EZ Builds A Rotisserie

[EZ]

Well I've completely run out of room in my garages so I thought I'd build a rotisserie so I could get my Cadillac body down off the wooden supports I built and take it outside. That will free up half of one garage for painting or building the motor or whatever, I can walk under the body but I have to stoop over and the whole thing just takes up a lot of room!

I also have decided that my back is not going to let me sit under the body and work over my head to remove the under coating, clean and paint the bottom of the car. With the rotisserie I can flip the car upside down or on it's side and work comfortably.

I've looked at rotisseries on several different web sites to see what features I want to incorporate in mine. I'm taking the best from each one. The first thing I'm doing is using 3/16" thick steel tube. The cheaper rotisseries are 1/8" thick and will not support very much weight. Also the 1/8" thick square tubing does not fit inside the next bigger size very well. There is WAY too much "slop". The 3/16" thick square tube slides together nicely with just enough gap but not too much. The pieces slide in and out real EZ.

My rotisserie will be rated at 3000 lbs. but will probably be able to hold twice that much weight. I know it sounds like over kill but when picking up a 20 foot long Cadillac frame and body the rotisserie better be pretty stout. Those Chinese rotisseries just won't cut it!!!

I'll have four 4" casters on each end of the rotisserie. Each caster will swivel and is rated at 800 lbs. each. I doubt I'll ever have 3200 lbs on either end of this thing but I wanted the casters to roll easily and not be in a bind. Here again there are cheaper casters out there but a 300 lb. Harbor Freight caster just isn't what I wanted. If I was only going to pick up an 800 lb. Camaro body it would be different. A lot of those lifts you see at the car shows are only built to handle that much weight but if you put a REAL car on it then you start having problems.

As you can see I'm using my scissor lift as a work table. I cut a piece of 3/4" plywood for a top. I'm using a 4' level to make sure everything is perfectly level before I weld anything in place. So far it's working very well. BTW..........does that look like $500 worth of steel laying in the driveway?? OUCH!!!

I'll post some pics now and update as I go along................

[EZ]

Here's a few more pictures of what I've gotten accomplished. I'm working in 95-100 degree heat and it's about to kill me!! Even the steel is too hot to hold without gloves on...........before welding on it!!!

"EZ"

[EZ]

My welding is getting much better! I really like my new Lincoln 180C 220V welder. I learned on my Father-in-Laws 115V Miller and the difference is amazing. The 220V really makes a difference. It burns into the metal so much EZer and faster it's like night and day difference. I'm just hoping I can dial this machine down enough to do sheet metal work too.

I got the 3 Ton ram mounted today so I could see how high the mast will raise. Looks like I'm going to have 45" of hight which will allow me to turn a 90" wide body on it's side and still clear the base. For reference my '66 Cadillac body is only about 76" wide. With the mast all the way up I still have 12" of overlap on the main post so it's very stable.

I made the rotisserie so that when not in use I can unbolt everything and stand it up against the wall and it will take up very little room. I'm using all grade 8 hardware so it's tough as nails. I'm going to put a couple of grease fittings on the side of the round pipe where it rotates. I think a little grease will help it be a little smoother with all the weight on it.

"EZ"

[EZ]

I'll be able to get a lot more done tomorrow after I get back from a friend's mothers funeral. It's going to be almost 100 degrees again. Holy cow did I complain when it was cold?? Shame on me!! I'm really disappointed that I didn't get my casters this week too. I am just about ready to get them mounted. I don't want to mount them just under the base because although they are 4" swivel casters the mounting height is 5.75" high. So I'm going to have to make them kind of "underslung" to keep the center of gravity as low as possible.

More pics later!

"EZ"

[Darius]

Well I've completely run out of room in my garages so I thought I'd build a rotisserie so I could get my Cadillac body down off the wooden supports I built and take it outside. That will free up half of one garage for painting or building the motor or whatever, I can walk under the body but I have to stoop over and the whole thing just takes up a lot of room!

I also have decided that my back is not going to let me sit under the body and work over my head to remove the under coating, clean and paint the bottom of the car. With the rotisserie I can flip the car upside down or on it's side and work comfortably.

I've looked at rotisseries on several different web sites to see what features I want to incorporate in mine. I'm taking the best from each one. The first thing I'm doing is using 3/16" thick steel tube. The cheaper rotisseries are 1/8" thick and will not support very much weight. Also the 1/8" thick square tubing does not fit inside the next bigger size very well. There is WAY too much "slop". The 3/16" thick square tube slides together nicely with just enough gap but not too much. The pieces slide in and out real EZ.

My rotisserie will be rated at 3000 lbs. but will probably be able to hold twice that much weight. I know it sounds like over kill but when picking up a 20 foot long Cadillac frame and body the rotisserie better be pretty stout. Those Chinese rotisseries just won't cut it!!!

I'll have four 4" casters on each end of the rotisserie. Each caster will swivel and is rated at 800 lbs. each. I doubt I'll ever have 3200 lbs on either end of this thing but I wanted the casters to roll easily and not be in a bind. Here again there are cheaper casters out there but a 300 lb. Harbor Freight caster just isn't what I wanted. If I was only going to pick up an 800 lb. Camaro body it would be different. A lot of those lifts you see at the car shows are only built to handle that much weight but if you put a REAL car on it then you start having problems.

As you can see I'm using my scissor lift as a work table. I cut a piece of 3/4" plywood for a top. I'm using a 4' level to make sure everything is perfectly level before I weld anything in place. So far it's working very well. BTW..........does that look like $500 worth of steel laying in the driveway?? OUCH!!!

I'll post some pics now and update as I go along................

EZ,

Beautiful Work!

d

[dave brode]

Very nice.

If I may give input, I am leery of the welded nut for locking the head into place. I have an engine stand made that way. The stands with a pin that drops through a drilled hole work nicer.

After time, the pipe gets distorted. The end of the bolt also gets torn up, and does not want to turn in the nut.

Dave

[Maddog]

Very nice work indeed. Second the bolt with locked nut...

Maddog

[EZ]

The welded nuts and the jamb bolt wasn't my first choice. I wanted to buy 3.5" and 3.0" x 3/16" thick round TUBE but the steel supplier I used didn't have it. They had schedule 40 steel PIPE which had the same wall thickness but the dimensions were different. When you put the smaller pipe inside the bigger pipe it didn't fit like a glove like the TUBE does. It was a little sloppy. There was about 1/8" difference so the round 20 position stop wheel I purchased (pictured below) won't work because the inside pipe sets kinda low so the holes won't line up right. I may screw around with it and try to make it work but I paid almost $100 for the 20 position stop wheel and a bunch of gussets and stuff that were all laser cut and I didn't want to mess any of it up so I could return it and get a refund. I may change my mind.

Thanks for the input though. Unfortunately you're confirming what I already thought. I may have to change the design. We'll see.

[dave brode]

The nicer engine stands that I have are drilled, so a pin will drop through a hole in the stationary piece, down into the rotating pipe at various positions. The rotating pipe on thses probably has 8 holes, but you might do with 4?

Dave
.

[76FleetBrougham]

I'll go ahead and admit.. I might have to copy/ beg you for my detailed info later. very nice work.

[EZ]

The best part of my design is that I can disassemble it and stack it along the back wall in my garage when not in use. It will only take up a space about 60" wide and 6" deep. (There is one peice that is 2"x2"x10' that I'll have to lay along the base of the wall or stand up in the corner.) This is a great improvement over the designs of my two engine stands and my cherry picker that seem to take up half the garage!!!!

"EZ"

[gary kosier]

EZ,

Make some bronze bushings for the swivel tube make a shim to go around the inner pipe. Otherwise, it will always
be a PITA to rotate. You've done such a nice job so far, don't let a little detail ruin it.

Gary Kosier

[61cadman]

EZ you have good ideas and do good work. Here is a link click on the pictures there are 6 pages. Even though you are well on your way to building yours and have been given many good suggestions on this post you might still find something useful. By the way your welds look fine and I am glad to hear you stepped up to a 220V welder for your project it does make a difference. Looking foward to seeing the finished product.

Todd

http://www.accessiblesystems.com/bul/bul.php

[Ted in Olympia]

I think the welds look very professional.

TED

[EZ]

Thanks for the input guys! I really appreciate it. I may have to look into the bronze bushing idea. That might just work. I have already been to accesible systems website. If I were going to BUY a rotisserie it would be theirs!!!

As I put this thing together I have already found a couple of things that need to be modified. I'm trying to take care of them as I go. I sure wish my casters would hurry up and get here!!! I need them so I can decide how I'm going to mount them.

"EZ"

[EZ]

Here's a few more pics of the rotisserie project. I've got the cross beam and attachment arms completed now.
I will have to make a couple of attachment adaptors for various attachment situations on different cars and trucks but the arms I made will work on most cars. I added a couple of grease fittings to the rotation cylinders. I figured grease would make it EZer to rotate the car. I also added a couple braces to the cross beam as this is where the most stress will be from the weight of the car. I added a little round piece of pipe to hold the handle of the jack to keep it from getting in the way. It's the little things that make a piece of equipment work well.

"EZ"

[EZ]

Here's a few more pics.............

[EZ]

Let me go ahead now and admit that I made a mistake when building this rotisserie. But it was nothing that couldn't be fixed with a welder and a grinder and a 1/2" drill. As you can see in the first picture I drilled the holes for the clamp plates the same width as the holes for the base. Then when I went to rotate the T-Bar it slipped cockeyed in between the bolts of the clamp plates. So I had to re-drill the holes, then weld up the old holes and grind it smooth. So if you are going to build one of these things make sure you drill the holes so the bolts are up against the sides of the 2.5" square pipe of the T-Bar. The reason I made it like this is so that I have infinate adjustment up and down of the T-Bar rather than a hole every 3" up the side of the post like some rotisseries have. This makes it much easier to balance the car when it's on the rotisserie.

Another design MUST is to make sure your front base leg goes out as far as the arms do for the attachment point. If the front base leg is too short the rotisserie will be very nose heavy. With the car on it I've seen people be able to stick their hands under the rear caster because the rotisserie was tilted forward so much. This could really damage your body or frame.

The last picture is one of the casters I used. It is a 4" diameter 2" wide phenolic wheel with a grease fitting and a brake. The caster has a 5/8" king pin and ball bearings for the swivel mechanism. These casters are rated at 800 lbs EACH. I doubt I'll ever have 3200 lbs on each end of this rotisserie but I wanted casters that would roll easily and not fail if over loaded. I think these will do just fine! I bought these from Ed @ SES Casters. Phone: 781-826-8044
ed@stanleysmithco.com. Most places wanted almost $20 for these but SES sells them for $10.95 for the ones without the brake and $12.95 for the ones WITH the brake. I bought 4 of each.

[EZ]

I finally got my casters and have welded the front legs in place so I could begin to mount them. Most rotisseries I've seen have only ONE caster on the front of the rotisserie but lets think about that for a moment shall we? When you have a car raised up in the air and turned sideways where is all the weight? That's right! All the weight is over that front caster so I decided to use TWO 800 lb. casters. Even when loaded this thing will be real EZ to roll around. I gaurentee it!

As you can see I made extendable legs for the rear casters in case I needed to get a little wider profile for a real heavy car or a real wide one like my '66 Cadillac. I made the base 60" wide but it will now extend out to as wide as 80".

The last couple of pictures show how it'll look when hooking to a frame. This rotisserie will pick up a car or frame as low as 15" off the ground which happens to be jack stand height.

More pictures later!

"EZ"

[EZ]

I'm almost finished with my rotisserie. I have the "balancer" welded in place and it works beautifully. The long threaded rod will enable me to "balance" the car on the rotisserie so that it will be possible to turn the car over with one hand. The car will also stay put on it's own when balanced even without tightening the pressure screws. To raise the cross bar in a hurry you can also use an impact gun as seen in the picture below. This is faster than cranking with a box end wrench or using a hand ratchet. The last picture is demonstrating how I can take the unit apart and store it up against the wall when not in use. It will take up very little room. I sure wish my cherry picker and engine stands were made this way!

Today I'm working on sanding and cleaning the rotisserie so I can shoot some paint on it. More pics to follow.........

"EZ"