Matt's make your own rotisserie.

[Escort Engineering]

Hi everyone thought i would do a little article on make your own rotisserie, i made mine about 2 years ago and is probably the best thing you can make for working on your car, you can make one for around quarter of the price of a bought one and the main thing is that you can make it to suit the application that you want it for.

The whole frame is made from 40x40x5 RHS mild steel.

Im using my rotisserie for a MK1 ford escort i have mounted the front cradle on where the quarter bumper brackets mount with the two bolts that go through the chassis rail so all up the front cradle has 4xM10 8.8 high tensile bolts , the rear cradle is mounted on the leaf spring mount where i have used a M16 bolt to hold it in which is 8.8 high tensile.

The pivot point in the middle of the frame is a m20x130 8.8 high tensile they are that long so that when you rotate the car on the bolt it isnt turning on the thread it is turning on the plain shank of the bolt.

Here is a drawing of the end frame really easy to make.

This is the front cradle which if using for a different car you will need to make them to suit, you can see the two bolts holding the frame on at the front

Here is the back cradle it has two bolts through the chassis, you can also see the m20 bolts where the pivot is and the one at the bottom is the locking bolt.

Hope this info helps someone out and make there project that much easier, best of luck.

[cubastreet]

Awesome, thanks for the write-up.

Looks pretty straightforward to make, and much nicer than getting all that welding splatter in your hair.

[azzurro]

i wish x1000 i had made one of these when i did my fiat, instead of lying on my back getting rusty crap and underseal in my everything.

i reckon a circular piece with more holes in it to get the angle just so would be a sweet upgrade, but probably unescessary

also unsure if required but some gussets or extra triangulation on the feet would make me feel better about wailing on the car that is up on it.

[Escort Engineering]

i wish x1000 i had made one of these when i did my fiat, instead of lying on my back getting rusty crap and underseal in my everything.

i reckon a circular piece with more holes in it to get the angle just so would be a sweet upgrade, but probably unescessary

also unsure if required but some gussets or extra triangulation on the feet would make me feel better about wailing on the car that is up on it.

Yeah the angle plate would be sweet but no need for 45 degree angle with what im doing , as for the gussets don't think they are needed only time the load is really on the legs is when you take the lock pin out

[Llama]

I saw another one somewhere, that had a lockable crank/ratchet thing, adjustable slides to get the balance right, and camlock castors to move it around. Twas pretty swish, maybe a little overkill. If you want to move it around you'd need to build it all in one frame however, which would be much harder to fit places.

Will see if I can find the pics again.