Belt cover lift struts

[jwmay]

I'm looking for a smart guy to copy . I've got a Grizzly G0705, which is a round column mill/drilling machine. I'm hoping to see an example of a clever contraption to hold the belt cover up out of my way when I need access. I imagined an automobile trunk lift cylinder, but I know I'm not the kind of guy to think that through well enough to make it work. So my best alternative would be to hang an eye bolt in the ceiling above the machine and then run some parachord through it, attached to the lid on one end, and a counter weight on the other. But...I don't like my idea. Since the head goes up and down, the rope would work sometimes and other times the weight would be laying on top of the belt cover. Anybody ever come up with a nice way to retain the belt cover, and have some sort of mechanism to hold it open when you want to?
For clarity, I've got a shelf on the wall behind my machine. The shelf disallows opening the cover fully. I also think letting the belt cover rest on its own metal hinges screwed to plastic is asking for broken plastic. I can cut the shelf, and the problem is solved. I don't want to cut the shelf. And I don't want to remove the belt cover. Any ideas?

 

[Boswell]

how about a hook that is attached to the shelf behind that you can hook on the cover to hold it open when needed?

 

[francist]

This might be asking for trouble inside the compartment with belts, but what about something simple like a stick to hold up the lid?


Oops, heh heh, that won’t won’t work — stick is the wrong way. Would have to lean from front to back so likely right where you want to work.

 

[jwmay]

I'll try both suggestions! I'll even lean the stick each way just to see what happens. Thanks!

 

[Bi11Hudson]

Then there's the idea of removing the hinges and mountin a few tabs along the edge of the cover. Lift the cover off, do what needs doing, and replace the cover.

.

 

[Aukai]

The lightest lift ram will knock you out with that cover.

 

[Boswell]

one more idea is to do it counter weight. This can be very simple as the cover should be relatively light weight. It could be as simple as using a few magnets to hold a some additional weight so that when the cover is in the OPEN position, it wants to stay there and vice-versa

 

[C-Bag]

A brace to hold the belt cover is the first thing I made for this mill.

 

[RJSakowski]

The cover on my RF clone has to be lifted off vertocally to clear the column and drawbar. Also, since there is no spindle lock, the cover has to be lifted so that I can buck up with the pulley when tightening/loosening the drawbar.

My cover came off shortly after I bought my mill and has been sitting in another room for the past forty years. The pulleys are normally above head height and there is virtually zero chance of accidentally or unintentionally getting my fingers where they don't belong. If I had long hair, it might be a different story but the wife insists that I keep what remains short.

 

[MrWhoopee]

Arm across top of cover perpendicular to and extending outward over the hinge side with a weight attached? Counter-weight without cord or pulley(s).