Build It, Don’t Buy It, Part 2: Engine Cradle

Just like last month’s installment, Miller’s Josh Sprinkle was here to assist. He began by taking rough measurements of the footprint of the engine (we had it sitting on a moving dolly) and cutting sections of square tubing to form the base and legs and sheetmetal to form the mounts. We cut the tubing with a chop saw, trimming as needed to fit the engine, while still remaining narrow enough to fit within the legs of our engine hoist. Once we got the footprint right, Josh began welding the base together.

We used several of these corner magnets from StrongHand Tools to hold the legs together as we tack welded them together. We’re using our Millermatic 211 MIG welder with 0.030-inch ER30S wire and a 70/30 mix of argon and CO2 shielding gas.

With the base welded, Josh took measurements for the uprights, cut the tubing to length and welded them to the base. Note the 45-degree cuts on the front pair of uprights made to match the angle of the motor mount pads on the block.

To make the plates to mount to the engine, Josh cut sections of 12-gauge sheetmetal with Miller’s Spectrum 675 plasma cutter. You can use a cutoff wheel if a plasma cutter is beyond your budget. Incidentally, all the material we used to make this cradle was purchased for less than $40 from the remnant pile at our local sheet metal store.

Josh liked the plasma cutter so much he used it to cut the holes in two of the places for the motor mount bolts. Your author cut the other two in the drill press. It's perferable to make the holes larger than necessary to give a little wiggle room in the case your measurements aren't exact.

While he was at it, Josh cut triangle sections of sheetmetal to use as reinforcements for the legs of our cradle.