Rick6a
Well Known Member
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!
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!