Featured Technical Skip The Jack Stands, make Riser Blocks

These were great, and just a lot safer than regular jack stands. In earthquake country you worry about a quake starting while you are under the car. I made them from wood s****s left over from roof construction of my shop.

 

Jack stands have their place, but I prefer wheel cribs because they're rock solid. I made a set a few years ago using new 10' 2x4's and deck screws, total cost was $88. I just stack them in a corner when not in use...

20" L x 12"W x11"H

 

With 2.4's laid on their side in the pattern shown in post one you would have 4 corners with 12.25 sq-in of contact at each corner. Each 12.25 sq-in would take 55,125 lbs (~27.5 tons) to induce a crush of the lumber. With four corners your talking about a total of 220,500 lbs, theoretically. That's over 110 tons. Wood is way stronger in compression than many realize. If you twist it or side load it at the same time things change. But if the load is straight up and down, it takes enormous weighs to induce the wood into deforming. It's why multi story buildings can be built with just wood and not collapse.

Ever drive by a bridge needing repair and see cribbing holding it up? They do it all the time. They did it for a couple of years locally a few years ago.

The only problem with my "poor mans lift" is getting the car high enough to use all my crib height. I've considered a crib for my jack to get the final 3.5" of height my cribs offer.

 

Yes for 6500 lb truck..if in doubt you can make the stands solid, we make pads with 2x4 to set under landing gearing of loaded semi trailer in some sketchy parts of the yard to keep em from sinking.

 

Just a joke, but I hate working with wood. The mess that saw dust makes, you that to have nails or screws.

There is nothing about carpentry I like or want any part of doing.

I have always felt going from working with metal to working with wood is a downgrade.

Just my two cents.

 

Is that compression parallel to the grain or perpendicular to the grain?

 

I disagree good craftsmanship is good good craftsmanship no matter the medium. I would say Marty’s stuff is top shelf every which way.
Dan

 

OMG! The Topper is tops!

 

I am going to build these for my 40 Merc project. Thanx!

 

I have never been very good with wood, when you cut it too short, you can't weld it back together. I have been looking on Temu for a wood welder ! We are going to use shortened axle housings to hold up the Mockup/Buck of the Top Banana beside the car at displays.

 

Note that the 2x4 variety prevents the tire from rolling off the riser block.

 

Now how about thread on making a riser block for your floor jack so you can lift your car high enough to get the wheels onto these riser blocks.

 

My floor jack picked up the '29 just far enough to slide them under. You could also leave off one layer of 2X4's and they will still be high enough, depending on one's girth diameter !

 

I resemble that statement! I need an extra row… Didn’t see Bob, the neighbor, today. Maybe tomorrow. Got to raid his wood storage shed yet

 

I fabricated my risers a few years ago using 4x4’s and 3/4” plywood. They are screwed and glued so they will never come apart. I made them about 12” high which is an ideal height for working under the car and still having easy access to the engine and interior. There are tapered wheel stops that cradle the tires so the car cannot roll, they also nest together for storage. The only time I use jack stands is when I remove the wheels and tires.

 

Old pic. Haven't used mine since I moved, but they'll be back under the F-100 once I wrap up the Model A.

 

We used to be able to go the local saw mill and get mill ends for firewood by the pickup load for free and they bought a chipper to chip all of them to send to the paper mill to make paper with. Those were handy for projects like this.

 

Marty, I've still got some low-oak welding rod from my days building scaffold on water towers and oil storage tanks. If you have need of it, I'll be more than happy to send you some. Red oak works in a pinch, but if you really want a solid weld, use white.


All BS aside, back in the water tower days, when we built scaffolding around the tanks, we would nail the boards together where they overlapped using nails or welding rod stubs. The nails or stubs would penetrate and make contact with the steel scaffold brackets that were welded to the tank. If I had a new kid on the job, I'd send him to the shack for low-oak rod. After he came back empty handed, and convinced that I was BS'ing him, I would stick a piece of any welding rod available into the lead and strike an arc on one of the buried nails. In a good wind, I could drag the arc across the board about a foot while the kid watched in total amazement.

 

Did you also ask him to get you the left hand pipe wrench?

 

Much Safer And I Have A Way To Crawl My Antique *** Up Off Of The Deck...Great Post...

 

No, but on one job, I had a foreman named **** Schulte. I sent the "first day on the job apprentice" to the tool shack to get a bucket of Schulte nuts. The guy in the tool shack sent him somewhere else, they sent him somewhere else and finally, he ran across **** and asked him. **** told him he was an idiot and to go back to work. The kid wouldn't come near me for a long time.

 

Left handed smoke shifter, 50 feet of dew line, bucket of prop wash. All come to mind for initiating the new guy. I'm sure there are others.

 

Wooden cribbing is often used to support equipment many times heavier than any car, as in when you start counting by the ton and not lbs. If it makes you nervous, just think about how much weight a ****py pallet can support if properly loaded.

 

When I had my 40 foot 1964 Owens Tahitian pulled out of the water and hauled to my house and put in my shop, the haulers had 2x4 cribs that they put under the keel. Four of them. Then they had balance screw jacks with a square plywood swivel pad to balance the boat that weighs 25,000 pounds. I bought all that stuff from them. When I finally decided to get rid of the boat, I kept all that stuff and the cribbing has been used under cars, a pickup camper and now leveling my old worn out enclosed trailer that holds much of my swap meet old Ford parts and also a work bench for my racing gokarts. I think that cribs like that could pretty much support the Earth!

Dave

 

Wow nice car
Dan

 

I’ve built few sets for around here and I love them!

 

So how are you builders nailing/screwing them together?
2 nails per corner, alternating so they don't hit the ones below?
Blue, then Red on the next? Or these 4, then next layer splitting the difference?