Rotisserie Build. Will it hold together?

[Rice Nuker]

Got my bases done, built one upright. Made where the base and upright will separate. After uprights is rotator heads. Going to put 6 pneumatic casters on it, each rated at 350#. So I can go offroading and drag my rotisserie.

So, the pipe is oil well casing 3/16 wall. The angle iron is 3/16. The gussets are 3/16. The square tubing upright is 3/16 wall. The flat pads for casters are 3/16.

The upright is attached to the base with 7/16 grade 8 bolts (6 per upright) the base is tapped for the bolts.

My main concern, is the attachment by bolts threads, i believe.
They grab 3 threads each, in the pipe.

Its for my Duster.

.

 

[roughidle]

If you're hell bent on using bolts and not welding to the bases, I would suggest going through both walls of the tubing and throw a nut on the bottom. I can't say I would trust just tapping through the top wall of a 3/16 tube. Just my .02.

 

[Rice Nuker]

Oh yea, good idea. Thanks! That will seriously add to the bolt hold.

 

[Oklacarcollecto]

Oh yea, good idea. Thanks! That will seriously add to the bolt hold.

How are you going to hook the bases together?

 

[Rice Nuker]

I may find a 10 foot pipe that slips into the pipe legs, tap some bolt holes in the outer pipe, weld on a couple nuts and just cinch to the inner pipe
I want them tied together strong cause I am going to have a bracket for a 8 or 10 foot rigid tow bar on one end of the rotisserie at the base so I can drag it around in and out of the shop and if needed push it up a ramp onto a trailer.

I am just starting on the fabrication type work, so learning as I go.
.

 

[Oklacarcollecto]

I may find a 10 foot pipe that slips into the pipe legs, tap some bolt holes in the outer pipe, weld on a couple nuts and just cinch to the inner pipe
I want them tied together strong cause I am going to have a bracket for a 8 or 10 foot rigid tow bar on one end of the rotisserie at the base so I can drag it around in and out of the shop and if needed push it up a ramp onto a trailer.

I am just starting on the fabrication type work, so learning as I go.
.

Yon need it all hooked together to stop the flex on the cars body since it is a unibody. I have had seen doors not fit and many other problems from body flex from non linked ends.

 

[OldmanRick]

Good for you making your own, that's cool:thumblef:.

Bases look stout and if you bolt thru the pipe i would say you're good. Only thing i may question is the 1 1/2 sq. uprights? I know your initially building this for your "A", but going to all that work i'd want to be able to put anything on it cause down the road???...........Just my thoughts, Good Luck.

 

[Rice Nuker]

Yes, the 1.5 verticals are kind of crappy. I gathered up this stuff from a scrap yard and probably should have held out for some bigger tube.

 

[Rice Nuker]

Sunday morning. Should have went to church but I went to welding..

.

 

[64 AAR Valiant]

I guess I'm missing something. How is this attaching to the body?

http://www.forabodiesonly.com/mopar/showthread.php?t=158964

Pics of the one I built holding my cuda.. Post 19

 

[Rice Nuker]

Yes, well, that part ain't incorporated into the system as of yet.

It is a series of cantilevered bezels intertwined like a mesh banjo string.. something or other.

Here''s a drawing of the next portion of the rotator head

.

I guess I'm missing something. How is this attaching to the body?

 

[Rice Nuker]

Dang, took a while but it is built blasted and painted. I pretested it all prior to paint and welded the body mounts up while they were mounted to the body so they would be aligned correctly. So anyway it works great and at the adjustments it has the car is about 98 % balanced with a slight bias towards being upright.

I built the body mounts so that when the car is on the machine, the axis of both rotators heads are inline with each other and parallel with the floor. This makes uneven pressure on the car nil and binding nil as well.

I will tie the two rotatory stands together with a pipe which will slip inside the center leg tube of each one facing each other, running under the car lengthwise.

I used about 1/2 of a US Car Tool rotisserie kit and a fair amount of metal. Nice thing is I have a bunch of good bolts and metal left over from their kit for other projects.

The rear tires on the rear rotatory unit are fixed and pneumatic so when the system is tied together and the car is on, it will be able to be pushed and towed like a trailer or waggon. The front rotary stand unit will have a tongue like a waggon which can be pulled with a truck or a wench to drag the whole combined assembly around.
I will add a couple more pictures when I put the car back on. The paint is on thick so it dries a little slow.

Paint used is XO-Rust grey bought from True Value Hardware, applied directly over blasted steel. I did not blast the steel bare but it is all decently blasted and de-greased with lots of denatured alcohol.

 

[Rice Nuker]

Had a friend help me jack it up simultaneously at both ends.

Works like a champ. Now back to sanding and scuffing the bottom for the color change.

 

[626notchback]

How difficult is it to turn that thing with the car mounted?

 

[bad440]

nice.....

 

[Rice Nuker]

Thanks, It is like rotating butter. It has large trailer hubs-bearings holding it up and the balance bias is almost 100% perfect. It has a very slight tendency rotate upright if I take off the latch, on the front hub.

I really did not expect it to work and operate so smooth. Those harbor freight jack cylinders and the locking bolt system work excellently. The only issue I will have is getting it in and out of the shop. I will be pouring gravel outside up level with the floor soon so this will help.

 

[626notchback]

Wow, I am very impressed with that kit then. I was debating if I should fab one myself, and I think its now a yes. Thanks for the thread!

 

[Rice Nuker]

I am really green at metal fabrication and I built this without plans, just took my time and patience, looking at pictures of units online. 50% working on it, 50% thinking about it.

I used half the kit parts.
Now I think a kit is worthless if you can get metal from a yard and have some time. There are enough pictures of rotisseries online, you can build one by looking at pictures.

If you can set up a head rotator with a pipe that fits inside another pipe nicely and smoothly with minimal clearance, then square it to the horizontal arm and vertical slide, you are set.
The key is keeping all things square and parallel as possible so when it rotates, it has no binding or pressure.

Wow, I am very impressed with that kit then. I was debating if I should fab one myself, and I think its now a yes. Thanks for the thread!

 

[626notchback]

Question, what is the diameter of the steel rod, that goes into the bearing and locks the vehicle in place?

 

[sleeper-oem]

good job

 

[Rice Nuker]

Thanks!
There is just a piece of 3/16 steel w/bolt on other end that levers into the notches in the toothed wheel to stop the rotation. The car is really well balanced so there is very little pressure on the rotary lock lever. The toothed wheel is mounted on the trailer axles. The trailer axle is welded to the vertical slide.

 

[jefflock]

Nice job and Thanks for sharing.

 

[lucky13]

There was mention of a kit, mind if i ask what kit you used. Also how tall is it when the body is turned on its side? I am semi height limited in my garage. Thanks

 

[Rice Nuker]

The kit is US car tool and it is not necessary at all. If you have access to a steel shop or yard and can get some pipe and rectangle tubing cut to length and you have a welder and a grinder, you are set.

I had a steel yard guy cut me a number of triangle gussets and a number of rectangle plates with a shear. Then I had them cut some well casing pipe, square tubing, rectangle tubing, and I bought some scrap 1" x 1/4" x 15" metal strips.

I used a few parts of the kit which I could have really been better off with out and saved me 275.00

I used a 20 dollar harbor freight grinder which I would grind and use big cut off wheels on the grinder to chop off stuff to length.

I just formulated a basic plan with the base of pipe and gussets, upright of one square tube slide over the other, some scrap metal for brace struts and to make the upright disassemble off the base so I can store it compactly.


The US car tool kit is a complete waste of money and time in my opinion, after building this unit.

If you have any questions let me know. Since you live in antioch, you have multiple choices around you for custom length cut steel tubes, pipes and having triangle gussets sheared. Moose Metal in concord is a bit expensive but they have it all and can cut or make anything for you. I am sure you can find others that are more basic. Moose is a high tech operation with a number of employees making all kinds of fancy stuff so their fabrication labor is pricey.

The main two details are the vertical slide which is a square tube about 1.5 or 2" with a thick wall. Then a thick wall square tube that slip fits over it with out too much slack (1/16" or 1/8" total clearance). Then you need the horizontal rotary pivot which is just a pipe with another pipe outside it with minimal clearance too like 1/8" or so.

I would say my car on its side and rotating is less than 8' tall and you see I have my base made of large pipe with casters on the bottom. I could have done differently to make the machine lower to the ground by having the casters off the side of the pipe.

I want to drag this around outside my shop with my truck albeit like a dolly or something, so I wanted it to have a little more clearance.

I suggest you download some plans off the internet and look at several images (online) from different angles of built versions to get build ideas.

You probably already have it covered so this is probably redundant info but I threw it out there anyway...

Good luck!