Car jack speeder

[mklotz]

In the shop, I use the scissor jack from my Toyota Camry for jobs other than its intended purpose. Whenever I use it I'm annoyed by the hokey crank arrangement Toyota supplies for raising and lowering it. Pictured on top right in the photo below, it's a bent steel crank with a hook on the end that engages an eye on the end of the jack screw. It's awkward to use, slips off, and is of a length that requires getting down on the ground to use it.

What's needed is a speeder. A piece of hex aluminum scrap was given a slot so as to fit over the jack eye and a cross-drilled and tapped hole to accept a thumbscrew which locks it onto the eye. An 11/16" socket just fits the hex. With a 3/8" adaptor for my electric screwdriver, spinning the jack screw is just a matter of pushing a button. This lashup is shown in the second picture.

A second benefit, not pictured, is that by using a 24" extension rod on the socket, I can, when using it on the car, operate the jack while standing erect. When you're 75 years old that's a very appealing feature.

[DIYer]

Thanks mklotz! We've added your Scissor Jack Speeder to our Jacks and Lifts category,
as well as to your builder page: mklotz's Homemade Tools. Your receipt:

Scissor Jack Speeder by mklotz

tags: jack

[jotasierra]

Hola mklotz, muy ingenioso, facil para nosotros y espectacular para las damas que les cuesta esta operación, felicitaciones.

[mklotz]

Turns out that some other clever monkey had the same idea and this device is now marketed on Amazon...

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...3170_464455750

It's satisfying to know that I saved myself $12 by making it myself using only materials I had on hand.

[Frank S]

Turns out that some other clever monkey had the same idea and this device is now marketed on Amazon...

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...3170_464455750

It's satisfying to know that I saved myself $12 by making it myself using only materials I had on hand.

had the same idea or borrowed your idea and brought it to market which happens all the time.

[Jon]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multiple_discovery

[Frank S]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multiple_discovery

This fits well with my long standing conviction that there is a universal pool of intelligence or universal mind
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universal_mind
https://www.wikidoc.org/index.php/Un...l_Intelligence

[mklotz]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multiple_discovery

I think "simultaneous invention" is often driven by the availability of a tool that can be adapted to the problem.

The ubiquitous battery-powered, hand-held motor is a good example. As soon as you have a Dremel or a hand drill (or, it seems here, an angle grinder), you can think of various jobs to which it can be adapted and then it's just a matter of making the connector to connect the motor to the problem. I know that my car jack speeder was driven by the thought that the easily controlled low speed, high torque of an electric screwdriver would be perfect for operating a scissor jack. (It helped immensely that I'm old, stiff, lazy and have no patience for inferior designs.)

The real genius comes when the distance between the newly discovered tool and the problem is very great. Henry Ford saw a moving (dis)assembly line in a slaughterhouse and realized that he could use that to speed car assembly. Tesla's observation that two out of phase coils produced an electric force vector was an even greater invention. In Tesla's case, the newly available "tool" wasn't anything physical, but rather a theoretical observation.

Perhaps the greatest leap was that of Otto Hahn and Lise Meitner who noted that bashing an atom with one neutron produced two neutrons (and a tiny bit of energy). What the world did with that "new tool" is both astounding and terrifying.