sweet victory
Well-known member
I originally posted this on another Porsche forum, but figured there are probably more Danmar owners here who might be interested.
I've been thoroughly enjoying having a 2 post lift in my home garage these past few months. It's seriously been awesome. If you've been on the fence about the quick jack or this, the Danmar M6 is what you want. (Not the maxjax)
Out of the box it's a good set up, but there is definitely room for improvement. I would say these the biggest area for improvement is the hydraulic system and the lifting pads.
My first project will address the lifting pads. For a truck, SUV, or most other vehicles, I'm sure this lifting pad works just fine. That's not really the case with the 996, as I've needed to add hockey pucks to make the lift arms clear the bottom of the body. I hate adding spacers between the car and the lift pads since you risk having those spacers slide out. As OCD as I am, it turns into a bit of a circus. After getting the hydraulic lines hooked up, the process goes something like this:
I want to eliminate most of this. I would like to use the existing holes in the Porsche lifting points as a locator for a new lifting pad. This pad could slide upwards and downwards in the lift arm, that way the arm could be swung under the vehicle, and the lifting pad could slide up and locate into the lifting point to ensure a perfect, first time placement. I want it to be tall enough that it will be close to the bottom of the vehicle for ease of locating the pad to the lift point, but short enough that it will still clear the bottom of the side skirts on a lowered Porsche. I played around with the idea of making one height adjustable via threaded rod, but decided against it. So, a few minutes on Solidworks and McMaster and this is what I ended up with. The end that slides into the lift arm is ~ 2.1" long, and should be long enough so that I can slide the lifting pad upwards to ensure its lined up with the hole.
After I got the initial design figured out, I made a second model that was optimized for 3D printing. I hallowed out the part and shortened the base to save materials and printer time.
Here is what the first print looks like. It's difficult to tell, but I've decided to use a sealing washer as a consumable buffer between the lifting pad and the Porsche lift point. This is a nylon reinforced piece of rubber vulcanized to a steel washer. If you think this is too weak, let me put things in perspective. This washer is design for a 1" fastener. 30ftlbs of torque on a 1.00" fastener is going to produce a ~2200lb axial load. I'm not too worried about the washer, and it can be easily replaced for very little.
Here is what the original lift pad looks like:
Here is what the prototype lift pad look like:
And here, you can see we will need a revision X2 for this part.
I've shortened the part by roughly 5/8". I think that should do the trick.
I've been thoroughly enjoying having a 2 post lift in my home garage these past few months. It's seriously been awesome. If you've been on the fence about the quick jack or this, the Danmar M6 is what you want. (Not the maxjax)
Out of the box it's a good set up, but there is definitely room for improvement. I would say these the biggest area for improvement is the hydraulic system and the lifting pads.
My first project will address the lifting pads. For a truck, SUV, or most other vehicles, I'm sure this lifting pad works just fine. That's not really the case with the 996, as I've needed to add hockey pucks to make the lift arms clear the bottom of the body. I hate adding spacers between the car and the lift pads since you risk having those spacers slide out. As OCD as I am, it turns into a bit of a circus. After getting the hydraulic lines hooked up, the process goes something like this:
- Position arms under car
- Crawl around and place hockey pucks
- Lift arms a few inches
- Crawl around each corner for placement check
- Lower arms
- Crawl around each other to adjust
- lift arms a few inches
- Crawl around each corner for placement check
- Lift car to desired height
I want to eliminate most of this. I would like to use the existing holes in the Porsche lifting points as a locator for a new lifting pad. This pad could slide upwards and downwards in the lift arm, that way the arm could be swung under the vehicle, and the lifting pad could slide up and locate into the lifting point to ensure a perfect, first time placement. I want it to be tall enough that it will be close to the bottom of the vehicle for ease of locating the pad to the lift point, but short enough that it will still clear the bottom of the side skirts on a lowered Porsche. I played around with the idea of making one height adjustable via threaded rod, but decided against it. So, a few minutes on Solidworks and McMaster and this is what I ended up with. The end that slides into the lift arm is ~ 2.1" long, and should be long enough so that I can slide the lifting pad upwards to ensure its lined up with the hole.
After I got the initial design figured out, I made a second model that was optimized for 3D printing. I hallowed out the part and shortened the base to save materials and printer time.
Here is what the first print looks like. It's difficult to tell, but I've decided to use a sealing washer as a consumable buffer between the lifting pad and the Porsche lift point. This is a nylon reinforced piece of rubber vulcanized to a steel washer. If you think this is too weak, let me put things in perspective. This washer is design for a 1" fastener. 30ftlbs of torque on a 1.00" fastener is going to produce a ~2200lb axial load. I'm not too worried about the washer, and it can be easily replaced for very little.
Here is what the original lift pad looks like:
Here is what the prototype lift pad look like:
And here, you can see we will need a revision X2 for this part.
I've shortened the part by roughly 5/8". I think that should do the trick.
