Home made rotisserie
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Re: Home made rotisserie
Just completed a 400 mile road trip to the dunes; tired.
I woke up this am remembering I forgot to mention something. I looked at your welds and they look very quality... a nice bead but when correcting the bad end of the tube it might be a good idea to grind the remailing weld down so you can slightly tip the "post" to straight up then reweld the seam but not break the weld as it now would be more of a tippable tack. Something I have done before I am sure you are going to be OK but just an additional thought.
Lee
I woke up this am remembering I forgot to mention something. I looked at your welds and they look very quality... a nice bead but when correcting the bad end of the tube it might be a good idea to grind the remailing weld down so you can slightly tip the "post" to straight up then reweld the seam but not break the weld as it now would be more of a tippable tack. Something I have done before I am sure you are going to be OK but just an additional thought.
Lee
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Re: Home made rotisserie
OK - Plan B 2.0: Back to the Grindstone
The more I looked at the red post situation, measured it, compared with the orange post, checked squareness, pondered and lost sleep - it finally set in that trying to "fix" what was there wasn't really going to work. With the yoke head mis-aligned in multi-directions, any efforts to try to straighten it would be half-baked.... at best. No matter what I would end up doing it was going to be quite a bit of work - and what it really needed was to be mostly re-done (and I loathe re-doing something I just completed!). After stewing on this for a while it became obvious this is the only solution that would do. I had a leftover length of 1.5x3 tubing - enough to do the job. I jigged up the posts back to back with the yokes clamped to a section of aluminum angle to keep them co-axial which clearly showed the base and lower extension tube were out of whack on the red post. They needed to come off!
Spent this morning with the band saw, cut-off wheel, grinder and flap wheel to liberate the base from the post and clean up the previous carnage, then lopped off the post and trimmed that spare section of 1.5x3 tube to match. Roughly mocked-up again, going to use a little different jigging technique this time for welding. For the extension, I'll clamp the yoke tube directly to the weld table with a 0.035" shim under the extension to get it close to centered and parallel to the larger yoke tube. This time I'll be quadruple checking to make sure the yoke is well squared to the extension before tacking. For the base, I'm going to assemble both stands toe to toe with my 6ft length of angle steel spanning both yokes to verify alignment then tack the base in-situ. Once everything is looking good I'll weld a little, re-check alignment, weld some more, re-check, and so on until it's done. Hopefully if I start seeing something amiss I'll be able to more-easily correct before making it worse!
Here are the parts ready for another round of welding (yokes clamped coaxial): Too breezy today for welding, but at least I'm ready when the next suitable day arrives. I really want to get this wrapped up so I can get some primer and paint on the parts and have them ready to go as soon as spring hits! Won't be too much longer now!
Jeff
The more I looked at the red post situation, measured it, compared with the orange post, checked squareness, pondered and lost sleep - it finally set in that trying to "fix" what was there wasn't really going to work. With the yoke head mis-aligned in multi-directions, any efforts to try to straighten it would be half-baked.... at best. No matter what I would end up doing it was going to be quite a bit of work - and what it really needed was to be mostly re-done (and I loathe re-doing something I just completed!). After stewing on this for a while it became obvious this is the only solution that would do. I had a leftover length of 1.5x3 tubing - enough to do the job. I jigged up the posts back to back with the yokes clamped to a section of aluminum angle to keep them co-axial which clearly showed the base and lower extension tube were out of whack on the red post. They needed to come off!
Spent this morning with the band saw, cut-off wheel, grinder and flap wheel to liberate the base from the post and clean up the previous carnage, then lopped off the post and trimmed that spare section of 1.5x3 tube to match. Roughly mocked-up again, going to use a little different jigging technique this time for welding. For the extension, I'll clamp the yoke tube directly to the weld table with a 0.035" shim under the extension to get it close to centered and parallel to the larger yoke tube. This time I'll be quadruple checking to make sure the yoke is well squared to the extension before tacking. For the base, I'm going to assemble both stands toe to toe with my 6ft length of angle steel spanning both yokes to verify alignment then tack the base in-situ. Once everything is looking good I'll weld a little, re-check alignment, weld some more, re-check, and so on until it's done. Hopefully if I start seeing something amiss I'll be able to more-easily correct before making it worse!
Here are the parts ready for another round of welding (yokes clamped coaxial): Too breezy today for welding, but at least I'm ready when the next suitable day arrives. I really want to get this wrapped up so I can get some primer and paint on the parts and have them ready to go as soon as spring hits! Won't be too much longer now!
Jeff
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Re: Home made rotisserie
From what I can see (a big applaud). I hate redoing but sometimes I end up with a better idea at the same time so don't tear yourself down over it; mistakes are often miracles.
Lee
Lee
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Re: Home made rotisserie
Yep Lee - a healthy dose of humble pie and feeling better already! One of my biggest issues with welding is I do it infrequent enough that I don't remember the best practice I learned the last time! Doesn't help that just about every welding job (I've done) is different from any before. I can really appreciate a professional welder's knowledge vs. a semi-hack like me!
Jeff
Jeff
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Re: Home made rotisserie
Yeah, I'm in a similar boat on a lot of stuff. Stick with it and get all the practice you can before any big lulls on the build come in.
Lee
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Re: Home made rotisserie
A fruitful day of welding! Temps were barely high enough, but no breeze and most of Wednesday's snow had melted away so full steam ahead.
This time I did the post assembly a little different than last time. Before, to jig up the extension to original post section I had clamped it in X & Y directions to a section of heavy angle steel, with shims under the new piece to help align it with the larger size asian post. This worked OK on the older orange post (or just lucky? ), but on the new red stand it welded out of parallel/square. This time I just clamped the sections directly to the table, with shim under new extension piece, tacked in 4 corners and allowed to cool, then 2 more tacks mid-way on the longer sides, then final welds long sides then short sides. Came out nice and straight - so far so good!
For the base, that was a "whole lot 'O set-up" before the first tack. Must have spent an hour or longer just fetteling with the parts to get everything in the right locations and squareness. First had to re-assemble both stands, linked together toe to toe, then test fit the red post. I used 2 sections of angle clamped to the T-legs to make sure I was getting a nice solid and square line-up between the stands. What showed up at this point was a previously un-detected slight yaw in the orange stand yoke vs. T-leg alignment. This caused the red post, aligned with orange yoke with a length of angle steel, to be off-center of the base - enough to be no-go. It was probably only a degree or so, but compounded by the distance between the yokes meant I was about 3/4" off on the other end. I decided to shim the orange base with a thin washer and this did the trick - now the red and orange yokes were aligned and red post was centered on the base. Lots of time here with levels, squares, eye-balling, thinking - before holding my breath and laying down the first tacks!
Set-up and ready for tacking. After that it all wend fairly uneventfully. Tacked the base 6 places and let that cool some while re-checking yoke alignment, then welded it up in situ.
Added in some angle braces at the bases, capped the cross-legs and just like on TV - ALL Done! Whew, yea - my back is telling me "TV my a$$"!
Now on to getting it painted up and put to use in the next couple of months.
Jeff
This time I did the post assembly a little different than last time. Before, to jig up the extension to original post section I had clamped it in X & Y directions to a section of heavy angle steel, with shims under the new piece to help align it with the larger size asian post. This worked OK on the older orange post (or just lucky? ), but on the new red stand it welded out of parallel/square. This time I just clamped the sections directly to the table, with shim under new extension piece, tacked in 4 corners and allowed to cool, then 2 more tacks mid-way on the longer sides, then final welds long sides then short sides. Came out nice and straight - so far so good!
For the base, that was a "whole lot 'O set-up" before the first tack. Must have spent an hour or longer just fetteling with the parts to get everything in the right locations and squareness. First had to re-assemble both stands, linked together toe to toe, then test fit the red post. I used 2 sections of angle clamped to the T-legs to make sure I was getting a nice solid and square line-up between the stands. What showed up at this point was a previously un-detected slight yaw in the orange stand yoke vs. T-leg alignment. This caused the red post, aligned with orange yoke with a length of angle steel, to be off-center of the base - enough to be no-go. It was probably only a degree or so, but compounded by the distance between the yokes meant I was about 3/4" off on the other end. I decided to shim the orange base with a thin washer and this did the trick - now the red and orange yokes were aligned and red post was centered on the base. Lots of time here with levels, squares, eye-balling, thinking - before holding my breath and laying down the first tacks!
Set-up and ready for tacking. After that it all wend fairly uneventfully. Tacked the base 6 places and let that cool some while re-checking yoke alignment, then welded it up in situ.
Added in some angle braces at the bases, capped the cross-legs and just like on TV - ALL Done! Whew, yea - my back is telling me "TV my a$$"!
Now on to getting it painted up and put to use in the next couple of months.
Jeff
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Re: Home made rotisserie
Shims between the caster and it's mount sounds like a good leveling idea.
Lee
Lee
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Re: Home made rotisserie
Finally last coat of paint! Flipping the parts over (with drying time) to do both sides is a pain but only option this time of year - can't spray and parts must be done inside. Rustoleum to the rescue.
Now to let the finish harden up for a few days and I'll re-assemble one for working up the yoke adapter. Have a rough plan to use strut channel to make vertical pieces providing adjustment and help ease the chassis balancing process during attachment. Have to pick up some more steel for this, so another week or 2 before getting into that part of the project.
Jeff
Now to let the finish harden up for a few days and I'll re-assemble one for working up the yoke adapter. Have a rough plan to use strut channel to make vertical pieces providing adjustment and help ease the chassis balancing process during attachment. Have to pick up some more steel for this, so another week or 2 before getting into that part of the project.
Jeff
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Re: Home made rotisserie
Part A completed! The strut channel fits like a glove inside the stand T-legs and easy to attach with the spring loaded captured nuts (standard strut channel hardware). The new bolts on top of the T-legs is where the stands bolt to the channel. Overall yoke alignment looks good! The channel mounting arrangement provides unlimited stand to stand spacing, so I can make it fit whatever chassis mounting length needed.
Part B will be adapting the yoke heads to my chassis but that'll have to wait for warmer weather and I can get the car stripped back down from the previous drive train and body partial assembly mock-up. As it sits now I can't readily access the chassis mounting points for measurements to finish the yoke mounts. Hopefully by mid-March we'll start seeing some less winter-like temperatures!
Happy how it came out, although the Rustoleum paint hob is definitely a 10-footer! That stuff sags like crazy. Good enough for the intended use - including chassis sanding, probably some acid washing, maybe minor sand blasting and spray painting.
Jeff
Part B will be adapting the yoke heads to my chassis but that'll have to wait for warmer weather and I can get the car stripped back down from the previous drive train and body partial assembly mock-up. As it sits now I can't readily access the chassis mounting points for measurements to finish the yoke mounts. Hopefully by mid-March we'll start seeing some less winter-like temperatures!
Happy how it came out, although the Rustoleum paint hob is definitely a 10-footer! That stuff sags like crazy. Good enough for the intended use - including chassis sanding, probably some acid washing, maybe minor sand blasting and spray painting.
Jeff
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Re: Home made rotisserie
Impressed! The paint is more of a working/protective paint job that only you and a few others will care about so don't worry. Paint in pix look great!
I like the idea of the spreader tube going through both pivot legs and double fastening on both pivots legs.
Now comes the hard part, the proper locating of the pivoting heads.
Lee
I like the idea of the spreader tube going through both pivot legs and double fastening on both pivots legs.
Now comes the hard part, the proper locating of the pivoting heads.
Lee
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Re: Home made rotisserie
Lee
I updated the same pix that was here by getting rid of the excess parts of the shop so as to concentrate on the lift itself. On the horizontal mount to the body they have it set so the width of the tube could be widened or shortened as needed then it can be jam locked in place. I think in the case of the 6° angles of the frame head and the rear trans mount (I am familiar with VW bug IRS but not as much with the swing axle mount which looks to be a bit different so I am not as sure if the angle is still there ). I have worked on swing axle tube buggies but not to where I had to mess much with the trans mounts and look at them seriously. Sorry!
Lee
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Re: Home made rotisserie
Finally putting all my rotisserie planning to work! Used a combination of the engine stand yokes and strut channel plus some angle steel to connect chassis to stands constructed - sheesh, over a year ago! While putting these last pieces together - cutting, grinding, welding, drilling, more grinding... I was beginning to wonder if all this work was worth it!!?? To get the chassis up into the stand yokes I used whatever blocking "stuff" I could find - empty HD buckets, 4x4 blocks, etc. A little sketchy getting the final height but got it mounted with no major drama.
Then the 1st rotation - I reveled how easy it now was to look 'down' at the bottom of the chassis with ear to ear grin!
Rotisserie chassis anyone, with a side of Lincoln and 0.030 wire appetizer?
Spent the next few hours spinning the chassis and marveling how much easier it was to finish weld all the intricate locations and oddball angles of previously tacked & partially welded components. Yes - ABSOLUTELY worth it!
Thinking now it may be easier to mount/dismount with chassis on its side - less lifting height to deal with. Also, slightly bottom heavy, but not bad at all considering I was just eyeballing/estimating the CG when I mounted the yokes. The strut channel at the yokes provides fine tuning the yoke height, I may try to adjust these a little today.
Jeff
Then the 1st rotation - I reveled how easy it now was to look 'down' at the bottom of the chassis with ear to ear grin!
Rotisserie chassis anyone, with a side of Lincoln and 0.030 wire appetizer?
Spent the next few hours spinning the chassis and marveling how much easier it was to finish weld all the intricate locations and oddball angles of previously tacked & partially welded components. Yes - ABSOLUTELY worth it!
Thinking now it may be easier to mount/dismount with chassis on its side - less lifting height to deal with. Also, slightly bottom heavy, but not bad at all considering I was just eyeballing/estimating the CG when I mounted the yokes. The strut channel at the yokes provides fine tuning the yoke height, I may try to adjust these a little today.
Jeff
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Re: Home made rotisserie
Very impressed to speak mildly. You went a step or three more than I did and whished I did.
Lee
Lee
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Re: Home made rotisserie
Thanks Lee. After a bit more welding yesterday I proceeded to dismount chassis from rotisserie - on its side. Less elevation needed below chassis for blocking, but this is offset by the much narrower footprint of the chassis side - lots of opportunity to tip it over! Able to get it back down on the ground safely and learned advantages and disadvantages to lifting the chassis either way - sitting flat and on its side. Anyhoo, I wanted to add another yoke to chassis attachment point in the back (only had one bolt on each side in above pics) so added tabs and 2nd bolt for each side. The 1/8 angle spanning chassis width wants to flex a little, the added mounting points will help in the rear - front already has 4 mount points you can see in above pics, so good to go there. I broke the rotisserie back down and I'll be squirting some primer on the yoke adapters - just 'cause I don't like rust! I'll also tweak the yoke connections to better match the CG for when she goes back up "on the rack". I just have 2 items left to install (weld?) on the chassis - a throttle cable stop near the gas pedal and a foot rest mount on the passenger side. After that, on to aluminum sheeting of floor and front firewall.
Jeff
Jeff
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Re: Home made rotisserie
One thing I don't know if I covered was, when fitting the height adjustment put the axle covers on as they are longer so they stopped my full rotation when put in place; close but not close enough! If you are going to have the cage on, and you haven't covered that ability, then it might be worth it.
For those who want to try this remember that the arms off the pivots are used to raise and lower the pan but (usually) have little effect on the width of things during rotation.
It is something worth having if you are going down to basics and have fun starting from there.
Lee
For those who want to try this remember that the arms off the pivots are used to raise and lower the pan but (usually) have little effect on the width of things during rotation.
It is something worth having if you are going down to basics and have fun starting from there.
Lee