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Cheapskate USD $50 Rotisserie - it works, too!

Posted by pzhdbh

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Cheapskate USD $50 Rotisserie - it works, too! #1
pzhdbh Peter Leyland Jeffreys Bay, South Africa	Posted: April 08, 2012 03:19AM Registered: 2 years ago Posts: 112

OK, so this is probably a case of McGyver meets Heath Robinson, heavily influenced by scrooge!

I needed to weld strengthening plates to the chassis where the spring shackle attaches, and after half an hour of lying on my back, using the MIG welder underneath the car, and spraying my upper body with weld splatter and numerous small drops of molten metal that rather easily penetrated 3 layers of protecting clothing and a couple of layers of skin, I decided to think about a plan "B".

So a trip to the scrap yard provided lots of 6 mm and 8mm angle iron, some thick steam pipes and various odd bits of steel, for the princely sum of USD $50.

Two Saturdays spent grinding, cutting, drilling and welding ended up with a very crude but rather effective rotisserie(the modifications to the "harbour freight" engine stand are totally reversible - those plates are bolted in place unsing the existing mounting holes. The upside down wheels are deliberate - I did not want the whole contraption to move!)

Welding in the new box sections that I fabricated was an absolute pleasure, and I rewarded the C by scraping off all the underseal and re-painting the underside of the car (no rust, all the original MG pink primer in evidence).

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Re: Cheapskate USD $50 Rotisserie - it works, too! #2
MGST Andrew Metford Perth, Australia 1966 MG MGB 1973 MG MGB GT 1974 MG MGB GT	Posted: April 08, 2012 05:46AM Registered: 6 years ago Posts: 812

Nice work

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Re: Cheapskate USD $50 Rotisserie - it works, too! #3
DeanT Dean Tracy Michigan, USA	Posted: April 08, 2012 08:02AM Registered: 3 years ago Posts: 40

Peter

I love it when someone makes more out of less, especially in regard to car restorations. As a minimum, you should add a lateral tie between frame bases to prevent the legs from spreading.

Best Regards

Dean

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Re: Cheapskate USD $50 Rotisserie - it works, too! #4
tdskip Tom Lynch NYC, USA 1959 MG MGA 1969 MG MGC	Posted: April 08, 2012 10:24AM Registered: 8 years ago Posts: 3,695

That would be handy

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Re: Cheapskate USD $50 Rotisserie - it works, too! #5
Restoman Dana R amston, connecticut, USA 1959 MG MGA 1500 1967 Jaguar E-Type Coupe 1968 MG MGC GT 1969 MG MGC	Posted: April 08, 2012 11:44AM Registered: 2 years ago Posts: 334

Very nice job! And price is right.

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Re: Cheapskate USD $50 Rotisserie - it works, too! #6
pzhdbh Peter Leyland Jeffreys Bay, South Africa	Posted: April 08, 2012 12:17PM Registered: 2 years ago Posts: 112

That might be true if this was a "trolley" jig that was designed to move aroound / move the body within a shoop.

It is not - all I wanted to achieve was to rotate the body around its own axis, with zero lateral movement.

There is around 500 lbs of mass pushing straight down on a vertical plane, with zero forces acting in a horizontal pane.

The chances of the "legs spreading" are zero - one of the reasons that I made sure that the wheels are not free to rotate.

The front of the jig is mounted onto a steel bench made of 10 mm steel plate and weighing 400 lbs.
If we ever have an earthquake or a Tsunami, my house might be a gonner (I live at the beach), but that steel becnh will not budge an inch.

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Re: Cheapskate USD $50 Rotisserie - it works, too! #7
trymes Tom Rymes Concord, NH, USA 1959 Riley 1.5 1969 MG MGC GT ~ For Sale ! ~ 1971 Jaguar XJ6 Series 1 1971 MG MGB GT 1972 Chevrolet C20	Posted: April 08, 2012 12:51PM Registered: 4 years ago Posts: 3,243

Peter,

Nice work!

I agree with your analysis, but I would also agree that a lateral tie would be smart. Not because the legs are likely to spread, but because if they were to spread, the cost would be enormous. Cheap insurance, belt and suspenders, call it what you will.

Tom

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Re: Cheapskate USD $50 Rotisserie - it works, too! #8
Larry92021 Larry Hallanger San Diego area, CA, USA 1949 MG YT 1958 MG MGA 1500 1969 MG MGC 1972 MG MGB GT	Posted: April 08, 2012 07:44PM Registered: 3 years ago Posts: 333

Peter

I agree completely with Tom. What you have is a beam (car body) suspended at both ends (stands). The weight of the beam will cause the beam to bend (very slightly because of the stiffness of the body) but the force is still there. Very unlikely this will cause a problem but as Tom says a lateral tie is cheap insurance.

Yes, I am an ME.

Larry
San Diego area, CA

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Re: Cheapskate USD $50 Rotisserie - it works, too! #9
pzhdbh Peter Leyland Jeffreys Bay, South Africa	Posted: April 09, 2012 12:40AM Registered: 2 years ago Posts: 112

Larry, of course you and Tom are both right - what is the point of building a rotisserie on the cheap and risking $$$$$$$$$ worth of damage to the vehicle when for a few dollars more, you can ensure that the chances of disaster are reduced to zero, no matter how small they are.

I was going to refer to the radial versus axial forces, but thought that might come across as a bit pompous.
For info, I started working life as a trainee ME (first undergrad degree was in ME)- was useless and hated it.
I had scraped a pass in most of my courses at the n'th attempt.
I then studied finance and found something that I both enjoyed and was pretty good at.

Many of my car restoration attempts and exploits serve to remind me that I made a great decision not to pursue a carreer in engineering.

The world is probably a safer place, too!

Thanks to all for the comments and encouragement.

PS - So you don't think that the bubble wrap would save the body and paintwork if disaster struck?

In reply to # 2034898 by Larry92021 Peter

I agree completely with Tom. What you have is a beam (car body) suspended at both ends (stands). The weight of the beam will cause the beam to bend (very slightly because of the stiffness of the body) but the force is still there. Very unlikely this will cause a problem but as Tom says a lateral tie is cheap insurance.

Yes, I am an ME.

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Re: Cheapskate USD $50 Rotisserie - it works, too! #10
ron neal South Carolina, USA 1962 MG MGA MkII 1968 MG MGC 1969 MG MGC 1969 MG MGC 1969 MG MGC GT → more	Posted: April 09, 2012 05:25AM Registered: 4 years ago Posts: 3,273

Peter

Bubble wrap: Well if you had enough of it. LOL

Ron

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Re: Cheapskate USD $50 Rotisserie - it works, too! #11
trymes Tom Rymes Concord, NH, USA 1959 Riley 1.5 1969 MG MGC GT ~ For Sale ! ~ 1971 Jaguar XJ6 Series 1 1971 MG MGB GT 1972 Chevrolet C20	Posted: April 09, 2012 09:12AM Registered: 4 years ago Posts: 3,243

Peter: I'd recommend that you double-up the bubble wrap on the front fenders and front/rear cowls, just to be safe.

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Re: Cheapskate USD $50 Rotisserie - it works, too! #12
Big6Mark Mark Miller Springfield, OR, USA 1960 Austin-Healey 3000 1968 MG MGC "Red Tail" 1968 MG MGC 1968 MG MGC GT "The Wreck" 1969 MG MGC GT "The Lump"	Posted: April 09, 2012 10:12PM Registered: 5 years ago Posts: 1,220

Nice looking, but....

Cheaper insurance would just be a 15 ft of 1/4" steel cable tied to the support at the nose end and to the bench at the other. If anything were to go wrong the stand end would split away, never under the car.

Not as nice as a full rotiserie on casters, but good enough for the single purpose.

C Ya,
Mark

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Re: Cheapskate USD $50 Rotisserie - it works, too! #13
MG David David Witham Warwick, United Kingdom	Posted: April 16, 2012 07:10AM Registered: 1 year ago Posts: 118

I like doing things on the cheap as well.

Using your bench as one end is a great idea provided you don't need to be able to move it about.

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