Tube Rotisserie

Here is a body tube rotisserie that I made (Picture 1). I have seen other's like it and it cost me next to nothing to make. It works great for slowly turning your fiber-glassed body tubes or for painting. With the slow rotation, you get that nice smooth surface (no runs) when wetting out your fiberglass job or even coat of paint.

Ok, so I got lucky and found a BBQ rotisserie motor and skewer from a garage sale for .50 cents. The pole I use is a closet cross bar pole, this I had in my garage from remodeling a closet. The closet pole works great because it is adjustable and will fit smaller to larger benches as well as many size tubes up to six feet. The hardware I already had on hand and the 3 foot piece of angle iron was bought from Home Depot.

So here goes. I cut the angle iron in half with a hack saw. Then I took the angle iron and measured 6 inches from one end . This is where the top of the bench should sit. Fitting the corner of the angle iron onto the corner of the desk and lining up the six inch line mark. I drilled two holes with a 9/32nds drill bit for the mounting bolts.

Repeat this step for the other side (Picture 2) . Once the mounting holes were drilled, I used two 1/4 eye bolts with flat washers and 1/4 nuts to mount both supports to the bench. Next using a grinder (you can use a round file) I ground out a "U" in the support for the closet pole (Picture 3). Make sure to test fit it so the pole fits into the "U" a least half way on both supports. At this point you should have a working stand without the rotisserie motor.

The closet pole was easy to make up. The skewer that came with the motor had a wood handle. I cut the skewer end off so that only 5/8 of an inch came out of the wood handle. Next I sanded the handle so it would almost fit inside the pole. Then using slight pressure, I pushed the handle into the pole with the stubby skewer end sticking out of the end of the pole. The wood end was flush with the end of the pole (Picture 4).

To add the motor, I used a T bracket (Home Depot) and some smaller hardware I had in my bolts bucket, I was able to mount the motor. I started by putting a bend into the T bracket to get the motor away from the support. Then I needed to drill the holes to line up with the motors mounting bolts. I also had to grind a "U" into the bracket for the motor mount connection to the skewer so it would not touch the bracket (Picture 5). Next I drilled the holes to mount the bracket to the support. Note: I drilled the holes while having the pole with the skewer installed. This way I was able to mount it so I could just barely keep the pole off the support while it was turning (Picture 6). Mount the bracket to the support and the motor to the bracket. Test the motor operation with the pole in place. make sure the only thing touching is the pole to the support at the other end (Picture 7).

I decided I wanted to make it so the supports folded down out of the way when not in use. I had some long 1/4inch eye bolts, so I thought of using them for the bolts. This would allow me to quickly unscrew the bottom bolt and loosen the top bolt. Using the eye as a thumb screw works out great. This shows the support in the 'Up" mode (Picture 8) and this show the picture of the "Down" mode (Picture 9). Notice the upper eye bolt is longer. this allows me the angle iron corner to clear the side of the bench without taking it completely off. Just remove the lower bolt, loosen the upper bolt till it will swing down and then put the lower bolt back in and let the angle iron rest on it. This will hold it back from the corner. Note: screws for the supports only have to be hand tight.

Using some semi hard foam (I found in a shipping box), I cut out two circles just slightly bigger that the BT I will be using. I cut a small X in the middle using a razor blade. This is for the pole to go through. All then have to do is insert one foam piece onto the pole, then slid you BT into the pole and then the second foam piece. Put your pole onto the supports and push the foam pieces into the ends of the BT. It should be somewhat centered on the pole. you are now ready to work.

Now you have a Body tube rotisserie for glassing body tube for a smooth finish or painting with an even surface.