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Thinking of machining a Aluminum floor jack. Your thoughts

rdn2blazer

rdn2blazer

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I want a bad ass aluminum floor jack and all the ones you can buy are junk IMHO. Or the decent ones are light duty or insanely expensive. So I figured I would machine an aluminum jack using 1" 6061 Aluminum plate as the main side plates. Mill out some cool pockets for looks and some weight savings. Use steel wheels though. This will be the jack for my K5. I would basically copy say a Craftsman or good jacks design, the Craftsman is a crappy jack but looks good. Mine would just be heavier duty and have a much better bottle jack. Also make it a little longer so it jacks higher. Your thoughts? Worth it?
 
All the pivots will be bearinged and rebuildable.
 
My first thought was it needs to go higher than other jacks but i see that is already in your plans. :thumb:
 
4X4HIGH said:
My first thought was it needs to go higher than other jacks but i see that is already in your plans. :thumb:
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What would you think, about 4" longer. Can't make it too long. I will make it wider too.
 
Not really sure, i figure most floor jacks go about 24" or 25" high and it would be nice to see 30" high or so.
 
So how are you designing this jack? Are you generally using the same design/material/material size as existing jacks? Or maybe just using thicker material?

There is much, much more to making a strong design than simply using thicker material. And if you make the jack longer, you're increasing the lever arm and hence need to make the design even stronger.

I'm not saying you're doing it wrong, but how are you designing this jack and how are you implementing and where are you finding the hydraulic portion of the jack?

And what is so bad about existing jacks? I have two different hydraulic jacks that do a great job of lifting my buggy, one really old craftsman one and one newer low profile aluminum one from costco.
 
4X4HIGH said:
Not really sure, i figure most floor jacks go about 24" or 25" high and it would be nice to see 30" high or so.
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I thought they only go about 20 high. I will measure my steel 3 ton tomorrow. 30 is a good round number but might be too long.
 
38377k5 said:
So how are you designing this jack? Are you generally using the same design/material/material size as existing jacks? Or maybe just using thicker material?

There is much, much more to making a strong design than simply using thicker material. And if you make the jack longer, you're increasing the lever arm and hence need to make the design even stronger.

I'm not saying you're doing it wrong, but how are you designing this jack and how are you implementing and where are you finding the hydraulic portion of the jack?

And what is so bad about existing jacks? I have two different hydraulic jacks that do a great job of lifting my buggy, one really old craftsman one and one newer low profile aluminum one from costco.
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I'm going to draw up my design and talk with a couple of the many engineers I work with and see if they can run some numbers to figure out if my design is strong enough. I know the longer length makes for a bigger leverage arm. I'm not new at designing and building stuff. Still in the thought process design stage. As far as the current Aluminum jacks out there I had the Craftsman jack and it was a POS. My bud has the same jack and his is a POS.

His and mine squeeked after a while like crazy. Mine leaked after less then a year. Not to mention the force on the handle it took to lift a car or truck was WAY excessive compared to my 25yr old steel jack that has never ever failed me and is east to jack. Craftsman jacks are a poor design in my openion. Most of the reviews of other jacks are ok at best. There is not one Al. jack that has an outstanding review. There are great steel jacks but thats not what I want. This will come together, just going to take some time. Thanks for your input, it is appreciated. Exactly the reason I posted this is for input.
 
Corey 78K5 said:
Pfff. :rolleyes: Like your ideal is better than my ideal of a cinder block and an old bumper jack. How's that for lift???

:D :haha:
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Dude! thats bad ass, did you come up with that idea all by yourself :D :haha:j/k
 
Well hurry up and make it already! Let's see some pics when it's done. :)
 
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