Rubber bricks, basically. Something I could re-purpose?

[9c1nova]

Jack, I remember a newspaper story about a company in British Columbia who received a $10,000 Gov't Grant to help them in the recycling of used tires. They broke down the tires in some kind of shreading process that separated the steel belts, which was sold as scrap steel. The rubber was then processed into bricks which are used in playgrounds under swings and other equipment for safety. On a side note, it was several years ago, they also had all the cord from the tires which at that time there was no demand for, so they were stock piling it. These might a good size if cut in half?
Perhaps you could check on companies that build playgrounds?

Bruce

 

[bazzateer]

This is cheap and easy.

+1, I recently bought 10 used ones off eBay for the equivalent of about $10-12 delivered to my door. They work great.

 

[theoldwizard1]

Jack, I remember a newspaper story about a company in British Columbia who received a $10,000 Gov't Grant to help them in the recycling of used tires. They broke down the tires in some kind of shreading process that separated the steel belts, which was sold as scrap steel. The rubber was then processed into bricks which are used in playgrounds under swings and other equipment for safety.

That stuff is still sold, but I have only seem it in shredded form.

 

[simplec6]

What vehicle?

 

[demographic]

conveyor belting.

Just what I was going to say, quite a few farmers have a good length of it laying about as do some quarries.

 

[alberto]

Get one of those livestock matts from a farm store. They are about an inch thick, cut matt to the sizes you need and sandwich the rubber pieces. I think I paid 26 bucks for the one I last bought. The leftover matt will be for the front of your workbench. These matts work much better than the purpose built anti-fatigue matts out there...And a whole lot cheaper.

This. Cutting it might be a bear, but this will definitely work for your application. You just need to ask some horse people where a supply store is nearby.

 

[Jack Olsen]

I emailed a couple of vendors of pavers made out of recycled tires. Two of them agreed to send me samples. That might be all I need.

The recycled tire stuff you see at kids' playgrounds would be ideal. I hope the pavers are something like that.

Thanks for the ideas.

 

[Rickstir]

Contact the highway department, see if they have any scrap bridge bearing pads. Else a quarry with scrap conveyor belts.

 

[Jack Olsen]

Well, the cheap-or-free part of my personality is strong. Some of the places that made recycled-tire pavers and playground surfaces were willing to send samples, but I was going to have to pay the shipping.

So today, I just cut up some of the wood from the concrete forms (from back when I installed the lift) and added some HF floor-padding pieces I'd had in storage.

I painted the center portion so it would look less like a piece of a 2x6 sandwiched with a piece of plywood. The rear ones were customized with a long lower section which is to keep the (slightly lower) rear swaybar from scratching or cracking any of the tiles.

The dollar is for scale. (It's also the most expensive item sitting on the table.)

So far, my review is positive. They hold the car firmly in place. And they were free.

Here's what they look like in use:

Just one:

The rear one protects the tiles from the swaybar:

And a belly pan view:

 

[mixxmstrmike]

I made the exact same thing to use as "feet" for my air compressor. I bought the rubber piece from my local hardware store for a few dollars, if that. I cut a 2x4 into the sizes I needed and applied Gorilla glue and it's been working solid.

-Mike

 

[BHR4CE1]

I think that the scissor lifts come with rubber bricks to use for this exact purpose...at least that's what the folks at Bendpak told me. Maybe they would sell them a la carte?

 

[Jack Olsen]

They do sell them a la carte. They're sixty bucks each.

 

[bazzateer]

What colour are you going to paint them Jack?

 

[gscallon]

Hello Jack,
I'm sorry I missed your post until now. I had the exact same question a year or so ago and came up with what turned out, for me at least, to be a great solution. Here is an excerpt from a post I made on the 356 Registry site regarding the pads I found. I've also included a link to the post that has photos.

All of this said, what you've come up with seems great, and the price is right.

Best regards,
-Greg

From 356 Registry post:
I've also heard people mention the different "pads" they use under their lift arms. Some use wood. Others use hockey pucks. I did some searching and found these 4" x 4" x 1" rubber blocks at an online jewelry supply distributor.(just Google "rubber block jewelry" or something like that) They're about $6 each, which may be more than a hockey puck I don't know, but they're more flexible than a puck so they provide a bit of give when needed. They seem absolutely perfect for such use so I thought I'd share.

The post, with photos:
http://porsche356registry.org/356talk/1/20074.html

 

[Jack Olsen]

What colour are you going to paint them Jack?

Hey, those already ARE painted. They're gray, not green (I know -- shocking), to match the padding.

From 356 Registry post:
I've also heard people mention the different "pads" they use under their lift arms. Some use wood. Others use hockey pucks. I did some searching and found these 4" x 4" x 1" rubber blocks at an online jewelry supply distributor.(just Google "rubber block jewelry" or something like that) They're about $6 each, which may be more than a hockey puck I don't know, but they're more flexible than a puck so they provide a bit of give when needed. They seem absolutely perfect for such use so I thought I'd share.

The post, with photos:
http://porsche356registry.org/356talk/1/20074.html

Thanks, Greg. I actually considered the jewelry blocks. For my purposes, I wanted something thicker. I can still use the padded floor mat piece I've been using most of the time (maybe I'll try painting it, so there's no blue), but my idea for the blocks was to get some extra height when I lifted the car up.

 

[NeilH]

how thick is that rubber? 8mm?

 

[bazzateer]

Hey, those already ARE painted. They're gray, not green (I know -- shocking), to match the padding.

Damn, at work so can't see the pics, I was sure they looked 'nearly finished'. I'll look when I get home then come back here and grovel!

 

[DrunkSmurf]

Jack I think you're bordering on being as cheap (frugal?..lol) as me.

I absolutely hate paying out for something I know can be made on the cheap with some thought and effort.

When reading your original question, my thoughts were similar to your end product. Wood blocks with some kind of cheap durable rubber.

Great job, and sure as heck beats $60 bucks a pop.

 

[Jack Olsen]

how thick is that rubber? 8mm?

9.5mm. But it's softer than rubber or neoprene. It's more like wetsuit material. It doesn't fully compress with the car on it, so I think it's in the right neighborhood of what the job calls for.

Jack I think you're bordering on being as cheap (frugal?..lol) as me. I absolutely hate paying out for something I know can be made on the cheap with some thought and effort.

Exactly. $240 would add significantly to the cost of a very frugal lift. I'll recap the costs:

Second-Hand Lift Table - $445
Home Depot Truck Rental - $20
Concrete Saw Rental - $85
Concrete, rebar and forms - $90
Replacement tiles - $30

Total: $670

(Getting able to snap these pictures: Priceless.)

 

[bazzateer]

OK, home now, can see the grey paint but I won't grovel because I think it would look better either green or floor colour. Just my opinion of course, which is free, and worth every penny!

 

[6768rogues]

Tractor Supply has some rubber mats that are quite think. One decent sized mat should provide a lifetime worth of blocks.

 

[Jack Olsen]

I made one more set out of leftover pieces. These are shorter, which means I can slightly change the angle and weight distribution with them.

I also trimmed off the edges of the blue padding and slapped on some tan paint. This seems to be the easiest solution, honestly. But now I've got the bricks and the pad -- I can choose whichever seems more right for the job.

So, bazzateer kind of gets his wish -- since the pad is floor-colored.

 

[ibedayank]

jack if that don't work out
recycled rubber parking curbs

 

[bazzateer]

So, bazzateer kind of gets his wish -- since the pad is floor-colored.

Much better!

 

[yhprum]

Wood blocks with the grain vertical will last forever. Great compressive strength.

 

[Jack Olsen]

Multiple vertical grain pieces are my current plan for spacers between the bottom of the lift and the concrete. Although I'm also going to take a look at some of the new composites they're using for decks.

My reasoning for pairing a 2x6 with plywood was to reduce the chances of a split in the wood causing problems. Originally, I had the 2x6 sandwiched between two pieces of plywood, but that made the piece too tall to easily roll the car over. I'm not 100% happy with the 2x6 being exposed, but I'm running the grain perpendicular to the seams on the car that could conceivably damage it. (And even so, I'm not putting the blocks under the seams themselves.) I believe the chances of splitting in this specific use are very low.

And I found a place to stow them: down with the prop bars, under the lift itself.

 

[Dan in Pasadena]

...Just my opinion of course, which is free, and worth every penny!

I'm going to remember that saying. It applies to me (probably more often than I know!)

 

[Johnny chaos]

hockey pucks were already mentioned but that is probably your best bet.

 

[Jack Olsen]

For my purposes, hockey pucks are too small (both in height and width) and too hard, since the car has a sheet of ABS plastic attached to the belly pan with screws. I need something that will compress and conform to the screw heads; hockey puck material is too hard for that. And the small diameter means I'm concentrating a lot of the load on a very small footprint, which eliminates some of the positives -- stability on the lift, weight focused on a small section of the tiles -- of where the belly pan of the car and the flat top of the lift come together.

Honestly, the best solution has turned out to be the one I already had -- the kids' room padding. It maintains a huge contact patch (48"x48") for stability and load distribution. It conforms to the screw heads and other small irregularities on the belly pan. It was free. It sits inconspicuously under the car (especially now that it's painted). And I can pull in and out without moving it -- or take it apart into its four sections and store it easily in a cabinet or under the lift itself.

So in some ways, I've come full circle back to where I started. Still, I've got the wood/rubber blocks now for more overall height -- and also for clearance on other 911s that might have external oil lines along the passenger side rocker or AC hoses running along under the car.

I do use hockey pucks with my floor jacks, though.

 

[petee_c]

Hockey pucks are like $10-15/dozen..... would work well in your situation

Call around to sports stores. They should have them.... even in California.... Doesn't Gretzky live there with his family?

P

 

[Jack Olsen]

Thanks. I already have hockey pucks. But they would not work well for what I need with this lift. They're too small and too hard.

 

[srmofo]

I'm surprised no one has mentioned hockey pucks....I keed, I keed.

Jack- did you ever update your original "lift on a budget" thread? Im curious to what your final solution was for stability....or better yet, did you do a build thread when you placed it in the ground?

 

[Jack Olsen]

Thanks for asking, Srmofo. There are about nine pages on the installation in the main thread on the garage. It starts here.

And of course, there's the very classy and suspenseful video I made about it:

<iframe width="853" height="510" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/_6Y-iRs4Egc?rel=0&hd=1" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

The installation ended up being a lot of overkill, I'm convinced. But it's better to go overboard than to end up with the thing falling over. It's not like a 2-post lift where the concrete plays any role in holding anything upright. It just needs a place to sit. Still, I poured an 8-inch (sometimes thicker) base into a 16-inch (sometimes deeper) hole, and reinforced the new concrete with rebar that was also tied into the existing pad by drilling/sinking/bending in more rebar.

I haven't bolted it down yet, but I've got 6-inch red head anchors for that. Even without the anchors, there's no moving the thing. The way I set it up the load is right on center, and these tables are designed to get bumped by forklifts and not tip. Still, I'll bolt it down before I do the next big round of work on the race car.

Here are a couple of pictures. The total budget was $455 for the lift, $215 for the concrete, rebar, tool rentals and tile. Pretty cheap for this much beautiful green hydraulic muscle.

 

[Sriracha Me]

So simple yet beautiful.

 

[bazzateer]

So simple yet beautiful.

This isn't the Hot Women thread!

 

[BJ42LX]

Rotary makes pads similar to these in two thicknesses: 3" and 1.5"

FJ2428 3" about $17 each
FJ2427 1.5" about $11 each

Google to find best pricing from various suppliers.

 

[Sriracha Me]

This isn't the Hot Women thread!

Haha you know what i meant, the garage and the inventions.

 

[MBfreak]

Try an ore processing plant supplier. Ore an ore/gravel plant maintenance shop.
They use rubber "logs", often with an alu backing profile for various ore/gravel tumblers. Certainly big and strong enough. Cut to size with metal band saw, lubricate with water.

Ola

 

[Frank The Plumber]

Cow pads.
A farm and fleet store will have cow pads.
Cow pads are made for dairy cows to sleep on or walk on, concrete sanitary surfaces damage them, cows in pain don't produce milk well.
A cow pad is usually sold in a 6 foot x 5 foot chunk of nice 1" thick rubber. You would have enough spare rubber block to insulate and isolate every thing you ever wish.
A lot of guys use cow pads in a weight room so they don't clang the floor and wake up the wife at home. You can dump a 70 pound barbell on it and it will **** up the shock.

 

[Jack Olsen]

Rotary makes pads similar to these in two thicknesses: 3" and 1.5"

FJ2428 3" about $17 each
FJ2427 1.5" about $11 each

Google to find best pricing from various suppliers.

Those are good. Still a little pricier than I'd like, but better. Thanks.

And thanks, Frank. I'd like to look at stall (cow) pads one day. But the nearest Tractor Supply is a long way from me. Still, I've got some other ideas for them down the line.