Part 4 of the Garage Wall Project Build
Making It Secure
The basics of the wall are now completed. But as of now, there isn’t a permanent latch to hold it into the ceiling, and it folds down to the 15° angle, and that is it. And it’s not braced at that angle, so if you climb too high, it will start to fold back up! So, I added two support braces that are also hinged, so they fold up into the ceiling, then fold down and lock into the structure with pins, bracing the wall at 15°, 45° or 50°! I also fabricated some brackets to provide additional support where the wall attaches to the ceiling joist, so that all the weight isn’t supported by just the hinges when the wall is in use.
I also needed to add a couple detachable extension panels to extend the wall a bit further down, and add a kick plate on the left side. I didn’t design the wall with these permanently attached for both height clearance issues, and to leave an area exposed in the garage ceiling where I have a shop light mounted.

This piece of sheet metal I had lying around from some shelving is about to be transformed into a bracket for locking the wall in place

The bracket was drilled with keyholes so it slides into place and registers into two locking pins. This bracket is designed to take the weight off the hinges when the wall is used in the 15 degree position. I created a bracket for the other wide of the wall that provides similar support for the 45 and 50 degree positions.

A simple swiveling mechanism locks the wall in place against the ceiling, keeping it out of the way when not in use

Here you can see the wall locked in at 50°, and also the hole that would be used when setting the wall at 45°. To lock the wall in place, a bolt simply slides into the appropriate hole on each side of the wall.