On several vehicles pushing on the parking brake once puts it on, push on it again and it releases.  I don’t know how that works.

I’d like to make a lift for my work bench that works the same way.  I saw a Rigid table saw at Home Depot that lifted by stepping on a pedal.  When you stepped again it released.  I looked under it and the mechanism was enclosed so I couldn’t see how it worked.

I would like to keep all this, what I call clean.  I have seen a number of methods on the Internet involving levers and pieces of wood with hinges but I don’t like that look.

My proposed method would be a rod setting in bearings on the legs, 2 casters welded to the rod, a foot pedal welded to the rod and a bracket that attached a rod going to the other end of the bench.  If the bench proves too heavy then I’d simply duplicate the setup on both ends and forego the connecting rod.

Below is a poor graphic of my concept.

I’d like to know how I could design a simple mechanism that would lock and unlock.

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

(lift.jpg)

lift.jpg (27KB - 32 downloads)