If you have one of those popular 20T hydraulic shop presses, you quickly realize what a pain-in-the-butt lifting and lowering the table can be. This press is usually located in a dark corner of a small room (actually an old horse stable) with limited access, so after I almost dropped one of the big arbor plates on my toe I decided it was time for an upgrade. So this summer I added a winch table lift to Big Orange.
It's a Harbor Freight boat winch with a few garage door pulleys and some scrap angle iron. The winch came with plenty of cable. It's just one cable for both sides, as it's held in place by a bolt through the center of the hub and wound around the winch axle. Obviously the winch just raises and lowers the table, you still need to use the pins.
It was an easy weekend project and well worth the time.