I've tried searching for this topic under various combinations of words and came up empty, so apologize if it is a "dead horse."
I'm trying to visualize a simple roasting spit for cooking poultry, roasts and maybe small pigs over a fire pit. I'm thinking a pair of uprights of half-inch mild steel with pigtails on the upper ends for the spit/turner to go through. Two right angle bends in one end will form the cranking handle. The other end of the spit, sharpened, pierces the meat. But there needs to be a barb or tine of some sort coming off the spit that the meat is also pierced by to keep the meet from spinning on the axis of the spit. I DON'T WELD, so am trying to think of a simple but elegant solution to this problem. Perhaps a wrap of 1/4 round with forks then bent and sharpened?
I am also guessing that the image of a suckling pig being slow turned over a roasting fire is much less romantic in real life -- kind of like turning the ice cream maker crank, but for two or three hours if you can find someone to do it. Also, unless the meat is perfectly centered on the skewer, it is going to want to return to heaviest-side-down position unless the spit/skewer can be held in position. Don't want to make this a power affair, so motors are out.
Any and all comments, advice, ideas welcome.