Hello all! Not 100% sure if this qualifies as HAMB friendly. If not, just delete it. My spelling is also horrible sometimes, so please excuse me. I've been impersonating a machinist and fabricator now for over 35 years. The plan for my own project is a 28-29 Model A Coupe powered by an early Hemi. I have no real experience working on a car of this era, so I'm hoping I can succeed at it leveraging my machining and fabrication skills. And of course, with a lot of help and guidance from the good folks here on the HAMB. I've been putting together a stand for the engine I'm using in my own car project. The motivation behind the stand sort of started cooking in the back of my head after hearing several people warn me about the unusually high weight of my chosen engine. It was advised I put some kind of brace under the front of the engine when it's on the stand. This was out of fear it could break the stand and tumble to the floor. I'm not kidding, this is what I was told. I still question whether building a heavy duty engine stand was really needed. I personally think most stands out there can safely hold a 700+ lb engine. But I was bored, and short on funds for my own car project, so I rolled up my sleeves and took a stab at building a heavy duty engine stand worthy of an early Hemi. My personal car project is moving very slow due to many things at the moment. For starters, I still haven't found a body yet, and collected enough kit. I did once have a body lined up, but the deal unfortunately fell through. The design for this stand is entirely restricted to materials I have already on hand. I am lucky to be surrounded by a nice set of tools here at home from a previous life, and a pile of old rusty steel and other materials I can "Shop" from when I'm trying to create something. I affectionately call this secret stash of items, my pile of "Interesting Stuff!" My wife calls it my giant pile of CR%P! One thing for sure, this stand cost me absolutely nothing. Well, maybe a little electricity, some Argon and Tig rod. After deciding on some general dimensions of pivot height and footprint, I shopped my pile of interesting stuff for possible engine stand bits. I managed to find some VERY rusty 3"x3"x1/4" tubing, some 2"x2" tubing, a short piece of 3 3/4" solid steel bar for a main shaft, and some 3-3/4" x 1/2 wall DOM tubing for the headstock. I even found a 12" diameter by 1" thick round flame-cut drop, leftover from a project I did many years ago. A friend even gave me four casters for free!: Now I'll stop talking so much and just show some progress picks.... Rough turning the 3-3/4" diameter solid steel bar for a main shaft: Roughed out main shaft ready to be welded to the 12" diameter by 1" thick face plate. The plate will get a large hole in the middle so I can weld the shaft to the face plate on both sides: Face plate was very rusty, so it needed about 10 minutes with a wire wheel to knock off most of the crud: Cleaned up well, but very heavily pitted. I'll turn all of that off on the lathe: After welding the face plate to the main shaft, I face it off: With the main shaft and face plate roughed out, I start on the headstock. Rough cut the 3-3/8" DOM to length using the DoAll: Bore the ends for the large bronze bushings I found in my pile of stuff: Machined the O.D. of the bushings to press fit into the headstock. Notice the turned down lead to help get it started: Headstock ready to be welded to some uprights: Continued in next post...
I decided on two uprights for rigidity. One 3"x3"x1/4" and one 2"x2" square tubes. Again, the design is driven by what I have lying around, not what makes sense for those of you scratching their heads. I start to press the bushings into the headstock. They turned out a little tighter fit than I was expecting, but the 20 Ton press seemed to get them in there: Bushings pressed into the headstock: Now after welding the headstock to the uprights, the welding deforms the bore of the headstock a little. So I grab the whole assembly in the mill, and just dust the bores in the bronze bushings to make them round again. I only needed to take a few thousands before they clean up: I then final turn the main shaft to fit the bushings in the headstock: I bore the end of the main shaft to fit the output shaft of a gearbox I found in a dumpster about 15 years ago. You can't have an engine stand with this much work in it without a gearbox!: Final fit the main shaft to the bushings in the headstock. The final clearance is about 0.002": I then weld up a base out of 3"x3"x1/4" and some 2"x2" square tube. I also weld on some 4"x4"x1/2" angle iron scraps at each corner to bolt the casters onto. I mill the bottom of the uprights so the headstock is tilted back 1 1/2 degrees, and mock it all up: I final weld up the frame, and put some braces in to take the whole thing completely over the top for strength: I then give it a textured black paint job from some rattle cans I found on the shelf. Something called Hammer Tone of all things. The textured paint is to hide all the rust pits in the square tubing: Continued in next post...
I next mill a slot in the end of the main shaft to fit the keyway of the gearbox output shaft. This slot really should have been broached, but I'm lazy and just use a long end mill. The mill is small and wants to deflect a lot, so I sort of sneak up on the final size carefully, avoiding any kind of big cuts. I also drill and tap four holes for a retaining plate that will keep the main shaft secure in the headstock: I machine up a retaining plate for the end of the main shaft out of a piece of scrap 1/4" Aluminum: I paint the back side of the face plate, and assemble the main shaft into the headstock. I also drill a bunch of strategically placed holes for the grips I'll be making later, and drill and tap a hole for a zerk fitting: With the main shaft finally installed into the headstock, I start to prepare the gearbox: The input end of the gearbox has a bearing that normally is held in place by the C-Face motor mount. But I'm going to be using a crank handle instead of an electric motor. Without any form of retention, the bearing can work it's way out of there: I machine a piece of scrap aluminum that bolts to the input face, and retains the bearing at the same time: Next I work up a brace that will help to support the gearbox and also serve to keep it from turning. I start with a 6"x1/4"x8" long piece of hot-rolled steel scrap: I shape it a little on the mill: Cut the sides in the saw: The final shape before bending the ears: Continued in next post...
The finished bracket shaped and cold-bent in a vise using and a large Crescent wrench: A little more black textured paint and a trial fit: I need some kind of crank handle to use on the input of this gearbox. The gearbox input shaft is also splined, so I can use this to drive with. I start by making an inner spacer to engage a handle. This spacer will also get some radial holes for a locking pin to hold the handle in place. I find a piece of round stock in the scrap bin perfect for this: After a little whittling on the lathe: I cut a drive slot to receive the handle: I then shape out a handle from 1/2" Aluminum plate: The handle fits into the drive slot nicely: I form a single-point push tool to start broaching the splines in the drive handle. I use the downward and rigid motion of the quill on the mill to broach each tooth. I also use a small rotary table to index between each tooth: Slowly but surely I make my way around the bore, cutting each individual tooth of the spline: A couple full passes done, ready to go around again a little deeper on each tooth. Using gauge pins, I carefully measure the diameter of the spline with each pass: Continued in next post...
With careful measuring, my spline comes out to a perfect diameter! It's a zero clearance fit: I found an old can of blue paint on the shelf, and gave the gearbox a nice coat. I then install the newly splined crank handle with a light tapping from a wooden mallet: I finish the handle by roughing out a crank end from some 5/8" diameter round stock on the lathe: The input shaft is drilled and tapped for a retaining washer, and the handle is final assembled onto the gearbox. Like I mentioned earlier, I made provisions for a locking pin (shown at the top). The pin allows me to lock the position of the handle when it's at the bottom, and top positions. This is to keep the engine from rotating under extreme out-of-balance conditions, over running the gearbox. Not sure if it was needed, but it was easy to create this insurance: A farther view out: I finish by making a handle that bolts to the top of the gear box out of some scrap 1 1/4" DOM so I can have something to grip when I'm moving the stand around the room with a lot of weight on it. I will also install a rubber handlebar grip when I find the one I have around here somewhere... The swivel casters are at the gearbox end with the non-swivel casters at the front: A couple final shots of the basic stand. I would easily rate this stand at a 3,000 lb capacity. Should hold the engine without being bouncy or springy from the weight: I built a set of grips to hold the block to the stand from the flywheel end like most stands do. Also from the front of the block, and from the valley pan rails. I also made a nice drip pan to catch the mess, and used a small baking loaf pan to hold all the needed hardware used with the grips. The loaf pan fit nicely in the frame rails under the drip pan: And the drip pan made from an old bakers pan I got from a friend. It slides fore and aft for adjustment: Continued in next post...
Side view of stand showing the new grips with the holders I made from some scrap aluminum. The grips are all made from steel: Rear view of new grips: Grabbing the block from the rear: Grabbing the block from the front: Grabbing the block from the top valley pan rails: Well, that's my heavy duty engine stand. With this tool, I will be able to design and make all kinds of great kit for this engine. First up, BBC water pump adapters... Thanks for looking everyone. Take care, David
Wow if you put half as much talent into the car you want to build it is really going to be some ride, well done!
You might want to gusset your caster wheel mounting plates in case you want to mount the engine on there with the car still attached, lol.
Damn nice work. BTW, your double vertical support is called a 'spaced column' in engineering speak and like you have found they are exceptionally strong. .
All i can saw is WOW!! Thats not heavy duty engine stand, thats an extreme duty. I really like it, wish i had the tools to make something like that.
Wow, that is one great engine stand. Thanks for sharing the build and also for letting us see some of your talents. As the others said, if you put that much thought and effort in an engine stand the car you build should be something unreal.
That"s what happens when you have the gear and talent to build..Great stand Bashing Tin.. Are those casters rated for 1000 lbs. I used metal 500lb ones on mine... jim
Just how much would one of these be worth.Very few could afford one and thats a shame.I have a design that is every bit as affective but has about $100 worth of materials and about 8 hrs labor.I was wanting to produce them but I found out no market for a $300 unit. You made a fine piece ,good luck if you sell any.
"...I've been impersonating a machinist and fabricator now for over 35 years..." Yeah sure. I'd say you're the real deal. Beautiful work. Your car is gonna turn out just fine. Casters up to it though? Might wanna check 'em to be sure.