BMW/Mercedes Engine Coffee Table

[Chilezen]

really awesome man!

Thank you! It's not quite done yet though! I added more lights. Will post updates soon.

That's awesome! I really like how thorough you are with this. I have a broken S52 cam and a few other parts that I've been meaning to make a lamp out of.

Thanks! If you've got a welder and imagination, you sure can make something cool :)

The Top Gear coffee table (shown during the news) is a V12, no idea from what car.

IIRC it came from a Jaguar XJS.

Cool project, I would love a M70 coffee table!

i saw a ferrari testarossa engine made into a coffee table once. i thought it also seemed like a waste.

Well gents, I have some news. Not a Jag, but...

[Chilezen]

Also, a friend of my boss asked my boss to build him a table... and my boss accepted the work by passing it on to me. The guy had an exact idea of what he wanted, and supplied the glass, pistons, crank, and fly. I just built the framework.



Strange idea, but original. It's not completely done yet but you get the gist of it.

[Chilezen]

I have a new instagram account specific for engine table builds! Check it out, @kineticrennsport :)

[2mAn]

Bump...

I think I want to finally do this.

My plans for the 'junk' inline6 crank fell through, but I think its finally time for this to happen...

[DEV0 E30]

Yearly bump.

So... maybe I shouldn't get rid of the M40 for basically nothing...

I've always liked the idea of this.

[Chilezen]

Damn guys. I've barely worked on my latest table, but I still have a few of those prior tables to post about.

I've got a pretty cool idea specifically for a 4 cyl. One day, one day... My advice is to orient things diagonally. Straight up and down is just so boring.

[Chilezen]

Woah, I almost started posting about the next table but I didn't finish with the last one. I'll make it quick...



I thought that it needed more lights. To light the cylinder bores, it's a little more complicated that just "sticking lights in there". I want it to have a nice glow, without being able to see the light source. So here's what I came up with.



After taking a plasma torch and blasting out as much of the innards as I could, and then smoothing it down, (I think?) I glued in some basic LED strip lights. They are facing down towards the ground, which may seem counter productive. I don't want to illuminate the ground and have a 90s' sh!tbox underglow for this table. I need to keep the light contained.

Pretty simple solution: take two sheets of scrap aluminum I found, and cut it to fit in there.



It seals in the light, and it's just reflective enough to diffuse the light back up into the bores.

I took the block back to work, where I would find some more scrap metal (yay!) and welded in dinky supports.



Nope, I don't care about the dinky tacks in the cast iron. It's only meant to be strong enough to support one thing.



We're done here. Peace

[Chilezen]

Alright, I've got some time to organize photos and post "new" stuff.

New, meaning in chronological order, this is the next table I built. The date on the photos are from June 2019. Here we go!

I'm taking this description from the youtube video I made for it:

"Built around a Porsche 928 crankshaft and fly, this table stands apart from any ol' engine table, with its unique Porsche-emblum-focused design. The two levels of glass give added depth and character. The new owner of this table now displays his Hot Wheels collection on the bottom level!

This took about 30 hours to design and build, which may or may not include the several trips to the hardware store. I never knew chrome hardware was so expensive!"

To elaborate, this was commissioned by a Porsche mechanic/fanatic (obviously) who had some parts and an idea. At the time, the shop I worked at was right next door to a Porsche repair shop. So the guy knew "we" aka "I" could maybe fabricate something. That was my day job, after all; building car parts.

With the idea for the table already in this guy's mind, I didn't have to brainstorm much. It was a simple matter of deciding what bars to put where, and make it happen. So I don't consider this a project I was passionate about, but with all my work, a great deal of passion went into it anyway.

Let's start with what I was given:



A crankshaft, a flywheel, and two sheets of glass.
Ignore the wires coming out of the crank, I was just playing around.

First, I'll build the base of the table.
I don't remember whose idea it was, mine or his, but the base will roughly resemble the P logo.



I measured, cut and bent tubes, and cut a few more.

[Chilezen]

This is one of the neat little machines we had in the shop. It was a new addition and I was enjoying using it. It's a little tube notcher!



The vise that holds the bar sits on a sliding base. I turn a handle and manually feed the bar into the spinning teeth. It's pretty useful and repeatable for the work that we did in the shop.

Jumping ahead a little, and here we have the base.









Basic stuff. Make it flat, make it straight, make it symmetrical.

[Chilezen]

The goal was something simple. I'm assuming you saw the previous table I built, which should tell you I like things far from simple. But here, simple and cheap will suffice.

So, the goal is to mount the flywheel as simply as possible. No, I was not going to weld the flywheel to the bars.



I'm going to bolt the flywheel to...



...a paper template. Lol.



I indent where the flywheel's holes are into the microwave lunch box of the day.

And then I mark the center for the holes.

[Chilezen]

Transfer the template to available sheet metal...



and cut.



Now we have a place to send bolts through.

Check the fitment, and, yeah, almost. On purpose! Gave myself extra metal to make sure I didn't cut it short.

[Chilezen]

This is easily correctable.



The fastest way is chop-chop



And then buzz buzz



And a little shave shave



ok I'll stop

[Chilezen]

Now we must join halves!





Good enough



But now, we need some space...

[moatilliatta]

Good inspiration. I can't wait till one day to make a coffee table for the office.

Looking forward for more updates.

[Chilezen]

Thanks! I'm excited to see what you come up with.

Now let's see what I did and I'll try to remember why I did this.



Observe my crude but quick means of slicing metal. If only I had a band saw...



Effective, it did what I needed it to do. It produced the "bottom" piece.



Now I have 4 points of contact to meet up with the cross bars in the base.



Line them up, tack them, and...



Ta-da! Now the flywheel can be unbolted from the frame easily.