Rotisserie construction

[Francis Marion]

Construction material include:
3 Ea. 20' 3x2x3/16" angle iron
1 Ea. 10' 1x1x3/16" angle iron
4 Ea. 50mm ID bearings
4 Ea. 4" casters
8' of 1 1/2" pipe
16" of 4" square tubing
24 Ea. 1" 3/8 bolts
24 Ea. 3/8 nuts
48 Ea. washers

Total cost is about $300

(I'm not responsible for the condition of the garage. I just got home Thursday and have had 2 family weddings and one other significant family event since then. Besides, it's been too cold at 5:00 AM - when I usually spend cleaning the garage on my first day or two back home due to jet lag - to be out in the garage.)

This is what I started with today.


This is what I finished with.







I still have to drill holes for the casters and cross beams and figure our how I'm going to fab the mounting brackets but it's useable right now

[rickf]

Just a suggestion, On those welds up top on the box tubing to angle.. Go over them again with more heat. They are cold welds and do not appear to have much penetration. JMHO.
Other than that it looks great, nice design. My only fear is that without anything to tie the two ends together they will have a tendency to want to rock end to end. Once the vehicle is mounted you might want to fab a couple of spreaders from one to the other along the bottom to stabilize things.

Rick

[Francis Marion]

See the angle iron sitting on the ground to the side on the 2nd pic? There are 2 12' pieces that will attach to the feet.

[rickf]

Make sure that you don't make them any longer than the end supports when the vehicle is mounted, ankle breakers! Ask me how I know this.

Rick

[Mr. Recovery]

Excellent job! I was going to suggest the ties when you said you were puting wheels on it but, I knew rick would tell you!

[rickf]

Did you know I would criticize his welding too? Francis, What welder are you using? I see you are using flux core, what size?

Rick

[Francis Marion]

I picked up a Hobart 140 last time I was home but just pulled it out of the box the other day. You can see the box in one of the pics above. I'm running .030 wire in it for this job.

Seeing that this is the first time I've ever done any arc welding and the 140 is only rated for up to 1/4", I'm hoping it all stays together.

[Francis Marion]

It's finished. Just need to make the mounting brackets. Does anyone have the instructions for making them?

[rickf]

Mr. Recovery made up some nice ones, I thought they were on this thread. If not they will be. That thing is really loooong! I see the rotator pipes are pointing down, is that just from the angle of the ends? On your welder I see you have the heat all the way up but your wire speed is only halfway. What you do is get a piece of scrap and with one hand on the wire speed dial and the other on the gun start welding and cranking the speed up as you are welding. At the point it starts pushing the wire out so fast that it is pushing the gun back then turn it down just a hair and that is the max you will get out of that machine. You will find it puts out more heat that way. A 140 is pretty light for that work but you can do it with two passes, three on the box tubing. Go over all of your welds now with a critical eye because you do not want this thing to fail on you with a vehicle on it. And right now you have no paint to hide anything in the welds or to clean off to reweld them. There is no shame in doing it twice the first time and get it right so you don't have to do it a second time.

[Francis Marion]

The M151 is just over 11' and I cut the spreaders on the bottom to 12'. I'm still considering cutting them to make them more adjustable. The rotor pipes do point down a little but not as much as that image suggests. This novice welder didn't get them quite as square as i would have liked but a couple washers as spacers down below should square it up.

It was hard enough getting the welding tip in those little corners so grinding them out is not likely to happen. I did plan on most of the weight being supported on the angle iron and made sure those welds were the best I could muster. I'll still give it another inspection with fresh eyes when I can get back to it. I also don't fully trust myself as a welder so the jeep will be pretty stripped before mounting it and even then I'll make sure it can't fall more than an inch until I give it a stress test.

[Mr. Recovery]

Looks good, the fun part is getting the mutt up onto the pipe mount by yourself.

"Just need to make the mounting brackets. Does anyone have the instructions for making them?"

I posted them with the other photos, the front one mounts to the bumper holes, it is welded to the round pipe, the rear one is just a flat plate welded to the round pipe and bolts to the pintal hook holes. I bolted the mounts with the pipe onto the mutt first then, sat the tub on saw horses then, used the engine hoist to lift it up until I could slide the front and rear triangle over the pipes.

[salt6]

[Horst]

Looking at no braces at all where the triangles meet the long spreaders I would not want to be close to that thing when you hang a body in it. Most of the welds are not looking really strong too but that might be a picture thing too.

[Fil Bonica]

Made a set of the mounts show in the manual for the replacement body.
Used a damaged MC bumper for the front and apiece of plate for the rear with holes spaced from a pintle
Both ends had 2 in Id pipe welded on the ends.
Too bad you weren't closer or you could have borrowed it.

Fil Bonica

[Francis Marion]

OK, I reworked those welds. Thanks to Rick for showing me where to find welding tips and tutorials.