Engine Stand? NO! well kinda

[kolot]

Have at least 3 older chevy PU cabs to do over and always wanted an auto rotator, but got to thinking How I can save on room and casters. If and engine stand will hold 500lbs of motor , how much will a big engine stand hold. Also made up my mind , my days of laying under truck cabs are over so her we go. This is experimental and could lead to a big flop but if it works it will be pretty slick.
Right now it is 7 feet long and 5 feet at it's widest point, later I may cut it down and use some telescoping pieces to cut it down for storage, first I will find it's balance points. It will be painted and left outdoors, It is mainly 4x4x 1/4 SQ tube. I will have additional gusseting and bracing for the upright later on.
Tire is a 16" Bud, just for scale.
Jack is and old one I had from an engine crane. should give me enough heigt to clear the frame when I have to spin the cab.

[kolot]

[If you are familiar with an engine stand you know where I am going with this. The Truss beam you see will be mounted to the pivoting head.

The truss beam will be in front of the cab firewall, arms will run along side and tie into the upper and lower door hinge bolt holes, the top arm will continue to the door latch and support the cab in 3 locations.
This will hold the door opening rigid for rocker replacement and unlike most bottom mounting rotisseries allow the cab mounts and floors to be reworked.
All I have for now, will post more as it comes together.
I weighed a stripped cab for my 72, it is pretty bare, came in just over 350 lbs. So anywhere from 350 - 500 for weight I would say.

[larphead]

Looks good. They are an absolute Godsend when doing rockers and floorpans.

We have a rotisserie at work that was bought when we thought we were going to rebuild trailers. That project fell through and now it sits out back rusting away.
Damn shame

Anyway if you need some pics and measurements let me know.

[kcb37]

Looks like your set.
This is how new things get made. Nice to have the tools to make what you need.
I think you will be just fine with what you have. While maybe a copied design, it's a solid well known one, you just repuposed it and made it heavier. Nothing wrong with that.
Looks great to me and an idea I had never thought of.

[kcb37]

I do have one question for you.
Going along with and engine stand as you have basically made, for a semi.
A traditional engine stand uses a "jack handle" to rotate the engine.
It looks like you have not setup something to rotate it. If you continue with the traditional engine stand theme, I would think you would want a somewhat longer bar.

[Dualie]

your definately going to want a spotter when you spin the cab maybe two. But i like the idea behind it.

[kolot]

Bar for spinning? certainly, just getting started with this, if you look close it is only tacked together right now, casters are held on with vice grip clamps. Will make a hole for a bar to rotate it, also will have some sort of locking device for positioning it, maybe just a couple of screw down lock bolts.
Will put some holes in the upright and telescoping piece to pin the height as well. Biggest problem I see right now is arriving at a balance point when I mount the truss to the pipe head piece. Don't want it to start to revolve and suddenly take off out of control spinning. Definately not a one man job on the first trial but if I can dial it in it would be sweet to have one hand operation, probably won't happen.

[kcb37]

Like the jack handle on a store bought engine stand.
I was just thinking kinda a longer one so you will have more leverage.

[killdozerd11]

I think that i would have put tapered bearings on there would make it far easier to rotate something heavy

Big truck wheel bearings would work

[cd19]

Originally Posted by killdozerd11

I think that i would have put tapered bearings on there would make it far easier to rotate something heavy

Big truck wheel bearings would work

That's a good suggestion, actually they wouldn't even have to be tapered, regular ball bearings would work and be cheap as well as easy to fit as you really wouldn't need the most precision for this.

[killdozerd11]

We do that on heavy equipment all the time

The reason i said tapered wheel bearings is that there easy to find at any parts house that carries truck parts like NAPA

Big ball bearings not so much ...But at outfits like King bearing you can get anything you want ...you would just need an OD and your ID and width of the bearing

The only thing you need to do this mod is a piece of tubing that will be the shaft find a set of wheel bearings with that ID ..then get tubing to match the OD of the bearing race

Put the shaft through the head stock mount the bearings and the OD tubes on both ends get it lined up straight and square tack in place then weld a little go to 180 degrees off or the opposite side and weld a little and let cool between welds so it wont tweak out of line..

Don't get it too hot and cover the bearing to protect them from damage

I have done this a few times for jigs and equipment repair and some fab work for just what your doing

[kolot]

When I'm not doing cabs I imagine it would adapt well to bobcat buckets and other things.

[Deve]

Im VERY interested in how this progresses. I have 6 47=55 chevy truck cabs to go thru. Have been thinking about how to do this myself. Keep us posted!

[kolot]

Painted it with primer today after welding the head up. That way I can leave it outdoors. I am jumping back and forth between projects, not real productive but I tend to work on what I feel like working on any given day. I have to come up with the actual arms that will mount the cab to the beam. I have a plan but need to strip down one of the cabs to fit it up. Will do the 73-87 style first. have 2 to get done before winter. I figure with this apparatus up and working , all parts in hand, I probably can do a real bad cab in a weekend.

[Deve]

It will be interesting to see what you came up with. My approach which is still on paper is a cab cart that rolls around with the cab at the same height it would be if it was on the chassis. THEN.. there would be a hinge on the front of the cart and an L bracket that bolts to the bottom of the cab AND the firewall. This would allow the body work to be done on all sides by moving just one axis. To support the cab when its hinged, a pull out square tubing receiver system with wheels on it that pulls out of the cart used only when you have it hinged over. We have floor space issues so I want to ensure this jig takes up only the space it really needs to take up. Please keep up posted! This is great stuff!

[kolot]

strictly experimental at this stage. I plan to get it all mounted up. then I will put it up on wooden blocks. I figure I will work the blocks around to see where the tipping points are and figure where it will be safe. This will enable me to shorten those long legs , hopefully. Then I will get the next smaller tubing and make a telescoping leg to shorten it even further for storage. Next 2 weeks are busy so I won't get much done on this.

[Dualie]

just throwing this out there

i remember a buddy had the slickest stand for doing diesel long blocks. were talking 15L+ long blocks. had a crank handle like a boat winch hooked to a gear reduction box that would let you spin the engine around with ease and stop wherever you wanted to without fear of it spinning back around.

[kolot]

I have a gear reduction box just hanging around, might have to round up a chain and some sprockets.

[steelsmith101]

Kolot,
Good looking start you have there, will be checking back to keep up to date on it.
Wanted to add that somewhere I saw a post on a rotisserie where they had used a HB # 5798 - 2000# cap. geared winch($24.99) in place of the handle bar, they could roll the unit around and stop where wanted and it would not move when they let go of it.They can set the angle where it was the best for them to work at,
I will try to find where I saw it at and post the info, it would make a rotisserie a one man show.