Rktpwrd’s Skunkworks side project

[Rktpwrd]

Very cool, good luck, I'm sure it'll turn out great, and I guarantee you'll love it once the cars on it!

Thanks Jim, I sure hope so. I’m looking forward to it for sure, but I know I’ll be on pins and needles the first time I go to roll it!

When you paint the steel, it must have flames.

Haha, but I’m not sure if I’m even going to ever paint it. It’s likely just going to get covered in overspray, undercoat etc anyways. But ordinarily, yeah I’d be all about some custom flames on that!

Awesome project Donovan. Thanks for sharing. It's amazing what you get done in that two car garage.

Thank you Jared. It would seem I’m constantly pushing my personal boundaries, and I don’t think that’s a bad thing. As for accomplishing what I do in this two car garage, I refuse to let my circumstances dictate my abilities. It’s all about trying to do more with less. A couple good tools and some effective space management definitely helps.

Will this be beefier than the store bought version?

At least equal to, if not more so IMO. This is the one I had my eye on before Covid, it’s virtually the exact same thing as what I’m building. You be the judge:

Link: https://www.kmstools.com/magnum-2-44-200lb-1-44-000-kg-car-rotisserie.html

Awesome stuff right here. And if you wanted when your done, you could sell it and probably make money on it.
Especially if it's got flamage.

Yep, my thoughts exactly, give or take the flames. Actually I’ve had several people tell me I should rent it out once I’m done with it, but I’m just not sure how that’d work. Be too hard to collect payment for the length of time that it’s in someone else’s possession I think. However I might make an exception for a certain couple of local forum members I know on here, Northernregal, Cauterize, you guys listening??
😉

And of course all those welds are going to be super clean looking like it all is one chunk of formed steel.

Nope, not on this one amigo. I’ll save all that effort for the actual car. Appreciate the thought though!

Another cool project Donovan! You never disappoint. Thanks for including the cost of the materials. Looking forward to seeing it all done. Looks pretty heavy-duty.

No problem Jeff, happy to share. So far I’m right on budget, but I have a nasty feeling that the casters and hydraulic jacks might put me over. Good quality casters with swivels and locks rated to carry that much weight are bloody expensive!

What’s Mike’s fee? I can already see you being his campaign manager as payment 😂

Ha! Mike knows which side his bread is buttered on, he knows I take care of him with the bodywork on his ‘57 Chevy. This is his chance to repay some of that extensive effort that’s gone into his car, and he knows it.

It all evens out between us in the end.
😏😎

 

[Northernregal]

I like the rental idea.... But I want to avoid having to need it in the future.

 

[Cauterize]

100% with you on that one. Thats one one of the main reasons I was so stoked on my new 87. Speaking of it. I'll have to update my thread soon.

I like the rental idea.... But I want to avoid having to need it in the future.

 

[Texas82GP]

Thanks Jim, I sure hope so. I’m looking forward to it for sure, but I know I’ll be on pins and needles the first time I go to roll it!



Haha, but I’m not sure if I’m even going to ever paint it. It’s likely just going to get covered in overspray, undercoat etc anyways. But ordinarily, yeah I’d be all about some custom flames on that!



Thank you Jared. It would seem I’m constantly pushing my personal boundaries, and I don’t think that’s a bad thing. As for accomplishing what I do in this two car garage, I refuse to let my circumstances dictate my abilities. It’s all about trying to do more with less. A couple good tools and some effective space management definitely helps.



At least equal to, if not more so IMO. This is the one I had my eye on before Covid, it’s virtually the exact same thing as what I’m building. You be the judge:

View attachment 208767

Link: https://www.kmstools.com/magnum-2-44-200lb-1-44-000-kg-car-rotisserie.html



Yep, my thoughts exactly, give or take the flames. Actually I’ve had several people tell me I should rent it out once I’m done with it, but I’m just not sure how that’d work. Be too hard to collect payment for the length of time that it’s in someone else’s possession I think. However I might make an exception for a certain couple of local forum members I know on here, Northernregal, Cauterize, you guys listening??
😉



Nope, not on this one amigo. I’ll save all that effort for the actual car. Appreciate the thought though!



No problem Jeff, happy to share. So far I’m right on budget, but I have a nasty feeling that the casters and hydraulic jacks might put me over. Good quality casters with swivels and locks rated to carry that much weight are bloody expensive!



Ha! Mike knows which side his bread is buttered on, he knows I take care of him with the bodywork on his ‘57 Chevy. This is his chance to repay some of that extensive effort that’s gone into his car, and he knows it.

View attachment 208775

View attachment 208773

View attachment 208774

View attachment 208776

View attachment 208777

View attachment 208779

View attachment 208778

It all evens out between us in the end.
😏😎

I love a 57 2-door post.

 

[CopperNick]

"Drill the holes 13/16ths to accommodate a 3/4 inch bolt. So your holes are a 1/16th oversize. Not going to second guess the blueprint but would have thought that 25/32" or 1/32" over that 3/4 would have given a slightly tighter fit for the bolts. Apart from that consideration, wish I had the budget and space for one of those when i was replacing my floor pans.......................................Bother.



Nick

 

[Rktpwrd]

"Drill the holes 13/16ths to accommodate a 3/4 inch bolt. So your holes are a 1/16th oversize. Not going to second guess the blueprint but would have thought that 25/32" or 1/32" over that 3/4 would have given a slightly tighter fit for the bolts. Apart from that consideration, wish I had the budget and space for one of those when i was replacing my floor pans.......................................Bother.



Nick

There is actually an industry standard when it comes to drilling holes for bolt sizes, and that is generally accepted as 3 drill sizes larger than the bolt to be used. That 1/32” of play each way in the holes isn’t going to affect the functionality of the jig one way or the other honestly, but it will make it much easier to remove the bolts when the time comes.

 

[Rktpwrd]

Got a little more done for it on my end tonight, making caster plates.

It started with a trip to the specialty caster store, and opening the wallet wide while bending over for a Royal Screwing. 6 casters, all swivel, and the outer 4 locking. $66 per locking swivel caster, and $55 per straight swiveling ones for a total of almost $400.
🤯🤯🤯
Well, there goes the budget on this. But they’re rated for 1000lbs per caster, and I’m still ahead of buying a pre-made rotisserie, so there’s that I guess.

They’re nice pieces no doubt, but dayum.

Once I put out the fire in my wallet, I got started on making the caster plates now that I had the bolt pattern and size for them.

Hand cut some 1/4” plate to 4 1/8” x 3 1/8” on the bandsaw, then filed the cut edges in the vice.

Next was to use the hole transfer punch to center punch the locations of the holes.

Spent some time on the drill press, 1/8”’ 1/4”, and 11/32” holes, x 6 plates.

Gave them a real light chamfer both sides once I was done, not much, just enough to lightly clean up and finish off the holes.

Just drilling these couple holes still makes a gawd awful mess!

6 plates, cut, filed, drilled and ready to go. Almost.

Next I took them back over to the bandsaw, and knocked off the corners:

Quicker and easier to use the saw for this rather than grinding. I did want to give them a light sanding to blend the cut corners in though, but I don’t have a fancy stand-alone disc sander, so I improvised.

I took my big air powered 8” sander and chucked it up in the vise with the trigger zip tied. It ain’t pretty, but damn it worked like a charm!

I did this to minimize the risk of catastrophic ankle damage while working around the rotisserie. Sharp edges at ankle height especially around casters aren’t fun. Ask me how I know.

A little final cleanup of the edges on the wire wheel, and done deal. Ready to go to Mike for welding!

 

[81cutlass]

I do enjoy me a good metal fab project!!

 

[CopperNick]

Huh. I can honestly say that I had never encountered the drilling standard that you mentioned. For myself, I usually try to get the hole as close to the bolt size as possible, hence the comment about 1/32 or even 1/64. How it was explained to me so many decades ago was that no matter how tight you get the bolt, whatever you have just bolted together will try to move or shift. The smallest useable hole that will allow the bolt or capscrew to pass through will maximize the clamping force made by the bolt/nut when tight and minimize the chance of ovaling or egging the holes in the components being assembled over time.

Of course, all this implies a high degree of accuracy when laying out the bolt pattern and drilling for those bolts. Personally, I hate doing layout. No matter how precise I can get, there always seems to be one hole that has tried to walk to one side or the other.

Come to think about it, that is probably why that three drill sizes larger standard was introduced, possibly during the war time. Production had to be done as fast as possible and waste was a firing offense. Three over would pretty much guarantee that the bolts would line up one way or another.



Nick

 

[Streetbu]

Donovan since you're so meticulous, I'm assuming we'll get to see some ground and polished welds so it flows smoothly from one pice of steel to the next? 😉

Great job as always brother