DIY Jack pad adapters from hockey pucks

[Nate4641]

I mangled the jack pads on my car the last time I lifted my car doing some maintenance so I decided to make some adapters. ECS sells some nice aluminum ones, but at $25 each thats a little steep if you want 4 to lift the car with a frame lift. I had seen a write up on how to make the adapters out of hockey pucks, but it was missing some information so I took some pictures while I made mine. It also helped that my internet went down for a week so I was motivated out of boredom to go out and do this. I purchased a new jack pad and 4 hockey pucks on amazon.

I had seen before someone did this with a hack saw. While that will work, I grew up watching Home Improvement and Tim Taylor's mentality of MORE POWER has stuck. I decided to use my Dremel and a cutting wheel for plastic. I also got some files to smooth out and make edges flatter. I used a caliper to get the measurements more accurately.

Two things not pictured but are a must if you are using power tools to make this is eye protection and gloves with sleeves.



I started by measuring the inside width, length and depth of the jack pad. Since I mangled one of the pads on the car I ordered a new one and used it to test the pucks once cut. Obviously I don't need the measurements to the hundredth or thousandth of an inch, but I felt this was better than using a ruler. Its also worth noting that the inside of the pads aren't straight, they bow in at the middle, but only by a few hundredths of an inch.




I used masking tape to make a template from the measurements so that I could adjust where I wanted to cut from.


I then used a white out pen to outline the tape on top and a ring of masking tape to show how deep to cut. Since the pucks are 1inch thick, I put the tape half way down.


Here are the first couple of cuts. Once I got the cutting wheel half an inch down I used the white out pen to mark the spinning wheel so I had something to show how deep to cut as I went along. I started by cutting from the top down along the line on the flat side. Then I cut along the round side on top of the tape to take the section off.


After this is where I realized I needed gloves. It was well over 100*F in the shade when I did this so 1. the dremel was too hot to hold and 2. FLYING HOT RUBBER GOES EVERYWHERE. I luckily still had my flame retardant gloves from going to Afghanistan that have a half sleeve so I grabbed those.

First adapter done with cutting.




After a little filing the surfaces clean up


All done with the set, took me about an hour and a half. As you can see by the table and gloves rubber goes everywhere when using a rotary tool like this.




Not a clean project


I also think I may have overheated the cutting wheel.

[dubsesd]

Cool project, but totally unusable if you are lowered. I can't even get the jack under the block lol.

[itdnwiwbp]

I bought hockey pucks awhile ago and never got around to cutting them up. I was thinking about just making rectangular blocks out of them that fit in the jack pads and make it easier to put the stands underneath. Right now I use wood blocks in between the pads and the stands. Works fine but I still don't 100% trust it because it's not that easy to line up perfectly.

[Steeler]

Great idea.
If you have access to a milling machine like I dothis is a piece of piss

Thanks Nate


QUOTE=Nate4641;15934960]I mangled the jack pads on my car the last time I lifted my car doing some maintenance so I decided to make some adapters. ECS sells some nice aluminum ones, but at $25 each thats a little steep if you want 4 to lift the car with a frame lift. I had seen a write up on how to make the adapters out of hockey pucks, but it was missing some information so I took some pictures while I made mine. It also helped that my internet went down for a week so I was motivated out of boredom to go out and do this. I purchased a new jack pad and 4 hockey pucks on amazon.

I had seen before someone did this with a hack saw. While that will work, I grew up watching Home Improvement and Tim Taylor's mentality of MORE POWER has stuck. I decided to use my Dremel and a cutting wheel for plastic. I also got some files to smooth out and make edges flatter. I used a caliper to get the measurements more accurately.

Two things not pictured but are a must if you are using power tools to make this is eye protection and gloves with sleeves.



I started by measuring the inside width, length and depth of the jack pad. Since I mangled one of the pads on the car I ordered a new one and used it to test the pucks once cut. Obviously I don't need the measurements to the hundredth or thousandth of an inch, but I felt this was better than using a ruler. Its also worth noting that the inside of the pads aren't straight, they bow in at the middle, but only by a few hundredths of an inch.




I used masking tape to make a template from the measurements so that I could adjust where I wanted to cut from.


I then used a white out pen to outline the tape on top and a ring of masking tape to show how deep to cut. Since the pucks are 1inch thick, I put the tape half way down.


Here are the first couple of cuts. Once I got the cutting wheel half an inch down I used the white out pen to mark the spinning wheel so I had something to show how deep to cut as I went along. I started by cutting from the top down along the line on the flat side. Then I cut along the round side on top of the tape to take the section off.


After this is where I realized I needed gloves. It was well over 100*F in the shade when I did this so 1. the dremel was too hot to hold and 2. FLYING HOT RUBBER GOES EVERYWHERE. I luckily still had my flame retardant gloves from going to Afghanistan that have a half sleeve so I grabbed those.

First adapter done with cutting.




After a little filing the surfaces clean up


All done with the set, took me about an hour and a half. As you can see by the table and gloves rubber goes everywhere when using a rotary tool like this.




Not a clean project


I also think I may have overheated the cutting wheel.
[/QUOTE]

[rsutoratosu]

Wow! times like this i wish i had a 3d printer to do this

[Taylorguy74]

Seems like a ton of work. I got a set of 4 aluminum jack pad adapters off ebay for $45 shipped. There are even plastic adapters for less than $30 for a set of 4.