DIY Wing Jack

I give Larry Geiger (Geico 266) full credit for making me aware of a simple low cost wing jack that according to him, some builders have been known to assemble in one form or another. I know a good idea when I see one and his photos was all it took for me to run out and buy the materials needed to roll my own example.

The basis for the clever design is a 3 ton ram jack available at Harbor Freight for $45. http://tinyurl.com/7eb5ed

The other required items needed to assemble the wing jack brought my total cost to about $60. Not bad.

My local HF had the jack in stock and I then swung by Home Depot to pick up a 2'X2'X3/4" piece of plywood, two 3-1/2" band clamps and one 10' stick of 1/2" electrical conduit.

My variation includes a few subtle differences from the example Larry provided: Specifically, instead of using a socket head cap screw ground to shape for the "ball," I chose to use a spare tie down ring cut up and turned down to size chucking it to a spinning cordless drill, grinding to size on my Grizzly 12" bench sander, polishing on a scotch brite wheel respectively. I then hollowed out the concave "socket" surface on the top of the jack finishing with a rotary ball file. A significant amount of material is removed and a lot of pressure is concentrated into that small area so to guard against the (somewhat remote?) possibility of the surface ever failing under load, I also went ahead and plugged the large hole in the side of the jack located directly underneath using steel dowel stock and secured with JB Weld I happened to have on hand. For handle stowage, I used a couple of 1/2" electrical conduit clamp brackets and even threaded a small block of wood to stow the ball when not in use. Not bad for a few hours work on a bitterly cold weekend. Thanks for passing the idea along Larry!

Hey, you stole the idea I stole from Larry, who stole it from....never mind... Yours look great Rick! I built a pair last month - now I am going to steal your idea for the jack handle storage - clever.

Paul

DYI Wing Jack

I built a similar jack but used a 1"steel pipe end cap instead of the ball you fabricated. I drilled a hole in the end cap for a 3/8" bolt, stuck the bolt thru from the insided and secured it with a nut. I also took a dremel to the threads inside the end cap just to take the sharp edges off. To use,screw the end cap into the tie down and put the jack ram in the cap. There is enough play between the ram and the cap to allow for some shifting as the wing goes up, but the cap keeps the ram in place.

Harbor Freight has on sale just now a thing called an Underhoist Safety Stand. $49.99. It looks just like a wing jack to me. Item No. 92258

Mike

Mike,
If I'm looking at the same one I think this model would be too tall.
See quote from the product manual of the shortest one I could find (model # 41860):
"Note!! The Two Ton High Jack Stand is 24? wide and can be used at a minimum height of 49 3/4? and a maximum height of 93 1/2?."

Got my jacks here in Canada from Princess Auto for $50CAD... great deal! My setup looks the same and I didn't steal the idea! Really! Works great too. On my 4, I have to lift under the wing slightly to engage the top of the jack with the tie down pin.
Cheers

Ironflight said:

Hey, you stole the idea I stole from Larry, who stole it from....never mind... Yours look great Rick! I built a pair last month - now I am going to steal your idea for the jack handle storage - clever.

Paul

Click to expand...

Might've been stolen from me, been using this technique for a while now, check here.

Another way

Is to buy a HF lifting table that are occasionally on sale for $80...Put a block of wood on the table and jack directly under the tie down eye...Works great.

I use the same thing with a frame to lift my SJ cowl up into position so it works great for both.

Frank

Finished throwing two of these together today. I'm still working on some sort of solution that will thread into the aircraft's tiedown hook holes, and then securely bolt to the jack. Another trip or two to the hardware store ought to do it.



Thanks for the great ideas, guys!

Jay,

If you got a friend with a cnc machine making the part is a piece of cake. Otherwise you can still do it manually, but may not look as nice. Unfortunately, I don't have any good photos online.

Basically, you want to fabricate a cup which slides over the jack piston. This creates a sleeve over the end. This assists in preventing the jack from slipping. Mine comes down about two inches. You want to drill the opening in cup slightly larger than the ram piston. Drill a hole in the bottom of the cup for a round head bolt with the thread size for the tie downs. The round head sits nicely in the indentation of the HF ram head.

If you get a block of aluminum, it should be easy to do with just a drill press. If you have acess to a cnc machine, then you can make the outside nice and round as well.

This one you can barely see it under the wing



This is a good shot of the wing stand



Both of these are taken when I did my W&B. I'll try and remember to take a photo of these when I'm at the hangar later today.

Bob

The thread below has some good ideas for a pipe cap on top of the jack that uses a threaded bolt into the tie down. See post #21.

Search for "jack" in RV Ongoing Maintenance Issues.


http://www.vansairforce.com/community/showthread.php?t=82111&highlight=jack

Instead of fabricating a cup, I fabricated brackets out of steel and bolts that essentially make the jack a part of the airplane.

One end screws into the bottom of the plane, in the tie down hole. The other bolts to the piston on the jack. We tested it tonight, and it works as intended.

I might still grind a little "divot" in the top of the piston, just so the bracket can't move at all, but so far that seems unnecessary.

Here is a tongue-in-cheek pic taken of me with my "gorilla-engineered" bracket (alcohol may have been involved):



And here is the jack, in action, this evening. It's stout as a bridge.

rleffler said:

Jay,

If you got a friend with a cnc machine making the part is a piece of cake. Otherwise you can still do it manually, but may not look as nice. Unfortunately, I don't have any good photos online.

Basically, you want to fabricate a cup which slides over the jack piston. This creates a sleeve over the end. This assists in preventing the jack from slipping. Mine comes down about two inches. You want to drill the opening in cup slightly larger than the ram piston. Drill a hole in the bottom of the cup for a round head bolt with the thread size for the tie downs. The round head sits nicely in the indentation of the HF ram head.

If you get a block of aluminum, it should be easy to do with just a drill press. If you have acess to a cnc machine, then you can make the outside nice and round as well.

Bob

Click to expand...

OR?.you can spend 3 bucks on a big socket. Can't remember what size I finally used; I think 1 3/8 or something similar. Works very well, cheap and easy!

jjhoneck said:

Finished throwing two of these together today. I'm still working on some sort of solution that will thread into the aircraft's tiedown hook holes, and then securely bolt to the jack. Another trip or two to the hardware store ought to do it.

Click to expand...

Are you talking about some sort of rigid coupling between the jack and the aircraft? I would be cautious about that. You want to allow for some motion between the jack and the aircraft. Many aircraft jacks have a cup shaped receptacle. The jack pad for the aircraft has a rounded tip. The setup allows the aircraft slight pitch and roll changes encountered while jacking and lowering while positively capturing the aircraft to prevent slips or drops.

-edit- you posted pics while I was typing. I think I would still put in the divot you mention.

The bracket allows for movement as you raise/lower the plane.