Topic: Building a car rotisserie (Read 23988 times)

DSMR · « **on:** January 27, 2013, 05:41:43 AM »

I have been working on an old Ford truck and really need to get underneath it for patch panels ect. So I decided to build my own rotisserie! You can buy these at over $1k but I am poor white trash and the guy I am building this for wants it done on the cheap. So first thing I did was go to harbor freight and pick up 2 engine stands with coupons. Also picked up some casters. Here is the price break down so far:

Engine stands(x2) $40 with coupons

Casters (2 swivel and 2 straight at 375lb capacity) $18
Shop scrap... Free

The first thing I did was was cut off the piece of the engine stand that is positioned vertical because it will need to be lengthened to get enough room for car bodies and such.

Next I drilled two 1/2" holes in the side of it so it can be taken apart later

The holes are 3.6" apart if anyone wanted to know.

I did the same to the lower bar that slides into it

This shows what it should look like when drilled

There was some 4" sqaure stock laying around that I am going to use as the base. Now this is ENTIRELY OVERKILL! This metal is super beefy but it was scrap so I used it. The main idea of whatever material you use is to make it roughly 5 feet long so the whole damn thing doesn't tip over on you when you try to spin in.

Here is a piece of scrap I used to space the lower part

Here it is welded together

Here are the casters welded together

Here is what I have so far

Now the tricky part to me attaching this monstrosity to the truck cab is that the lower cab mounts are rotted. I found a nice place to attach it where the fender wells are bolted to the cab

Solidworks model was made and converted to .dxf file for plasma CAM

Cut it out from some beefy stock in the scrap pile and it looks like this

Here is what it looks like bolted in

So that is as far as I got today. I will need to make the other side soon and get some more materials to finish the arms to mount everything.

PhilStubbs · « **Reply #1 on:** January 27, 2013, 08:48:27 AM »

Watching this. I have been considering building one lately too

ratcityrex · « **Reply #2 on:** January 27, 2013, 10:42:22 AM »

I've always wanted one. I've seen guys use engine stands before. I would like to know total cost when all done.

PhilStubbs · « **Reply #3 on:** January 27, 2013, 10:58:54 AM »

Are you keeping track of cost?

DSMR · « **Reply #4 on:** January 27, 2013, 01:40:35 PM »

Quote from: PhilStubbs on January 27, 2013, 10:58:54 AM

Are you keeping track of cost?

Yes. I will list what everything cost. It might be misleading because I have already used a lot of scrap and I am going to try and get the rest of the material at a metal scrap yard.

Foowee · « **Reply #5 on:** January 29, 2013, 12:19:35 AM »

For those of us who use our sawzalls for more than just dildos...

http://forums.vwvortex.com/showthread.php?4696591

ratcityrex · « **Reply #6 on:** January 29, 2013, 12:36:07 AM »

Quote from: Foowee on January 29, 2013, 12:19:35 AM

For those of us who use our sawzalls for more than just dildos...

http://forums.vwvortex.com/showthread.php?4696591

I like the wood idea. It's cheap!

DSMR · « **Reply #7 on:** January 29, 2013, 10:01:17 PM »

So I got a little farther today.

Here I cut up a piece of that gangster 4" square stock

Here is the other one with casters

Tomorrow I will be picking up some metal at the scrap yard to finish this

DSMR · « **Reply #8 on:** January 30, 2013, 06:46:09 PM »

Just picked up some metal:

24 feet of 3 inch square stock. One piece of rectangularish channel at ~10ft. This only cost me $5!!!!

PhilStubbs · « **Reply #9 on:** January 31, 2013, 09:08:58 AM »

That's a deal

crxvtec91 · « **Reply #10 on:** January 31, 2013, 10:43:55 AM »

WTF why so cheap!!!!?

??

DSMR · « **Reply #11 on:** January 31, 2013, 12:53:32 PM »

The guy that priced it at the scrapyard seemed to be busy and said $5. I started to explain to him again what I had and he said $5. Not arguing with that haha.

DSMR · « **Reply #12 on:** February 01, 2013, 04:42:44 AM »

So I got a bit farther today. Here is the progress:

Found some 1/2" 13 bolts and luck nuts in the bolt bin. Score

Indexed the vertical piece on the engine stand and drilled some holes

The holes were spaced 6" apart

Because I am balling on a budget here I have to work with this for the vertical piece that needs to be extended

To make up for the gap, I made some stand-offs to get the spacing correct

Now I indexed this piece and drilled some more holes! These were spaced 3" apart so the height can be adjusted

This is where I am at now

More to come

PhilStubbs · « **Reply #13 on:** February 01, 2013, 08:48:01 AM »

Liking this. It's like a good story. I'm waiting for the next post

DSMR · « **Reply #14 on:** February 06, 2013, 01:29:10 AM »

So I am near completion on the rotisserie. Here is how far I made it

The hardest part of welding the vertical piece on is getting everything square. It's close

Here is the first one welded

Same deal for the second one

Ratchet straps are handy to keep everything where you want it after tack welding

Second one done

They are both ready to go

malichite · « **Reply #15 on:** February 06, 2013, 02:48:58 PM »

Quote from: DSMR on February 06, 2013, 01:29:10 AM

What are the projects in the background? More info?

DSMR · « **Reply #16 on:** February 06, 2013, 11:57:28 PM »

The other projects are FSAE chassis build and BAJA SAE chassis build.

crxvtec91 · « **Reply #17 on:** February 07, 2013, 11:43:30 AM »

Damn I like what I see!

DSMR · « **Reply #18 on:** February 17, 2013, 05:06:02 AM »

Got more work done:

It really did not need to be tig welded but with all the weight of the body being on the Z component I thought that I should be safe.

2.75" from center for those who use harbor freight engine stands. 1/2" holes fit great.

Measured out another piece of my $5 stock to connect both stands at the bottom. I am getting close to flipping this upside down.

DSMR · « **Reply #19 on:** March 02, 2013, 02:34:11 AM »

Figured I would show the completion to my $100 rotisserie.

Fixturing everything together was a pain in the ass. It is crazy how old ass tools like plumb bobs work great for stuff like this.

Tacked all that and threw some dookie on it...

I did not take the time to clean the part at all because I was in a hurry.

My buddy was there to help me out though

And Viola! Topsy turvy

Now I am working on this

PhilStubbs · « **Reply #20 on:** March 02, 2013, 08:28:36 AM »

That's awesome. Plumb bobs are one of those things that we will use till humans no longer exist. When I took a machining class, the first project was to make a plumb bob on a lathe.

ratcityrex · « **Reply #21 on:** March 02, 2013, 01:56:45 PM »

Ive used plumb Bob's on every house I've ever built. They work, simple as that.

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Author Topic: Building a car rotisserie (Read 23988 times)