Day 99- "Kindly step all the way in please and make room for everyone. There's no turning back now"

Well Ghouls, I think it's about time we stayed focused and got some things done...like the entire elevator base! Yes, we really put on the ghoul cap today and cranked. Probably the countdown getting below the 3 digit mark was part of it! But seriously, I don't know if any of you have this problem: you get into the garage or wherever your haunt is going to be and it's just so totally overwhelming thinking about all the stuff you need to get done that it basically immobilizes you! You have to have a specific task list going into that day or hour or however much time you are going to spend and don't get yourself sidetracked thinking about other stuff. That's what we were able to do today! So now down to business. The elevator is not a new concept. We are modifying the design for our specific needs. As you can see you start with a support base that has 4 bolts on the corners that will go through the actual floor and will allow the floor to flex maybe a couple millimeters..not that much because you don't want it to feel like a trampoline. We might have to adjust the number of springs and other features to get it to feel just right but here is what I think should work. The first layer contains the countersunk 3/8" by 6" bolts. I used a 1/4" speed bore and went down probably about 1/4 inch, just deep enough to countersink the bolt heads, then I press fit the heads in there. The 4 bolts sit on the 2x4's on both sides of the floor. You can see the bottom 2x4's are broken up into segments. This was just because it was easier to get them to line up with the bolt holes. We then closed the gaps with scrap 2x2's once we had the full length 2x4 on top. The second layer you can see has the full length 2x4's overlying the base and the bolts go through those. The second layer also has the 2x4's running horizontally and braced to the sides. The pictures are more or less self explanatory. Finally I added the valve springs. These are 1 1/4" wide and close to 1.5 inch high. They come in boxes of 12 so I decided to use them all fairly regularly spaced out as you can see. Again using a 1.25 speed bore and drilling down 1/4". They actually sit in there very securely!
The final result is shown and now we are ready to build the floor which will overlay the structure shown here!