Homemade engine/lawnmower lift.

[thatrandomguy]

first of all i wanna say hello.
my name is Sander and im 14 years old and live in holland.
this is the homemade engine/lawnmower lift im making.
i am going to use it for lifting te front end up of my lawnmower so i can clean the deck en sharpen the blades without having to get the deck off.

so far the build is coming along pretty good. the only problem i ran into is mounting the bottle jack. it doesn't stay in place when the boom rests on it.
so my questin is. Can i weld or drill holes in the the bottle jack?

 

[thatrandomguy]

can i drill holes in the area of the black dots in this picture?

 

[Sasquatch4100]

I have a similar jack on my store bought bike lift. They fabricated at cradle for it to sit in and had it clamped in place. Works well and solid.

You might be careful where you drill as there my be fluid passages in that area.

Great work BTW! Glad to see good work from a young guy like yourself. Keep it up and when you're old and grumpy like some of us you'll be doing darn good in life!:thumbsup:

 

[BHD]

I made a lift out of a tall hydraulic jack and was before I found a place to buy with the clevis under the jack,

I made a mount out of a flat piece of steel and welded on the edges two small angle irons strips that would hold the jack, on the sides, not sure with out looking but I am guessing there is a bolt that can be removed from the base to keep in place on the out edge (not the jack) but the base,
It has worked now for about 20 years,
a friend made a smiular lift and did not make the base pivoit, and the stess caused the jack to leak at the base, ,

 

[BHD]

on any kind of jack or lift use some type of safety stand as well before getting under the item lifted, even a lawn mower falling could do one in,

If a failure occurs it can happen so fast that is just no time to react,

be careful and use some thinking when working on items that are suspended or raised,

even heavy duty commercial items fail from time to time, we were using our old fork lift and yes it was used and old but the lift chain broke and dropped the load, it only had a few thousand pounds on it, at the time, but we had been lifting up to 8000 pounds with it a few mins earlier, (all I am saying failure can occur with out warning and even tho you would have thought it to have been tested for more than that weight), yes we replaced the lift chain, with new, (found out some one in the past had put a grade two bolt in place of a pin at some time when relinking it, ),

 

[rgs03833]

BHD is Right - SAFETY???

Although I like to see people building their own stuff.

But I don't think this would make sense. How often do you sharpen your Blade???

Even twice a year, do you think it's worth your Safety?

You will have this sitting in your Garage taking up space just for Sharpening your Blade?

Can't you use a drive lift? See Pix Below.

With this, you can use for Cars, etc... and no space wasted!

 

[travis potter]

rgs03833 I think the fun is in the bulding when at 14 you can say I did that and be proud of it. He is learing how to design build something that he can use not just go down to the store and spend money.

 

[rgs03833]

rgs03833 I think the fun is in the bulding when at 14 you can say I did that and be proud of it. He is learing how to design build something that he can use not just go down to the store and spend money.

I didn't say anything about NOT being FUN!

Mostly, I agreed with BHD and then I added few things that I thought wasn't practical in my view that is all.

But if you want FUN, there are a few things that you can do and have FUN!

1. Jump off a Bridge or a Cliff.

2. Crawl into an Oven and turn the Gas on.

3. Lay on top of a Busy Train Track.

Need I go on? Your Fun and my Fun kinda different isn't it?

 

[Craig Clayton]

When I went to college and I was taking welding I wanted to build a drill press. My welding was good enough to pass fillets welds with 7014. I built the column from 2" steel pipe and the drill platform from 2" angle iron. The clamping means for the platform was poorly designed by me. One of the instructors was a calm man from Norway and he said my clamp did not really look PROPER. He was right it was a bad design by me. One of the other instructors said I will show you how to make a pipe clamp from pipe. He welded for me 2 pieces of 1/4" plate on the pipe and my eyes lite up because it was just perfect for my needs. I machined the quill and mounted an electric motor and I used the drill press for a number of years.

On your stand design you might take the advice the instructor from Norway gave me, it could use some help to make sure it does not break.
I did not see a 4 1/2" mini grinder in your pictures as these are great tools for fixing a weld that was cold.
On the bottle jack you might design a hold down clamp for each corner as it is only a 2 Ton jack.

My neighbour is from Holland and he has been welding for many years and he is now 77 years old. I know he will be in the shop working at the time of this writing or I could give you a saying in Dutch.

As the others stated work safe and maybe get some advice from an experinced adult.

If your design does not work at first just get the mini grinder. As time goes on your projects will become bigger and safer.

Craig Clayton

 

[PILOON]

That jack is cast iron and as such quite brittle. Any shocks or side loads would probably result in broken corners.
I'd suggest you consider some sort of clamping arrangement instead.

 

[radioman]

That jack is cast iron and as such quite brittle. Any shocks or side loads would probably result in broken corners.
I'd suggest you consider some sort of clamping arrangement instead.

Are you sure? it looks like harbor freight so I think it got that cheap pot metal so either you can drill it or its just gonna break once its drilled out. you will know your answer when you drill the first one out.

If you are handy with a welder and can use one, I'd run a bead on the outside of that base and see how it reacts. If the metal shrivels and beads up, I'd venture a guess its a crappy piece of metal and shouldn't be messed with drilling nor welding.

 

[BHD]

Here is the picture of the jack pivot I made on the old engine hoist about 30 years ago, I had very little to work with so that is why the pivot is made with two pipe sections, (it works amazing well), and you can see the angle clamps on it, on the one side you can see the cotter key I use to hold it in place. (I would think the same type of idea would work for you as well),

 

[GPintheMitten]

I think that's a little harshly put. I think you are suggesting safety but you can deliver your message a little more politely. He's a 14 year old kid trying to develop some skills.

I didn't say anything about NOT being FUN!

Mostly, I agreed with BHD and then I added few things that I thought wasn't practical in my view that is all.

But if you want FUN, there are a few things that you can do and have FUN!

1. Jump off a Bridge or a Cliff.

2. Crawl into an Oven and turn the Gas on.

3. Lay on top of a Busy Train Track.

Need I go on? Your Fun and my Fun kinda different isn't it?

 

[rgs03833]

I think that's a little harshly put. I think you are suggesting safety but you can deliver your message a little more politely. He's a 14 year old kid trying to develop some skills.

My comments was toward " travis potter "

But you're RIGHT GPintheMitten

Thank you!

 

[thatrandomguy]

Hello guys.
I have decited to stop this project.
I have put some loads on the lift and the metal is just not thick and strong enough.

Aventialie i will pick to project back up, but with better and more materials.

Thanks al for the nice and helpfull reply's.
Sander Albers.

 

[GPintheMitten]

Nothing wrong with taking a break. I'm sure you learned some things and had fun. Give it or another project a try later.

 

[Sasquatch4100]

Good luck on future projects. It's always a learning curve in the beginning and it kind of never stops. I still screw up things and have issues "engineering" the projects up and I do it professionally! LOL.

Just keep going and make sure Safety is always the first priority. Sure stinks having to dump a project because it isn't safe with all the time and effort, but it's better safe then dead!

Keep us updated and ignore the Sh** throwers!

 

[BHD]

Not ever project I ever tried turned out the way I wanted it to, and when I first started about your age, I had a lot of "practice" projects,

When I was your age I was into building mini bikes and one of my projects had a failure at the front forks and the frame of the bike, basically it broke into going down the road, that was fun, LOL

Keep trying and like said be safe, I know when your young your scrounging and trying to build with any thing that you can get your hands on, but all ready you have learned a lot in the engineering part of the fabrication realm, with just trying this project, so it is not a loss, I know some people who spends thousands of dollars on schooling and would not know how to build what you tried, (what I am trying to say is your educating you self)

I do not know if the numbers are correct but this statement is credited to Edison,

When Thomas Edison was interviewed by a young reporter who boldly asked Mr. Edison if he felt like a failure and if he thought he should just give up by now. Perplexed, Edison replied, "Young man, why would I feel like a failure? And why would I ever give up? I now know definitively over 9,000 ways that an electric light bulb will not work. Success is almost in my grasp." And shortly after that, and over 10,000 attempts, Edison invented the light bulb.

Keep up the good work and keep learning and trying,