Technical Safety blocks...

I was working on our '55 and I was thinking about two people we knew that got crushed under a car. One guy was using cinder blocks.
Years ago I made these 20"x15"x10" blocks out of scrap 2x8s and 4) 2x4s. One with cutters shown is upside down.
Under the tires you have lots of working area, and I still use a couple of jack stands under the frame as well "just in case".

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If you put a lid on it you could use it as tool storage in the trunk and take your safety block with you on road trips for emergencies.

 

Dang Billy...Great idea!
My guess is most everybody has scrap lumber laying around. The 2x4s are just for preventing car rolling off. 2x10s or 2x12s are incredibly strong made like those boxes.

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...did the same thing, built 6 of these over 30 years ago, still doing their job...these are 2x8's boxed with another support inside the middle of the box.
(lousy pic )

 

That's way too funny. What's the saying, "Great minds think alike"!
At first glance I thought...where's my bumper?

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Way back in 1971 I drove a 1964 Olds Dynamic 88 with that damned SlimJim transmission. I put that car high up on cinder blocks to replace the transmission, not knowing they were prone to crumbling. It creeps me out now knowing that a heavy car like that could have easily come down on top of me and my buddy while we wrestled transmissions in and out of it.

 

Hmmmm... I was doing the same thing on the same car in 1974. I was using metal wire milk crates. They were very strong but knowing better I'd never try that again.

 

I use concrete blocks to get my car on and off the rotisserie. Blocks have different ratings, structural, decorative etc. I also use OSB in between the blocks to reduce rock. Its a static load not shifting.
Still makes me nervous.

 

We knew two who were crushed, one using cinder blocks the other a teenager using a mixture of stuff, wood, bricks, etc. It's a wonder any of us are still alive!
The older I get the more Jack stands I use.

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Great thread!

 

When I first started working on cars I used them all the time until a family friend pointed out the danger. A block can carry a large load if it is in the right orientation (the hollows vertical) but when under stress a small tap can cause it to crumble.

 

Most people that use cinder blocks put the tires on the flat surface of the block. If you must use cinder blocks turn them sideways and have the holes pointed up, jeez, they can support a whole building that way. Still dont recommend blocks though

 

I built some wooden ones similar to those pictured over 40 years ago and some more about 15 years ago. EXCEPT that mine are solid wood all the way from the ground to the top; not a box. I also have about a dozen pieces of wooden cribbing that are about 8" x 8" x 24".

I won't get under a vehicle without quite a bit of this stuff holding it up. I have several very good jack stands but seldom use them. I have a LOT more trust in solid wood.

b-t-w; I'm not in any way criticizing the wood stands/blocks shown above, just adding my 3 cents worth.

Some of the stuff we did back in the 60's; it's a wonder any of us survived. I'm glad that someone pointed out the potential of cinder blocks crumbling before I got hurt using them.

One lucky friend of mine had a car come down on him (back in the 70's) without hurting him but he was pinned under the car until his wife got home from work a couple of hours later.

 

My Dad was a great guy and great sense of humor (I'm prejudiced though!). In his 70s he got pinned under their car, luckily really didn't get hurt bad and luckily remembered I told him always carry the cordless phone (they didn't have cell phones).
He called 911 but 30 minutes later rescue squad called back, they couldn't find the house. He said just look for the buzzards circling.


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PT 4"x4"s standing on end with a PT 2"x 12" top plate, sheathed with OSB.
Ain't goin' anywhere!

 

Safety cannot be overlooked when working on our cars. Back in high school if say we pulled a tranny and clutch we would or had welded a couple of old car rims together then place under the tires as needed.
But now I can afford the good stuff.

 

That looks like a good hight for work, how do you get it that high to put your blocks under the wheels?

 

This happened to a chap in a lock up garage next to my daughter's school just two weeks ago. He had it on a scissor jack that just toppled over while he was working on the exhaust. Fortunately for him, the children were in the school yard for a lesson and heard his cries for help. Even just throwing the spare wheel under the car gives you some degree of safety if it falls off the jack.

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Another cement/cinder block support problem is the possibility of unwittingly creating a very small support point giving astronomical pounds per square inch in a spot that looks much better than that.
Say you lay the car down so the block is under the frame rail, but there is a rivet head on the frame right there...and half the car's weight is pushing down on something like 1/4 square inch. That's about like taking a punch to the block...it can just explode into crumbs.
By the time the rest of the frame surface drops down a tiny amount to give the support you thought you had, the block just gravel on the floor.
I too am a fan of wood, big blocks or stout constructions of planks. And...it's good if your block is bigger across than up. Thus, it is entirely unmotivated to roll over.
The stores I know of seem to stop at the landscape RR tie size, much smaller than a real tie. In my experience the GOOD blocks are to be found at roadside, props and dunnage from odd loads on big trucks. I have risked my life at times to recover these, so I guess safety is where you find it...

 

Of course if you’re a welder/ fabricator you could do what I did with a little 3/16” steel plate.

 

nice

 

I really like those Blue One!


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Thanks, so do I and at 12” tall they are proving invaluable making it so much easier to work on my RPU now that I’m at the finishing - assembly stage.

 

Big fan of my cribbage blocks. Even with a recent installation of a 2-post lift (in a new shop), I still prefer the blocks for certain phases of a build and other repair projects.

 

About 15 years ago, I had one of my cars on 4 steel adjustable stands, and was wrenching on an uncooperative bold on the front end. I almost pulled the car off the stands. It scared the crap out of me, and now I am using solid wooden blocks with a V centre for the wheels to sit in. Functionally, they are the same as those really nice blue stands.
I just happen to have a chain saw, and large blocks of wood are plentiful here.
Bob

 

I have to make up some of those cribbage blocks. We used to use a 14" car rim inside a 15" rim and those were solid but took up a lot of room under the car. Anyone that would even THINK of using a cinder block under a car has a death wish. I worked with a guy that had a car outside in front of his house blocked up with all sorts of odd stuff. A cop going by told him to take it down.

My ex-wife asked me one year what I wanted for my birthday, I told her a good set of jack stands would be cool. What do I get? ONE single stamped-steel jack stand. It went out with a pile of scrap steel I was cashing in.

 

You could make and sell those! They probably don't take up much room stacked together.

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I'm really jealous of all you guys that are good welders. When I was young enough to see well I never got in enough practice to be good and now that I'm retired and have time to practice I can't see well enough to get good at it.

No way in the world I'd crawl under a car held up by something I welded.

 

This is a pic off the internet
Got a set also they are used in the Forklift industry

Mine came from a customer that up graded there fleet and the set was getting tossed out

10,000 lbs capacity stand are about $400 Canadian for a set, not bad when you figure in materials and labour to make them.

 

What does PT MEAN ?



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