About twenty years ago I was tooling around on the internet and found the idea of a handcart, I had some time off from work and decided that would be one of the projects I would work on. I figured I could use it to pick up stuff, move things around the yard and just generally have fun with it.
There were fairly detailed plans available and I downloaded some of them, but they all seemed to have vanished, or at least the free stuff has.
My original idea was that the chassis almost looked like a pallet and maybe I could modify one to do the job, but on closer inspection that proved not to be the case. I did, however, use four hardwood pallet stringers recovered from pallets I had gotten from work to frame the chassis. Most of the other timber involved was DAR pine either from my stock or bought in expressly for the purpose.
Please bear in mind that I made this a long time ago and my memory isn’t the best these days. Fortunately I do have lots of photos, and some plans that can be downloaded.
The Chassis
The chassis started off as the four pallet stringers, two each bolted together through a 10cm cube of timber at each end to form each side of the chassis. The two sides were then connected by screwing timber onto the top and bottom of each end of the stringer assembly to form a square.
In terms of the wheels, they are (obviously) bike wheels with the axle in place. I drilled holes out through the centre of each stringer, towards the bottom and then fitted in some 10mm (OD) aluminium tubing, which the axle went through. To fit the wheel, it was necessary to remove the outside stringer, install the axle and wheel assembly, then re-bolt the outside stringer back into place.
On front of the chassis there is also a stand fitted (again I used DAR pine) so that the cart can remain upright while parked. It is place on the front end of the chassis due to the weight of the push bar on that end causing the cart to drop forward when not in use. The stand is made with a pine plate on the front and back, secured with six screws, and a piece of pine in the centre, which is bolted to the rear plate and pivots, allowing it to act as the stand.
The Box
The box is roughly a metre long, half a metre wide and a third of a metre high. It fits on top of the chassis and contains the load. It is fully removable from the chassis and there are four pieces of timber screwed onto the bottom of the box that are turned around to secure the box to the chassis.
The box is formed by three pieces of DAR pine secured to the bottom of the box, with the fourth side being able to be slid in and out between a couple of rails on each side and removed to expedite loading.
The push bar allows the cart to be wheeled around by the driver and is attached to the sides of the box at the front of the cart. The sides of the push bar assembly are made from 42mm 18mm DAR pine, with a hole drilled in the end to allow the 25mm pine dowel push bar to be inserted.
The Fate of the Hand Cart
While it was fun to make, and did get some use in the back yard, it did take up quite a bit of space in the shed. After a few years I passed it on to a mate who has a larger, but still suburban, property than I have. In turn, he passed it on to a local scout group who, to the best of my knowledge, still have it.
Photos
Chassis
Box & Push Bar
Chassis with Box
Push Bar Fitted
