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Necessity is the mother of invention!

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rs20004wd:
Some say that necessity is the mother of invention. In fact it was coined by the Greek Philosopher and author, Plato, implying that dire situations inspire ingenious solutions by humans. The problem for me was that being over six foot tall and working on Sinclair C5's tends to give me a few aches and pains! The solution was to make an axle stand, a self balancing device that makes my life that bit easier, whilst still being safe and practical, believe it or not I had another C5 on this device for a whole week over Christmas, even the wind didn't manage to blow it over! So by orientating a complete C5 in an upright position it's now possible to access and work on the complete underside without the need to remove any body parts or components in doing so. Neither is it necessary to use bits of wood, rope or wires. As the C5 is lightly resting on it's boot, no running parts are in contact with the ground, so working on the wheels is also that bit easier too.
 Although the axle still rotates, I went onto develop a 'rolling road' option incase I needed to run the C5 upto full speed on battery power alone. This first image shows the axle stand in it's basic form and a complete C5 in the vertical position.
 The last image shows the 'rolling road' option.

Ray:
Looks like 1st class idea and workmanship, well done.

rs20004wd:
 Thanks Ray, a simple idea that took a while to get the right balance point on the uprights. The most difficult part was getting the 24mm holes machined out as the stainless box section destroyed everything I threw at it, so I had to use the services of a local engineering company, then I simply cut the excess metal above to create the 'half moon' to locate the axle. The frame was then ready for welding and next the aluminium base had the cut outs done to be able to lower onto the frame and give the stand a more professional look- rust proof and strong.

kamztrad:
Wow, really impressed - also really impressed with your mint looking c5's, very envious!!

rs20004wd:
Thanks kamztrad, these C5's seem to take up a lot of- no most of my spare time at the moment.

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