building a motorcycle lift. id like to have it powder coated as shown, but it looks like im going to run into issues installing the front set of legs. ( the ones without the tracks) i know i could shorten the pipe and have it where it slides in deeps then kinda like " splits the difference" between the two bushings. buts im not sure if i wanna trust .75 inch on each side holding up big road cruisers. (though its solid 2 inch so its probably strong enough) wouldn't worry if it was just my sport bike, but i work on everything. so i could leave one of the long sides off, have it all powder coated, then assemble and weld up the fourth side, but then ill have to grind powder off. and i dont wanna pay 100 dollars and spend two hours taping up to re-coat a couple welds, not to mention i probably wont be able to weld much between the cross member and the bushing. sooo, any one have any ideas?? or do u think that splitting the difference will be ok??
actually, now that i think about it, the pipe is 2 inch and the bushing is only 25 thou oversized, so i dont think that ill be able to get enough angle on it to get it in to begin with. soooo now what? lol. think im gonna be stuck with leaving the fourth side off and getting it coated.
I think you can alter your design very little to allow it to assemble. If you make the tube on the "scissors" that is intended to run in the plain bushes shorter, you can insert two lengths of bright steel bar within the tube (one either end) and weld it in position. Mask this surface during powder coat as it will be your new bearing inner surface. This reduced diameter bright bar now gives you incrreased clearance with your bushes but these must also be altered. I propose that you make the bushes for the frame a "top hat" shape (ie with a flange around one end) and fit them from the outside of the frame. They are secured by screws through the flange into the frame. You can alter the bush wall thickness along with its corresponding frame hole diameter to gain enough clearance to assemble the scissors into the frame. The bushes are then fitted to take up the clearance and give a running assembly equal to your current design. One possible problem with this solution is that the bright bar is not welded straight into the tube. This could be avoided by running a single piece of bright bar right through the scissors, resulting in a "self jigging" weldment where both bars are parallel. Hope this helps Source
I think Gopher has the right idea. Another possibility is to drill & tap 2 holes either end of scissor tube at 90 degrees slide smaller dia tube through and fasten in place with grub crews or similiar - no need then for welding therefore not effecting powder coating. Top hat bushes as Gopher mentioned assembled in place. Job done ! Mike www.osborndesign.co.uk
