TheHEMI.com

Hello all!

I finally got some real progress done on an engine stand for my 392 Hemi engine project. I briefly mentioned it in an earlier thread. I'm hoping for some warmer weather next week so I can finally get some paint on it. Hopefully next weekend it will be finished! Then I can get on with finishing up my torque plate, and FINALLY pressure testing my block.

I was fortunate enough to have everything I needed for this project by digging through what my wife calls my "Junk" or "Crap" pile. Of course, I call it my "Interesting Stuff" pile.

Most of the material I used is pretty rusted and pitted. I spent the better part of an afternoon burning up a wire wheel to remove most of the rust. The square tubing is pretty pitted, but primer and paint will hide most of that. I also end up machining a lot of the rust away on the other parts. I got the wheels for free from a friend who didn't want them:




A pic of starting to turn on the main shaft, 3 3/4" diameter solid steel:




Working on the headstock sleeve for the main shaft, 3 3/4" by 3/8" wall DOM tubing by 8" long:




I managed to find a couple of big bronze bushings for the headstock that holds the main shaft. 3" bore for the front and 2.8" bore for the rear. I would have preferred to make them the same size, but these where bronze bushings I already had in my secret-stash pile. I carefully turned the O.D. of the bushings to give them a 5 thou interference press fit into the headstock. You can also see the slight lead at the end where I turn down the bushing a little to help it get started during the press:




After welding on the uprights, I carefully pressed the bushings into the main headstock sleeve:




Of course the headstock sleeve gets a little distorted from welding the uprights on, so I carefully dust bore the front and rear bushings on the mill. I only needed to remove a few thou to make them round again:




After welding on a 12" diameter by 1" thick face plate to the roughed out main shaft, I start to true everything up on the lathe. The holes in the plate allow me to bolt my engine block to the stand from the front (timing cover side), the back (bell housing side), and from the bottom with a special fixture I will be making (main caps side). I'm hoping this will help make it easier and more comfortable for me when I create/make my own accessory parts:




I then finished turning down the main shaft to fit the bushed headstock sleeve. I leave 2 thou clearance for the shaft/bushing interface so it fits nice into the headstock:




I check the headstock final fit to the main shaft before I remove it from the lathe. Perfect fit!:




I finish bore the rear of the main shaft for the 30:1 gearbox I found in a dumpster about 15 years ago. You can't go this far with an engine stand and not have a gearbox!:




And here you can see the headstock and uprights balancing on the base I built. I gave it a 1 degree rearward tip. I'm thinking of increasing this to 2 degrees:




Most of the stand is built from 3" square by 1/4" wall tubing. The angle holding the wheels is 4" by 4" by 1/2" thick sides. The other cross bits are 2" square by 1/8" wall tubing. Should be strong enough to hold a Hemi! HA!

I'll post up some picks of the final stand when I get it finished.

Take care all!

David

Nice job David! It'll look and work great when it's done! One question - do any of the casters have 'brakes' on them? If not, you might want to swap at least two of them out for a pair with wheels you can lock.

mart
====================

That's a really good idea Mart. I can totally see that helping when torquing down stuff. I have a friend in town who has a big box of casters he might let me search through. I bet I've got something in my junk pile I can trade with.

Another thought would be to put a couple of threaded rods with rubber pads at the swiveling caster end that can be cranked down to keep it from rolling. I've got some 1" diameter all thread around here somewhere....

Another thing I forgot to mention in my first post; A friend of mine stopped by a few months ago and gave me a couple "Bakers Trays" for catching oil. They are something like 18" wide by 28" long with a 1" high edge. I'm going to use one for a drip pan just above the base of the stand. I've seen engine stands with drip trays before and I always thought that was a pretty cool feature.

Take care,

David

Nice work David!

I second that; really nice looking engine stand.

Thanks for the kind words guys. I really appreciate it.

David

And now if you want to fire up that '92..........

Hello All!

Sorry for not updating this thread. I finished the basic stand more than a month ago, but I've been so busy, I have not been able to make a post. I'm finding it takes a lot more time to process pictures for a build thread than I thought! So I'm going to add to this thread a little at a time over the next week or so when I have time.

We left off with a mock-up of the headstock and uprights balancing on the base. I welded up the entire frame, and added some bracing. I'm thinking a little too much bracing now. I was not able to lift this frame onto the saw horses by myself. I'm not sure what it weighs, but it's a lot more than your typical stand:




A closeup of how I braced it:




A little paint. Some kind of "Hammer" finish in a dark charcoal color I had on the shelf. Looks black to me:




I then drilled and tapped 4 holes in the gear box end of the main shaft, and milled a slot for the keyway:




And machined an end cap to keep the main shaft in the head stock:




I painted the face plate, and bolted it into the headstock for good. All held in place by the end cap:




The gearbox just sitting on the back:




I next machined a collar that holds the input drive bearing into the gearbox case. The original motor drive plate did this, I needed to make something that would work with a crank handle:




The collar I made just catches the outer radius of the bearing. I looks like the bore is too big, but it's not. I also drilled a hole in the top of the collar (not visible) for a locking pin (shown sitting in one of the holes in the top of the gearbox). The idea is the pin will lock the handle from rotating, effectively locking the position of the engine on the stand:




Next up, a brace to keep the gearbox from rotating relative to the frame. I start with a piece of scrap 1/4" hot rolled plate:




Drilled a few holes and milled away some material:




Cut the sides off:




And cleaned it up a bit:




Bent the ends so it fits flat against the bottom of the gearbox and the back of the frame:




Put some paint on it, and it fits! The gearbox is supported by the output shaft, and the brace keeps it from spinning:




I will process some more pictures and post more in the next few days.

Take care all!

David

Great job. So when do they go into production?

No production, that's for sure. This one is built from scrap!

It's design is dictated simply by what I've got lying around.

Hello All!

I've got some more pictures ready to share of my stand build.

After getting the box secure to the stand, I proceeded to finish up my crank handle. I first used a piece of scrap round stock I found in a bin to make a spacer that will go under the handle. I will also machine a matching radial hole in the spacer for the locking pin:




Machined it to fit over the inside shaft:




Machined a slot into the spacer to fit the handle. The idea is the handle and the spacer will spin together. Otherwise it would be impossible to lock the handle into position:




Whittled out a handle:




That just fits into the spacer slot:




Next I clamp my handle to the top of a small rotary table:




I shape a "Push" tool by hand on the pedestal grinder, and use the downward motion of the quill on the milling machine to start shaping a spline:




I slowly sneak up on the correct diameter. My goal is to have the I.D. of the inside spline sized so it "Just" presses onto the input shaft of the gearbox:




One thing I could have improved on is I made the tip of my push tool a little too pointed. The radial tips of those splines could have been a little flatter. Still, it came out fine for this job:




I gave the gearbox a nice fresh coating of paint, again something I found on the shelf. The can was probably 20 years old! I was amazed it still worked. I was then able to press the handle onto the shaft with a wooden mallet. Careful measuring allowed me to hit my mark:




I want a handle end that spins, so I start to shape one out of some 5/8" round stock. Here is the rough shape:




I polish up the handle end with some emery and ScotchBright. It's spins freely, and feels good when you crank the gearbox. Even shaped the end of the stainless bolt it spins on to match the shape of the handle end. Notice the locking pin that passes through the bearing retention ring, and through the spacer. The handle locks in the bottom and top positions:




Another view just for fun:




To finish up the very basic part of this stand, I use a scrap piece of DOM tubing and a strip of 1/4" bar stock to make a maneuvering handle that bolts to the top of the gearbox. The idea behind the handle is with the swivel casters at the back, and non-swivel at the front of the stand, I can grab the handle and maneuver the whole works with lots of weight on it. Well, in principle anyway:




And a couple parting shots of the basic stand. From the side:




A sort of side/front view:




In my next set of pictures, I'll show how I did the grips to hold the block, and the drip tray I made from an old bakers pan.

Take care all!

David

Super nice stand David. You really have some skills there.

NICE!!!

Thanks for the compliments. I've been impersonating a machinist now for about 35 years. I'm also super lucky to have a modest tool set here at home I'm very proud of. Just enough kit to get me in lots of trouble! It's all old with lots of wear (like me), but most of it's the good stuff.