Rotisserie is binding

Lizer

Lizer

Mad Scientist
I'm putting a frame on a rotisserie (this is my first time using a rotisserie) but the rotisserie is binding. The arms are learning in way to the inside and that doesn't allow the balancer threaded rod to thread down into its boss/stop (prevents the rotisserie from spinning while raising the arms to adjust center of gravity).

It's pissing me off. Hopefully from the pics you can make some suggestions.
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It is way off balance. The center of rotation needs to be the rotational center of mass. You need to shorten the vertical arms. Frames are tricky imho. Sometimes they will only balance when installed upside down.

Don
 
The sloppy fit between the parts doesn't help, but if you stand back and look the telescoping tube at the bottom is set too short, it's pulling everything inward and frame is pushing outward, causing the parts to go out of parallel. Hint, the distance between holes from one end to the other should match the frame while the parts are straight up and down.... Loosen bottom cross tie and pull the ends (uprights) outward and it should help.. I agree with Don, you'll need to bolt to the top of the frame where it is more flat or use some washers as shims to bring things back vertical again, as that is adding to the problem of skewing the parts.


When I was in the market for a rotisserie, the "bought" ones I looked at had the 1/8" slop in the sliding parts, which looks like what you show there.. One had a car on it and the owner showed it to me, as he rotated the car the arms attached to the body flopped up and down from all the slop. That is exactly why I built my own:

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Note how all the tubing is a snug fit to keep things perpendicular/parallel where needed. So when you bolt yours together it should be aligned where the parts are vertical just like the component it slides into. Adjust your cross bar length until you get that and it will help out tremendously, as well as bolting to a flat surface that is exactly parallel to the ground so it keeps the mounting arms straight.
 
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Last night I did try to lengthen the cross member, but loosening it and trying to pull the ends apart didn't budge anything. So I took a block of wood and used a BFH to hammer the crossmember to 'stretch.' But even then I only got 1-2 inches out of it before the 'sound' and feel changed and I could tell I was maxed out. But this didn't change any of the geometry I had going on with the binding.

My next step was to also pile a bunch of washers in between the front frame arm where it slopes up so the rotisserie connection is parallel with the ground instead of pointing down.

This rotisserie is a giant POS. Glad I only paid $800 for it on FB marketplace, was still brand new and handn't been used. Lists for around $1500 online.
 
dhutton01 said:
View attachment 12772

Shorten these. You are so far off balance it will never work.....
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Are you circling the vertical there to raise the center of gravity? That's my entire problem. You can see how it's binding in there and I can't raise it. I'm trying to balance this and I can't even get to that point. The threaded rod is supposed to raise it, but it's binded so much the rod can't do it. And then it's leaning forward so much, the rod isn't even going into the little catch for it. I am going to detach the front and try to level the attachments better and see if that gives me more adjustment there.
 
You started too far off from balance imho. Frames are tricky. Support the weight of the frame and start over with the arms as short as they will go. You need to start relatively close to balanced imho. If you look you have all the weight below the rotation axis.

Don
 
dhutton01 said:
You started too far off from balance imho. Frames are tricky. Support the weight of the frame and start over with the arms as short as they will go. You need to start relatively close to balanced imho. If you look you have all the weight below the rotation axis.

Don
Click to expand...
I see that now. Was following the instructions with the rotisserie by starting as low as they go. But on a car body that is much taller, you don't want to start too high too fast for fear of flipping. I can see how that's not the case with a frame. This advice here gives me a good starting point.
 
@dhutton01 You've been a real life saver. I put a stack of washers between the frame and the front attachment to level that out, then I loosened the crossmember while I got the entire frame lifted and leveled, so it could automatically adjust and space itself out as needed. Once I got the frame where I needed to be I tightened the crossmember. With the frame in its highest position the binding is gone and it rotates pretty freely now.

I completely see what you mean by flipping the frame upside down. It would put most of the frame up a little higher and more even with the center of balance. I don't have a good fast way to flip my frame over so I left it as is. This is about as far as I can get it without putting a lot of effort into it, but I only need it for painting the bottom of the frame so this will work, and I can just swing to the other when I need to paint the other half. If the frame was upside down I could probably rotate it completely vertical.

Thanks a million for the annotated pics, they helped. It all made sense to me when I was doing it tonight.
 

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