Taking a break from boat building for a few days does have its advantages. My wrist is getting better, and my neck and back are improving as well. This is all good.
So is spit roasted pork!
My buddy Tom and I fabbed a spit a few years ago to roast a lamb for a 4th of July party. We expected this would be a single-use affair, but it’s turned out that we roast a lamb or pig at least once or twice a summer. Always a good time.
Unfortunately, Tom’s wife had something go pear shaped with her eye this morning. She’s a doctor. Self diagnosis is “scratched cornea” but this is not her expertise. Anyway, it’s bad enough they had to bail back to the city so she could see a specialist this afternoon, so they’re both missing out on the pig. Bummer. We miss you guys and, Michelle, we hope your eye makes a speedy recovery.
Here’s the pig we’ve got turning right now.
For those interested in the spit, the deal is this:
We welded up an a-frame assembly with holes on top of the frames into which we could insert 5/8″ threaded rods. Each rod has an adjuster nut to set the height, and then there’s a bracket welded to the top that mounts two ball bearings so the spit can rotate freely in the groove.
At the drive end, the spit has a sproket welded to the end of the shaft that connects by chain to a gearmotor mounted to the leg of the a-frame. Sorry for the crappy photo. The light is a bit tough right now and I don’t have my real camera. The iPhone can only do so much.
The frame stays outside year round. The roller brackets just lift out, and the motor comes off with a couple of screws. For something that was built without longevity in mind, this has been a really robust solution.
-Ben