My rotisserie build

[scherp69]

I know some guys have asked about the rotisserie I built, so I thought I'd take some more pics of it and post them. Unfortunately, unlike the car, I didn't take any pics of the build process. But here are several photos of it and comments including some measurements.

Here's the basic design of the rotisserie. In the end, I made some changes, but this is the main structure. All the main tubing is 2 1/2" square tubing. The gussets that connect the bottom frame to the post going up are 2". The square tube around the post going up is 3" seamless. The post going up is five feet high and the two lengths on the bottom frame are four feet long each. I used a 4" castors. The 2 castors in the middle do not swivel or have brakes where all the others do.



These are the parts where all the adjustments can be made. For the ease of this thread, I'll just call these T-bars. They are made of 2" tubing. The one in the front was eventually cut to the same length as the back one - 5 feet. The piece coming up is 2 feet long. I eventually put gussets on these to support them also. You might not have to put as many gussets as I did, but I figured better be safer than sorry.



These are the bottle jacks I used to lift the car. I got them from Princess Auto for $40 each.



Here's a close up of where the one piece bolts to the car and how it attachs to the base of the rotisserie.

[scherp69]

For this part, I used round tubing. The round tube that you can see is 3". Inside the 3" tube is a piece of 2 1/2" tube. I welded it to the 3" piece of seamless tube and added some gussets which also were used to mount the top of the jack as you can see. I then used 8" sprockets from Princess Auto and welded one of them to the end of the 3" tube. I then drilled 4 holes in that sprocket that would allow 5/8" bolts to go through. When the bolts are not in place, the 2 1/2" piece will rotate inside the 3" piece.





On the other side, I used 2 1/2" round tube and welded it to a piece of 2 1/2" tubing that would slide over the 2 foot part of the T-bar. I then welded the sprocket to the round tube and inserted the 2 1/2" piece into the 3" piece. I then welded on 8 nuts so that I wouldn't have to fight with them when locking into place.



I made some pretty simple brackets to mount to the car. I used a 9" long piece of 2 1/2" tube to slide over the T-bar. I then welded a 6" piece of 2" 90 degrees to the other piece and put in some gussets. I drilled a 5/8" hole so I could use the body mount holes and bolts. The nice thing about this is the brackets will slide along the T-bar for easy adjusment to fit any car. All you need to do is figure out where it needs to go, drill some holes and bolt it into place.



For the back, I mounted it to the bumper mount. I used the same design as the front, except I used 2 1/2" tube for both pieces. This way I could weld a piece of 2" to a steel plate with some holes in it and attach it to the bumper mounts. Again this is so I can use it on any car. This picture actually has three seperate parts that come apart.

[scherp69]

As for mounting the jacks, I put a gusset in place, cut the top off it and then welded on another flat piece of steel. I drilled 4 holes in the piece of steel and then bolted the jack on. This way if the jack goes on me, I can easily replace it. This is where the 5 foot piece on the base meets the bottom parts. There's also a picture of where the jack mounts to the top.





I welded all the castors into place. I was going to bolt them on, but decided to weld them.





Here's a bunch of pics with the car on the rotisserie.



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[scherp69]

If any of you have any questions, feel free to ask or pm me. Unfortunately I won't be able to take any more pics of some of the pieces taken apart until I'm done with it. Hope this all makes sense and helps some of you that are wanting to build a rotisserie

[carkrazy1987]

what is the wall thickness of the tubing u are using?

[scherp69]

I'm pretty sure it's all 1/8" or 3/16".

[Rhino]

I'm in the middle of building a rotisserie myself. The only thing I'm having a difficult time with is determining the balance point for the car and configuring my "T arms" to match.

How did you go about balancing the car once you got it on the rotisserie?

[scherp69]

To be honest..I kind of guessed. I had the car sitting level on the ground when I hooked it up. I secured the T-bars in place with the car sitting level. I bolted the rest in place and then jacked up both sides evenly. When I got it up high enough, I tried spinnng the car and it worked.

[tndude]

Very nice. Reminds me of the one I build. You were smart to no over build yours. Mine is to heavy.

[waynieZ]

Very nice job on the car and the rotissoerie