Re: Ron's mini ramps out of cedar

[RonStygar@xxxxxxx]

  Fear not, the approximate 40 square inch footprint of each tire does not
crush my cedar mini ramps:).  See the chart at the end of this post and you
will see why.  I determined the  approximate footprint by jacking up the car,
dampening the tire and lowering it into flour that I sprinkled on the floor.
These mini ramps simply raise the car 2 1/8 inches so that you can get your
floor jack under the front of the car and jack it up.  I then place the car on
stands using my adapters with the tru-cut steel ramps under the wheels as a
back up.  As I tried to say in the article, the angle of the cut, the 5/4
material and the step design results in a mini ramp that you do not have to
hold or secure in place.  No anti-skid material is necessary.  The one man
feature of this design is the point that I was trying to make.  I painted mine
with the same oil based primer and two acrylic top coats that I used on my
home.  Check out the following which compares the compressibility of a few
common woods.  This is from the book Understanding Wood by R.Bruce Hoadley.

 A = parallel to grain
 B = perpendicular to grain
 FSPL = fiber stress at proportional limit
 MCS = maximum crushing strength
 PSI = pounds per square inch

                           Compression
                       A       A        B
                     FSPL     MCS     FSPL
                      PSI     PSI      PSI
HARDWOODS
 Cherry Black       5,960    7,110     850
 Hickory Shagbark   6,605    9,210   2,170
 Maple Red          4,650    6,540   1,240
 Oak White          4,760    7,440   1,070
 Walnut Black       5,780    7,580   1,250
 Yellow Poplar      3,730    5,540     560<<<
SOFTWOODS
 Cedar Western Red  4,360    5,020     610<<<
 Fir Douglas        5,850    7,430     870
 Hemlock Western    5,340    6,210     680
 Pine Red           4,160    6,070     650
 Redwood            4,560    6,150     860
 Spruce White       3,700    5,470     540

 RonStygar@domain.elided FLY BMW  (Marlborough, CT)
  http://www.eskimo.com/~dalus/bmw/bmw_ronstygar.html

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