Self adjusting elevator

A weight responsive elevator frame for a storage cabinet having a vertical recess in which the frame is horizontally disposed, the frame being moveable upwardly in the recess as the weight thereon is reduced and vice versa, the frame having a cable extending substantially vertically upwardly from near each corner thereof and each connected at the upper end to a stationary anchor point in the cabinet near the upper end of the recess, a wind up cylinder carried by the frame and about which cylinder the cables are entrained in one and the same circumferential direction and to which the other ends of the cables are connected, a shaft in the frame on which the cylinder is rotatably supported, a torsion spring in the cylinder having one end connected to the shaft and the other end connected to the cylinder, the shaft having means on at least one end engageable from outside the frame for adjusting the angular position of the shaft in the frame, a ratchet wheel on the shaft, pawl means on the frame engaging said ratchet wheel to hold the shaft against the bias of the biasing spring, means biasing said pawl means toward operative engagement with said ratchet wheel, a lever element fixed to said pawl means for selectively disengaging said pawl means from said ratchet wheel, and means for connecting said lever element to the frame when the pawl means is in shaft holding engagement with said ratchet wheel.