22 replies to this topic

[M J W J]

This little project seems to be taking way too long however it is still progressing.

I spent all Monday, Tuesday and Friday drilling the holes in the two parts for the jib with the biggest drill I have. It is 22 mm diameter shame that all the bolts are M 24 so I have had to spend time grinding all the holes out a bit with a dremel. Then to top it off my dremel packs up on me yesterday afternoon before I have had chance to finish them all. I have had to resort to a file and doing it by hand. Only four holes to finish.





I have managed to make the hinge for the bottom of the ram. This was a bit easier as the parts were small enough to fit in a 4 jaw chuck. I then was able to bore them out on the lathe.



Hopefully once I have made all the holes it should be quite quick to finish. Just a few small bits to weld and then bolt it all together. I don't think I will be getting anything else done on the mini this easter however at least when I am back from university for summer everything will be ready to use.

[M J W J]

Today was the last day I got to work on the engine crane and mini this Easter. I will return in the summer and with the crane built I can lift the engine and gearbox into the frame and build the mounts for it.

I managed to get the top bush welded in for the main pivot (didn't take a photo of it), finished filling out all the holes for the jib arm so it can be bolted in place and then had to tidy up the garage.



I have temporarily assembled the crane

[M J W J]

Right. I have been back from university for a few days and so have manage to finish off my engine crane.

Since my last post I have finish making all the 24mm diameter holes needed, welded the pivot to the bottom of the bottle jack, made the pivot for the top of the bottle jack out of two plates and a piece of roll cage tubing, welded on the plates for the jib arm to pivot about and made a handle for the bottle jack.

Here are the photos and a video showing it working. I have used it to lift my engine up with the arm at full reach and it works .


Main pivot arm plates welded in position


Bottle jack in position


Engine about an inch off the floor


Video of it working (apologies the video is a bit dark)

A few things to note.

The crane will lift about 180 kg at it's furthest reach. This may seem a bit low but that is because the bottle jack I used is not a particularly strong one. My engine and gearbox only weigh 160 kg so It will be able to lift it. If I shorten the jib arm then it will lift more so there is no problem.

The starting height of the jib arm can be adjusted as the bottle jack also has part that screws in and out to adjust its starting height.

Ideally you need two people to assemble it. It is a bit difficult to hold everything together and get the bolts in. The crane can be disassemble into 6 parts that can be stood up against a wall to keep it out the way. I have narrow the track on mine so it will fit between mini front wheels.

As said at the end of my video. If I had the option of building one instead of buying I wouldn't bother. It took way too long to produce mainly because it is difficult to make 24 mm holes. The amount of cutting fluid used was ridiculous for such a crude piece of engineering. I have saved about £70 compared to buying one that can lift the same amount (approximately 1/2 ton) which would still have to be assembled. It is a good project if you have most of the materials available (I had most of the hardware needed and steel plate) especially If you want to test out your welding skills before attempting body work (lot harder to burn through 1/4" steel plate compared to 18 gauge sheet steel). Still it is something I can claim I have done and may be useful when applying for engineering jobs and my MSC.

Now its finished I can resume work on the actual car.

[TopCatCustom]

Congrats on finishing it, can I just suffest that you modify the top mount of the jack/ram though, pushing on that bit of round tube will not last for long without it crushing, you could even just pop a short piece of solid bar in there.

[drumindan]

Im impressed wish i could get my welder to work this well :/

Edited by drumindan, 15 June 2011 - 12:51 PM.

[M J W J]

Congrats on finishing it, can I just suffest that you modify the top mount of the jack/ram though, pushing on that bit of round tube will not last for long without it crushing, you could even just pop a short piece of solid bar in there.

Yeah that has occurred to me actually just after I had welded the tube in place. Once my dad has finished making new pivot pins for our garage door on the lathe, I will probably spend a free evening machining down a piece of bar to fit in the tube.

Dan. This has been welded using an old stick welder not a MIG welder. I have both but my MIG welder is a bit on the weedy side. My welding is not perfect and at times can be quite untidy however it does hold together. I usually do the BFH test to my welding on things like these and so far have not had anything break. I actually prefer welding with a stick welder rather than a MIG. There is a lot less in setting up the welder and I find I have much more control over the pool of molten metal when welding with a stick welder rather than a MIG. I was taught how to stick weld before MIG so its probably down to the experience why I prefer it. Just a shame my stick welder doesn't go low enough to be suitable for thin sheet metal.

Maybe its something you could have a go at building to practice your welding? I built a dolly for my mini's shell to sit on before I started welding on the car. As said before it has taken quite a while but has saved me some money. Also if you need wheels they are available at your local supermarket

[drumindan]

Yes well i am doing engineering at college aswell as welding and fabrication so i have dobe some mig, tig, stick, and oxy cutting my welding is good especially on thick material but on my welder at home its a hobby one with a big gas tank and flow meter the problem it i cant get it not to blow streight through thin sheet steel if i cud set it better and i knew where to get more material and roughly how much it cost i would set lots of projects on the go ... :/

[M J W J]

An update on this project

The engine crane has been built and finished for about two weeks now. Last week the engine in my astra went pop so am looking at replacing it with another. Great timing as I now have an engine crane. My dad and I have used my engine crane to get the engine and gearbox out (gm 1700 diesel and f15 gearbox). During the removal of the engine we have encounter a few minor problems which I though I would bring to people's attention if you decide to build one of these cranes.

1. Ground clearance between the underneath of the crane and the floor is poor. This is only really a problem if like me you do not have a flat drive way. My dad and I have found that the small lip on the edge of our garage and also if we try moving the crane across our drive (its curved to let water drain away) can cause the crane to bottom out. Where the two diagonal brace bars bolt to the crane base I would suggest that the holes in the base are tapped. This will prevent the crane getting stuck on the part of the bolt that sticks through as shorter bolts can be used. Also fit the biggest diameter wheels you can get hold of or redesign the crane with the wheels mounted lower to lift the base of the crane up.

2. Amount of lift. My bottle jack only has 6 inches of lift. This gives about 57 inches of lift at its furthest reach however my crane will only lift 160kg at this point. I moved the jib arm in two holes which reduced the amount of lift quite a bit. My dad ended up having to lower the car down as I lifted the engine out to get it to clear the slam panel. Solution to this is to use a stronger bottle jack than the 1.5 ton one I used or use one that has far greater travel. We also found once the engine was out the crane couldn't go low enough to put the engine on the floor. We ended up putting on a couple of breeze blocks then resetting the start height of the crane (my bottle jack can screw in and out about another 6 inches)

3. The crane is 6 inches to long to fit in the back of a ford focus mk 1 and get the boot to shut. Only really a problem to me. DO NOT SHORTEN THE BASE. If you do the crane will become unstable and as most people will probably not need to transport it between garages then this really isn't a major problem.

I will say however that it is strong enough to lift my astra's engine and gearbox. The engine was not stripped at all. It was quite stable (other than when we had to tilt the engine up to get it to clear the chassis rail, however me standing on one side was more than enough to counteract this). Fit the rear wheels as far apart as possible. I still haven't changed the piece of tube at the end of bottle jack for a solid bar. I will do at some point however the crane still took the weight no problem (it was a piece of roll cage tubing).