Handcarts, also known as handcarts or carts, are very popular. You don’t have to buy a ready-made one, with a little craftsmanship you can build your own wagon.
What you need:
- 1 folding hinge
- wooden dowel, wood glue
- wood screws
- Drill / cordless screwdriver
- 2 aluminum rods with 1cm diameter as axles
- 8 washers and 4 cap nuts M10
- 4 wooden or plastic wheels
- 1 2cm x 2cm thick wood, for example 100cm long as a drawbar
- 1 round rod with a diameter of 1.5 cm as a handle
- 1 1.8cm thick MDF board as a base plate, 60cm x 30cm in size
- 2 1.8cm thick MDF panels as front and rear wall, 30cm x 40cm in size
- 2 60cm long pieces of wood, 2cm x 2cm thick serve as side parts
- 28 round sticks with 1cm diameter, each 30cm long
- 4 4cm x 4cm large pieces of wood, 3cm thick serve as axle bearings
Handcart – popular with young and old
Handcarts have been very popular for many generations. In small versions, they are particularly popular with children, so they can easily transport their toys.
- The large variant of a handcart can be found in street parades or as a decoration for the garden. It is not particularly difficult to build a handcart yourself, with your own handcart you not only have more fun, you also save a lot of money.
- Here you will find instructions for a very easy handcart in the following steps. Have fun building it yourself!
Building it yourself is fun and saves money
- First you have to take care of the cuts and holes, this way you save time and the handcart can later be assembled in one go. For this purpose, the necessary holes for the dowels and rods are now drilled. The front and back walls are also cut to size.
- The required holes for your rods have to be drilled in the two pieces of wood for the side parts and in the corresponding place on the base plate, the holes have to be 1 cm deep and 3 cm apart.
- Now cut the front and back panels so that the Walls are exactly 40 cm wide at the top and 30 cm wide at the bottom. After this step, drill the necessary holes for the dowels.
- The dowel holes are machined on the end faces of the side parts as well as on the front and rear walls and on the base plate. If you do not want to use dowels, you can of course attach the components with appropriate screws.
- Then drill through the 4 axle bearings so that you can push the aluminum rods through. When that’s done, glue the axle bearings to the underside of the floor panel. The position depends on the size of the wheels you choose.
- After the axle bearings have been attached, grab the cap nut and turn it onto an aluminum rod. On top of that you put a washer, followed by a wheel, then another washer and then the rod is pushed through the two axle boxes. Repeat this process on the other side until the wheels are attached.
- The folding hinge is screwed tight in the middle below the base plate. Attach the drawbar to this hinge. Now drill a hole through the drawbar, and use a little wood glue to push the 1.5 cm round rod through this hole as a handle.
- You’ve got most of it behind you now. All you have to do is apply wood glue to the previously drilled holes. Then the rods are inserted and the two side parts attached. Drive in the wooden dowels and finally assemble the front and back panels.
- Provide the wagon with a transparent protective varnish. If you like it colorful, you can design your handcart in a different color and apply acrylic varnish.
