grumpyvette
retired mech engineer
supporting your car while your under it
I know lots of guys who have built vehicle support pads from stacked 2x4s like these, and its cheap and easy to do, compared to the 12 ton jack stands,, but heres a few tips, use a good deal of wood glue on the contact points between the layers, 2x4s generally come in 8 foot lengths you get (6) 15 7/8" long sections of 2x4 per 8 foot length (remember the saw blade removes 1/8" per cut,and you need to keep the stack solid, a 15 7/8" x 15 7/8" section of 3/4" plywood sandwiched between the second and a second section next to the top layer adds a great deal of structural rigidity and tends to reduce the supports tendency to come apart.
you can drill each end of each 2x4 in the same location and use a carriage bolt and washers and nuts or thread rod and a counter sink to clamp the stack firmly, but its the wood glue thats the true binder, if its used correctly.
use pressure treated 2/4s for the lowest layer, and glueing a bit of old inner tube to the lower floor contact area prevents them from sliding easily. most jacks only lift to about 18" so it makes a great deal of sense to actually jack up your car and measure the distance between the tires and the floor before assembling a support stack , only to find its too tall for you to slide it under the tires.
adding a handle on the side like in the picture above, makes moving the support stack easier.
the 12 ton, jack stands still work better in some cases because you will need to remove the tires from the car and most jack stands are adjustable as to height while the support stack works best under the tires
READ THE LINK FOR A GOOD DEAL MORE INFO
http://forum.grumpysperformance.com/viewtopic.php?f=27&t=26
I know lots of guys who have built vehicle support pads from stacked 2x4s like these, and its cheap and easy to do, compared to the 12 ton jack stands,, but heres a few tips, use a good deal of wood glue on the contact points between the layers, 2x4s generally come in 8 foot lengths you get (6) 15 7/8" long sections of 2x4 per 8 foot length (remember the saw blade removes 1/8" per cut,and you need to keep the stack solid, a 15 7/8" x 15 7/8" section of 3/4" plywood sandwiched between the second and a second section next to the top layer adds a great deal of structural rigidity and tends to reduce the supports tendency to come apart.
you can drill each end of each 2x4 in the same location and use a carriage bolt and washers and nuts or thread rod and a counter sink to clamp the stack firmly, but its the wood glue thats the true binder, if its used correctly.
use pressure treated 2/4s for the lowest layer, and glueing a bit of old inner tube to the lower floor contact area prevents them from sliding easily. most jacks only lift to about 18" so it makes a great deal of sense to actually jack up your car and measure the distance between the tires and the floor before assembling a support stack , only to find its too tall for you to slide it under the tires.
adding a handle on the side like in the picture above, makes moving the support stack easier.
the 12 ton, jack stands still work better in some cases because you will need to remove the tires from the car and most jack stands are adjustable as to height while the support stack works best under the tires
READ THE LINK FOR A GOOD DEAL MORE INFO
http://forum.grumpysperformance.com/viewtopic.php?f=27&t=26