[Kartbuilding] PushCart Project Info

[Stephen Burke]

Aishah,

Sorry for the slow reply.
There are a few specifications/ criteria you can consider when designing 
the basic cart. You could focus more on the safety side of things. Make 
sure there are guards over the wheels. Make sure there is a proper seat 
with a seat-belt for the driver. If its a "push cart" rather than a 
"downhill kart" (where the latter requires no assistance), then you need 
to take into account the safety of the person pushing the cart. Perhaps 
you could design some innovative handle that the "pusher" of the cart can 
use to safely propel the kart forwards. On this special handle used to 
push the kart could be a safety brake to stop the kart if it ran out of 
control etc.

If you only have six hours to make the kart, then you will want to make 
the kart as simple as possible. 
http://www.kartbuilding.net/Wooden_Go-Kart_Plans/index.html outlines the 
easiest and quickest way to make a wooden push kart in my opinion. As for 
costs, depending on whether you have some timber available, the kart can 
be made using this. There is no real cost in the wooden kart, particularly 
if you have the wheels already. On the wooden kart I built, I obtained the 
spoked wheels from two old and scrapped childrens bycycles. These worked 
fine, however limited the axle to 1/2" or 12mm. The only costs I had was 
the bolts, washers and a few pins.

I hope this information helps. If you have any further questions just let 
us know. If you do manage to deisgn and build the wooden kart, feel free 
to send on some photos which I can share with others.

Best of Luck,
-steve

On Wed, 16 Jan 2008, wrote:

> Hi,
>
> I am a student at univeristy currently in the process of a design and
> manufacture project for a push cart.  Having found you website extremely
> useful so far, I would appreciate some help on a number of matters having
> arisen in our own cart.
>
> Although our requirement criteria is minimal, I would appreciate if you
> had any particular requirement specification/ criteris when designing this
> baic cart?
>
> Also, any info regarding maybe the unit cost and time to manufacture (we
> are limited to 6 hours) would be greatly appreciated, alongside patented
> designs you may have or links to further useful material.
>
> Kindest Regards
>
> Aishah Sadiq
>
>