I'm trying to figure out the viability of a project to suspend bicycles from the garage ceiling. What I don't know, however, is how much to worry about the bearing capacity of wood screws to hold a pulley, fairlead, or other device to guide the rope down the wall. An example is something like http://www.ronstan.com/marine/product.asp?ProdNo=RF188 or http://www.landfallnavigation.com/har472.html, which I assume I can mount with a hanger bolt of some sort.
Anyway — let's each bike maxes out at about 30 pounds, which will be a little higher while hoisting. What's the best way to attach something like the pulleys to a stud or rafter? My worry is that this is the worst kind of loading scenario — basically perpendicular to the stud. I can't find any info online about what I can expect from standard screws in framing lumber, though. Would it be necessary to knock out a bit of drywall and attach this kind of stuff to a smallish (maybe 4" wide) panel of plywood? That way I could spread the load across more fasteners in the framing.
If this is a better fit for another SE site, let me know. Engineering seems a lot more exotic than this kind of question…
Best Answer
If you used a set of simple pulleys similar to these:
And then used 5/16" type screw eyes that were inserted into studs or ceiling joists using the proper sized pilot holes:
This should lead to strong and robust bike hoist system.
Open the loop of the screw eye with the aid of a vice to hook the pulley on. Then squeeze the eye shut again using the vice. For pulleys that do not have swivel tops you can set the right direction for rope travel by how you orient the eye when screwing it into the stud.