Quickie engine stand?

(mhorowit wrote)
Currently thinking of bolting a 4' length of 2x6 (or 8) in place of the
prop,lifting the engine and then bolting the 2x6 to a 4x4 frame made of
2x4 with some kind of re-enforced corners. I'm trying to visualize the
twisting the engine weight might place on that 2x6. - Mike


I build theater sets. Never hung an engine on stage though. :-)

If you are in a garage with rafters, run a 9' leg UP to the cross rafters
and secure - attach flange mounting board to leg. Build two legs like a
ladder if you would feel more comfortable with that set up. (One leg should
do it though)

Flange board can be a couple of pieces of 2'x2' plywood screwed together for
strength. (Will a 2x6 be wide enough for the bolt pattern?)

Engine will end up being mounted on the boards(s) the normal way -
horizontally like an engine stand.

To strengthen the leg going up to the rafters, attach stiffening boards up
the two sides - it'll look like a rain gutter or a flower box. 1x3's will
work fine here. Pre-drill. Too much work - grab some scrap 2x4's instead.
g

I'm thinking an 8' long board (2x4, shelving material, plywood sheet,
whatever) on the floor will lay flat so you can park something heavy on it -
car, motorcycle, brother-in-law? Floor board can run away from the engine -
opposite what an engine stand looks like, where the bottom piece with the
wheels is under the hanging engine.

1"x2" cross bracing would be fine here. No bracing would work too, just put
a small 2x4 block on either side of the flag pole leg, then attach the
blocks to floor board. Give yourself about 2' on the engine side and 6' feet
on the brother-in-law side. He can sit in a chair, so long as the chair is
on the floor board.

It sounds more complicated than it is. In the shop we could spit this out in
3 minutes. However, in the shop we have all the boards, screws, saws,
drills, quick-grips, etc right there :-)

Again, this is for a garage with exposed rafters. However, anything up on
the ceiling that you can attach the leg to will work. We're not talking that
much weight/force/torque up there, so long as you have the floor board in
place preventing the bottom from kicking out.

Good luck.

Montblack