Build your own Battery Operated Spit

The Spit

This battery operated spit is large enough to cook 3 x 2 Kilo chickens easily running on two D size 1.5 volt cells.
The motor utilises and old windscreen wiper motor, which although would have originally run on 12 volts, now runs quite happily on 3 volts, supplying plenty of torque at a reasonable speed.
The rod is stainless tube that would normally be used as a curtain rail and some welding was required to hold the meat spikes on the rod.
The spit simply sits in grooves at the front of the hearth, with the fire behind. This arrangement alows you to continually stoke the fire with wood without smoking the meat.

See the Spit Roast Chicken recipe in the left had menu.

The Motor Assembly

The Motor Assembly

A simple frame was welded together, bolting to the windscreen wiper motor and carrying the battery box and switch.
Originally we relied simply on the weight of the motor and batteries to ensure that the motor stays still and meat turns. This system worked reasonably well it was difficult to get the meat sufficiently balanced on the spit to turn smoothly
Later, as shown here, a stop in the form of a short section of copper pipe screwed to the wall was used. This ensures that the spit turns smoothly but still leaves it entirely free to be lifted off the hearth walls.

Connecting the Motor to an 8mm rod

Connecting the Motor Assembly

The windscreen wiper gearbox had a tapered splined output shaft and here we have connected this to a 200mm length of 8mm threaded rod (which slides easily inside the stainless spit rod) using a short length of 30mm box section steel.
Two holes were drilled into opposite sides of the box section to take the gearbox output and the 8mm rod.

Connecting to the Stainless Spit Rod

Using R Clips to Connect to the Spit

Having connected the motor assembly to the length of 8mm threaded rod, a quick method of attaching and detaching this to the spit rod is needed.
This was achieved by drilling two holes through the rod (which is of course in this case a hollow tube) and through the 8mm threaded rod. Now a small R clip can be put in each hole to make the connection.
As can be seen in the photograph, we have a used a short length of 15mm copper pipe, that fits over the stainless tube, and rest on the wall of the hearth. This length of the copper pipe and the distance between the R clips is slightly greater than the thickness of the block wall (in the case rendered 100mm blocks).

Clamping the Meat Spikes to the Spit

Making the Meat Spike Clamps

For the meat spikes, meat hooks were purchased, shaped in a figure 8. These were straightened out, cut short, and bent at a right angle.
Brackets were then made using short lengths of 20mm box section steel which clamp to the spit using an 8 mm bolt, whilst using a 4mm bolt to clamp the meat spikes in place. Where more than one chicken is being cooked, a bracket holding spikes pointing in opposite directions is used between each bird.
The free end of the stainless spit tube was clamped in a vice to created a "pointed" end to feed through the meat.