 3" nail in the hole to stop it sliding down. The lowest hole gets it up high and right out of the way if I'm having a backyard barbie, and the next hole up is a good height for the girls to reach, so so the broken winder's not really a big issue, but thanks for the offer of spare parts anyway.  :2thumbsup:  
 Although I still might have a look at it one day. It might be something simple. Lots of other priorities before I get to that though.

----------


## chipps

> This took about half a day - the other half taken up by digging up the concrete pyramid that was used to keep the clothesline steady all these years. *No tricks to that* !

  Still got my post in concrete, approx 600mm across the top. 
Roughly how deep did they plant these things & how the stuff did you dig it out  :Cry:  
Was thinking of hiring a kanga gun, breaking it up into managable bits. 
BTW, the hoist was a monster, undid the 4 bolts on the winder  :No:  & it slowly fell sideways onto my head as I crumpled under its weight  :Roll Eyes (Sarcastic):

----------


## pawnhead

> BTW, the hoist was a monster, undid the 4 bolts on the winder  & it slowly fell sideways onto my head as I crumpled under its weight

   :Shock: 
So you found out the hard way, that it's a two man job.  :Biggrin:

----------


## piscean

> it slowly fell sideways onto my head as I crumpled under its weight

  LOL, god that sounded funny  :Biggrin:  
they really went all out with the concrete on these, ours had a huge lump of it so it wasnt easy to get out, we just kept digging and from memory there was sledge hammer involved once we dug it up   :Biggrin:

----------


## chipps

Yup!!! 
Funny thing is, the post has water in it & a family of treefrogs, plus it's perfect size & height for a stubby to sit when gardening  :Biggrin:

----------


## China

pawnhead all the parts you will need are available from Hiils Industries you can buy a service kit, the main thing that stops it winding up is the inner standard, (I think that is the name) the bottom section rusts away, this part is available separate you don't need to buy the kit

----------


## pawnhead

Thanks for that China. I'll keep that in mind.  :2thumbsup:

----------


## Ned

Chipps, my neighbour reckoned that the size of the hole used to concrete the hoist was an indication of the man who did it. Read into that what you will - I'm glad the bloke who did mine either got a bit lazy or did a bit of thinking about what he needed to do.  
There was a fair bit of concrete on mine, fortunetely it was a bit like an upside down pyramid, which was easier to destroy than a solid 400 - 500mm deep lump might have been. Basically after I dug around it I used my hammer drill with a 12mm bit to drill holes in lines along the concrete, then used a small sledge and a cold chisel to split it into smaller lumps. Once I had the majority of it off I could drag it out of the hole and drop it in the new one. I'm sure there are easier ways to do it, but this method seemed pretty effective in my situation. 
Ned

----------


## chipps

> my neighbour reckoned that the size of the hole used to concrete the hoist was an indication of the man who did it. 
> Ned

  Don't you love people that talk _s.h.i.t.e_  :Wink:  
Mind you, we are dumb enough to stand there & listen to it ...........just to be neighbourly  :Roll Eyes (Sarcastic):  
Sounds like a dig for past owners manhood is on the cards then.........             
with a Kanga  :2thumbsup:  
Cheers for the reply
Cam

----------


## miniminimaniac

Enjoyed the read everyone. We'll be moving in a year or so around the corner when we've finished building. The wife has already stated that the Hills hoist is going with us. It's in pretty good nick, mechanism still works. The notches that engage when you wind it fully down have worn away - no doubt from the previous owners young boys!
Figured I should do some maintenance to keep it working:
Anyone able to offer some advice. My main question is what sort of lubricant should I be putting in it and where? Grease seems the obvious choice given the origins of the hills hoist, but can't help think that grease and clothes don't mix well. Any suggestions?

----------


## China

just put few drops of oil in the hole marked oil on the front housing, if has problems the pull it apart and replace the warn bits (you can buy a repair kit) you will most likely find that the inner standard needs replacing it will be as good as new the parts are available from Hills, Lonsdale/Richmond. ( they are no longer on South road).

----------


## Wendywoo

I dont want to take out a rotary clothesline permanently - but take it out temporarily.  Have had these suggestions - a) cut the pole off at ground level then when it is time to replace it put a sleeve in and join the two bits together; b) take clothesline apart just under the winding handle so there is about 1 metre of pole left, then reattach later (would this mess up the winding action?).  Any suggestions appreciated.

----------

