Rotisserie question
 

Ok, so I find myself looking for a rotisserie as the one I have been using was a friends and he now needs it for a restoration he is working on. I have looked at nearly every model available on the internet and still have several questions about the strength and quality of them. If you have a particular brand of rotisserie that has worked well for you I'd like to know what brand and where you got it. Price would be nice also, but I don't mind paying for a quality tool. I may have one worked out in a trade, but I will still be looking to buy a second one as I find myself needing two of them so I can hang the frame on one and the body on another. I think it would save time to do it that way, maybe not. I have also entertained the thoughts of just building one, but that would require time, which I find myself short of lately. Any input or information, good, bad or ugly is greatly appreciated. I need to know the facts on various brands before spending over $1000 on something that is junk. I do know one man who bought a $900 special "closeout" deal and when you put a full size body (55 Chevy for example) on it, it sags in the middle and the back wheels on the uprights don't touch the ground. So I definitely want to avoid that. As always thanks in advance for all the great information you guys always seems to have. Best of luck to you all in your projects.

Kelly

I bought my steel well over a year ago for my rotisserie and have over $800 in total for the steel, wheels, jacks.

For your frame - modifing 2 cheapo engine stands into a rotisserie would be plenty strong and quite inexpensive to do. Extend the tubing that has the 2 casters mounted to it, 36" is too narrow to safely roll a frame on. IF it was me, I would extend that tubing to 60" wheel to wheel and feel comfortable.
750-lb-capacity-engine-stand- $46
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Build one..Works better and every car body needs some sort of adapter to mount the body to your rotessirie.. so you will need some welding skills to fab up that piece..

the engine stands are a decent start..


Sam

built mine
 

I found these free plans I googled harwoodperformance, and clicked rotosserie, and made modifications to use steel I had in the rack, I spent $ 35 for new castors and bolts. But i had a lot of free steel. The last body we used it for was a 48 jeepster, no problems, I have a large roll around gantry crane that makes it easier to hook everything up. The crane is large enough to straddle my 6 wheel equipment trailer and tall enough to use if I ever have to pull the engine out of my backhoe again.

Homemade Rotisseries

there you go..lots of choices..

Sam

Thanks for all the info guys looks like I may have to just make time to build one.

I've got a home-built one that I bought for $300. One big question for you other rotisserie guys:

How do you go about finding the center of gravity so it rolls over freely and doesn't have a heavy spot?

TIA!

Russ

Russ,you read my mind perfectly.I would think for the engine stand idea to work well, i think you have to strip the body down in advance of mounting it on to get rid of some of the wt.What scares the hell out of me is for it to get away from me flipping over too fast and smashing the top of the car that is in it and maybe breaking some of my bones trying to stop it in the process.

I have been told too you have to balance the wt and your question is a better one than you know.

I had a design of one yrs ago when I back hafted a Monza town coupe and was laying on my back getting tattooed from the slag from the up welds.It was going to double as a frame machine where I could set it up/adjust it for level.I never figured a way to not have to re-level it everytime I would have to move it out of the way.
I have heard of guys building them so they are motorized to turn it and have hydro cylinders to lift it up.That would be the cat's meow!.

Getting a body balanced on a rotisserie is a bit of a trial and error deal..the adapter is mounted to the body so the axis is centered side to side and then with an adjustable mount the weight is centered in the vertical axis of rotation..When you build yours some sort of pin or brake needs to be installed so you can lock the body in one place while you are working. after one spot is completed then unlock the body and turn it ti the next spot and work on that until it is done and can come off the rotisserie..

Sam

There's a vendor on ebay selling the parts to easily incorporate this "pin" feature into a home-built rotisserie. Actually not a bad timesaver rather than machining them yourself.

accesible technologies held my 59 ford wagon $850 complete i think the guy's name is joel. does it really pay to waste your time when it cost's the same for the steel

eyeball it
 

do a rough estimate of where you think the center should be. then set the arms to that height , then pull the pin to see how it swings. Re adjust the height of the arms as needed. I could spin the body pretty easy once I got it right. My gantry crane makes lifting a body easy with a chain hoist. and you do need some sort of safety locking device to keep it place.

I have an Auto TwirillerPlus model rotissure. It is a very heavy duty well built unit that has built in adjusters for setting that balance point. I have had the body of a 57 cadillac convertible with doors and trunk lid in place on this unit. It is a very strong rotissure as this is one of the heaviest cars you could possible put on such a unit. I beleive the cost of this unit back in 07 was around 1200 with shipping to a freight depot. Do yourself a favor and look into one of these...............

Here is a roto I have made and used for 2 different cars. It was just an afternoon project. You can estimate your center. When it is off, you lay the car on the side and measure the weight at a specific spot. It is easy to calculate how much the car needs to move. You can modify the roto to change the pivot and your done.


Rotesserie and Dolly