Garage Lifts

[ryancassidy]

Hey.. that's a really cool idea! Great attention to detail in the build of that. Top Notch!

I needed to wait until I returned home last night to confirm, but turns out I have a lot of 1/4" x 6" steel plate (10ft sticks). So I'm going to cut a few of those as plates for the front two posts toward the entrance of the garage. see how that impacts it. I know it will help the front for sure, just how much is what I'm curious about. Not sure if I need 1/2" or could get away with 1/4". But if I cut two 9.5" long sections of that 6" wide plate, I can put them back to back and support the entire undersection for sure. I might even seem weld them and grind it flat too, not that its needed, but I'd know..... I like the cutting board idea though as that's a lot easier to work with for me...... something to think about for sure....

I also bought the shims you mentioned. They are bigger than I anticipated, but I can see where putting 4 of them under one post might not be the best of ideas, instead use them to just "shim" a corner of the post to make it plumb. Hopefully not needing the 1/4" flavors.

I've had too much time to obsess about bolting it down. LOL I think where I'm at is to put it where it will live 99% of its life (without the car on it) and shim it in place there. Drill the holes and bolt it down. Then re-level now that I know how to do all that... (thank you for that!)

Ryan

[Tom]

If you already have the steel plate, and a means to cut it, then that seems like a no brainer. Some people prefer plywood or cutting boards because they are easier on concrete slabs, but the column is steel to start with, so I dunno.... I'd tack them together if you need to stack two, although if you bolt the lift down and the bolt goes through the plates, welding them together is more than needed I suppose. But I'd still do it too.

Speaking of more than needed, this reminded me of another project/tool I made for the rolling bridge jack...

rbj-spacer1.gif (1.07 MiB) Viewed 2584 times

I needed a spacer in an thickness I didn't have, so turned it into a TIG practice session.

rbj-spacer-block.gif (1.09 MiB) Viewed 2584 times

rbj-spacer2.gif (1.12 MiB) Viewed 2584 times

With these plates, the rubber lifting block can sit flush on the rolling jack body and its pull-out wings....

rbj-yellow.gif (1.01 MiB) Viewed 2584 times

All welded up and painted to match the safety yellow pieces on the lift.

[Tom]

And you'll likely want these rubber lifting blocks (Rotary makes a good set)


https://www.amazon.com/Auto-Rolling-Rub ... 098&sr=8-4

[larry]

Why are there 2 pairs of pads with different thicknesses in this set? I’m dealing with a full rise scissor but I don’t think that makes a difference.

[ryancassidy]

Went to start drilling the holes.. no glory... turns out I have an older hammer drill and a newer SDS bit.. (yeah I haven't done much concrete drilling). Didn't even know there was such a thing. So I punted on that for the day and focused on the columns and the like. Columns are all plumb and I've opted to go with 1/2 Black HDPE to shim the front two columns. The shims I ordered from Amazon work great and are super easy to install.

I A.) wanted to give myself some adjustment capabilities since I'm at the limit on the fronts already and B.) needed something I had the bandwidth/tools to work with.

Yeah I've got a metal cutting saw, grinding wheels, MIG welder etc, but I don't have anything large enough to drill a 3/4" hole through 1/4 steel 16x times over. And I find working with metal in general is just a mess... HDPE is much easier to work with in my shop with the woodworking tools etc. With a 2200 PSI (that's at the low end) compression strength, over 4 different plates that are 12x9, I feel more than confident in its capabilities.

More to come. HDPE ordered.

Ryan

[Tom]

Why are there 2 pairs of pads with different thicknesses in this set? I’m dealing with a full rise scissor but I don’t think that makes a difference.

That's just the set I bought, to have options. I got them to put on top of my rolling bridge jack, so I could lift a car off the lift's runners without metal-on-car contact... I either use the skinny ones or the thick ones depending on how high/low the car is....

[Tom]

Went to start drilling the holes.. no glory... turns out I have an older hammer drill and a newer SDS bit.. (yeah I haven't done much concrete drilling). Didn't even know there was such a thing. So I punted on that for the day and focused on the columns and the like. Columns are all plumb and I've opted to go with 1/2 Black HDPE to shim the front two columns. The shims I ordered from Amazon work great and are super easy to install.

I A.) wanted to give myself some adjustment capabilities since I'm at the limit on the fronts already and B.) needed something I had the bandwidth/tools to work with.

Yeah I've got a metal cutting saw, grinding wheels, MIG welder etc, but I don't have anything large enough to drill a 3/4" hole through 1/4 steel 16x times over. And I find working with metal in general is just a mess... HDPE is much easier to work with in my shop with the woodworking tools etc. With a 2200 PSI (that's at the low end) compression strength, over 4 different plates that are 12x9, I feel more than confident in its capabilities.

More to come. HDPE ordered.

Ryan

My general contractor tried to drill our porcelain tiles for the lift, and got no where. Dulled his bits and got a few sparks. The tile guy had to come over with some fancy drill and bit, but I didn't pay a lot of attention to what it was. For a normal concrete slab, a trip to Home Depot should get you set up... I'm not a mechanical engineer, but would have to think HDPE shims, the size of the lift's foot, will hold up to much much more weight than the lift itself can take. If you have an HD-9 and end up with a spare set.....

[ryancassidy]

Wow... So I had my GC come over... he used one of those SDS Drills and my SDS drill bit and he literally knocked them out in 30 minutes. Right Tool, Right Job. I could have bought an SDS drill, but the two times I needed it in the past 10 years, he's been doing the work anyway.. lol

Got the rear two bolted down and shimmed (already a big difference in stability).

While here we shot a laser and checked the floor. Turns out there is a 1.5" slope between posts which is really tough to see with the naked eye. Natural slope to the garage. So I'm buying some 1" spacers for the front posts before I go and bold those down. Then I'll re-adjust the cables and the locks to get this thing totally dialed in. its already works good, but it could be perfect. And once I get it bolted down, I don't want to have to worry about running out of room on the cables for adjustments. The 1" spacers will go a long way I think to helping this.

Its funny... put a lift in your garage.. its easy.... Its more intensive than it looks and the stuff to think through. Good learning experience for sure! Will have to put together considerations or something when I'm finished.

I also ran a dedicated 20amp circuit (didn't really need it, but I also installed a pressure washing station on the same circuit), those are considerations to take into account too. Will have to take some pictures when done.

[Tom]

Wow... So I had my GC come over... he used one of those SDS Drills and my SDS drill bit and he literally knocked them out in 30 minutes. Right Tool, Right Job. I could have bought an SDS drill, but the two times I needed it in the past 10 years, he's been doing the work anyway.. lol

Got the rear two bolted down and shimmed (already a big difference in stability).

While here we shot a laser and checked the floor. Turns out there is a 1.5" slope between posts which is really tough to see with the naked eye. Natural slope to the garage. So I'm buying some 1" spacers for the front posts before I go and bold those down. Then I'll re-adjust the cables and the locks to get this thing totally dialed in. its already works good, but it could be perfect. And once I get it bolted down, I don't want to have to worry about running out of room on the cables for adjustments. The 1" spacers will go a long way I think to helping this.

Its funny... put a lift in your garage.. its easy.... Its more intensive than it looks and the stuff to think through. Good learning experience for sure! Will have to put together considerations or something when I'm finished.

I also ran a dedicated 20amp circuit (didn't really need it, but I also installed a pressure washing station on the same circuit), those are considerations to take into account too. Will have to take some pictures when done.

1.5" slope isn't that bad. Mine's more than that, but my concrete guys were on the high end of the building code range (grrr). Doubt I'll ever do it again, but next time I'd insist on the least amount of slope permissible. I agree they world needs a write-up on the reality of installing a lift at home. It's awesome and I'd do it again without hesitation, but they are marketed like appliances even though you really need to spend a little time making them just right and getting familiar with their nuances.

[dr bob]

Following up late on this subject but decided to share a few thoughts. I have two-post mid-rise lift (Max-Jax) for several reasons. For the mountings, I added shims/spacers of HDPE that I cut out of some plastic cutting boards from Big Lots. Like $2/each, about 8mm thick, and white. I'm in the same boat with the porcelain tile and the bolts reaching down to anchors set almost an inch below the tile top surface into concrete. Using the plastic gives me a better water seal, meaning I can wash the floor and not fill the anchor holes under the foot of the column. It also eliminates some annoying rusts stains that seem to happen when the unpainted steel foot on the columns gets wet from floor washing.

For the tile, I used a 1" diamond hole saw, then followed with a 7/8" bit in my hammer drill for the anchor in the concrete. No risk of cracking the tile. So there's a slight ledge of concrete below the hole in the tile. 1" plastic chassis plugs sit in those holes almost flat on the tile floor while the columns are moved out of the way between uses. A smear of Vaseline around the edge of the mushroom hat on the plugs keeps them from getting casually kicked or knocked out, plus keeps floor wash water from getting in the anchors. Looks a lot better than open holes in the tile while the lift columns are out of the way.

I added twist-lock outlets over the columns, and made a coily extension cord down to an electric box that's held onto the column with magnets while the lift is in use. There are air couplings there too, with a hose to allow a filter/regulator station to hang on the column, again with some heavy-duty magnets. I'm not a fan of hanging heavy air tools by the aluminum air coupling as one picture shows, if only because even a casual bump will break the fitting and drop the tool. And honestly, I just don't use an air impact gun very often. Lug nuts get broken loose or tightened by hand with a dedicated plastic-lined socket on a ratchet or torque wrench. For most other stuff, the little battery impact gun has enough to do most jobs and is a lot easier to control the torque applied. It does a lot more nut-runner than impact duty.

Getting good sufficient light under the car for working there is perhaps the next challenge. Anybody have something they really like?