How to Make a Garden Cart Axle Using Wood?

It could be really intimidating if you have to carry all those tools, plants and other stuffs by hand from one place to another inside your lovely garden or yard. I mean, that’s pretty much hard and annoying to be honest. And so, those who own a garden cart will know how much time saving the stuff makes it for them. Folks, Get Ready! We’ll be Discussing How to Make a Garden Cart Axle today…

Garden carts have various parts and components that works as the whole mechanism. One part falling apart means the vehicle might start working weirdly. One important component is the axle. It basically holds the job of keeping your cart’s wheel moving or rotating flawlessly.

Every kind of vehicle that uses wheel will require a sturdy and well functional axle. And so, if your already-existing cart’s axle needs a replacement, go for a shortcut by making one yourself. This is a fun project to try that might save you a few bucks as well.

Garden carts come of a lot of design. The most popular ones are the dump cart for lawn tractor that basically comes with attachment benefit. This tutorial is an example that will teach you the basics of easy axle making. So that you can use the procedure for any type.

Things you will need

You will require two-wheel hubs with compact size. Also get some compact car spare tires, two of them would be required here. You should also get a few pieces of scrap plywood. Use around four-square feet approximately.

You should use some hefty chuck for this tutorial. It could be a chuck from pecan, walnut, oak, Douglass fir, spruce, hickory or same type. To fit things together get some wood glue, good ones of course.

Next you want to include a few washers, nuts and through-bolts. Use a hole saw, wax and lag bolts as well. Finally get a table saw, bandsaw or jig, drill and block plan. You can also use screw driver in place of drills.

Choosing Wood & Creating a Huge Blank

When considering the wood for axle that will suit best, you should get something strong, sturdy, heavy enough. However, this should also include a bit of added flex in the material. Usually for nice axle handle and drum sticks, hickory is considered the best option here. The material works for an agenda of providing hardness with resilience.

Other three popular hardwood option that you may want to try are walnut, maple and oak. These are fantastic to serve the purpose of ideal stringers and flooring. In inexpensive furniture, cabinet work and door casings, you will find the common use of poplar.

Douglas fir are excellent with old grown properties. They can be extremely tight grained as well as strong with denseness. If there’s no way to get thick chuck, you have another option of laminating a few thinner strips. Bringing them together will work just like the heavier chucks. For example, think about pieces of hardwood flooring. And they can be used to make huge blank.

You want to cut down the pieces to around 2” square measurement. I am considering an axle with 28” length and 36” width. Since it’ll will be the last point to think for me. Otherwise there’s a chance of bowing getting started at the span.

You want to set those table saw blades into a 45-degree angle. The fence should be at around 1-1/2” from blade’s base. Now on all four corners of blank, you need to bevel accordingly. At the end, you will find an octagon shaped outcome with very equal sides.

Planing Phase for Evenness

You want to get a rounded off axle. And so, there’s a need to use a block plane for this. From each corner, you should take one pass off. So that this creates a 16-sided form. Now from the corners that are remaining, simply take one pass off. Do these for each of the corners basically. This will make sure to keep the rounding off process gradual and better resulting.

There could be some flat spots by the end. so, you need to determine them while getting close to round. And to do this, simply roll it back and forth over the workbench. You can do this on the floor as well.

An 1-1/2” should be a perfect finding diameter to aim for in this case. You want to end this step with some nice healthy hand sanding. Don’t forget to apply several wax coats over it. So that the rolling over bearings become as smooth as possible.

Wheels Arrangement

You will require around two wheels and donuts for this next step. Get them from junkyard or in tire places. The cost will be around twelve dollars for each.

Anyway, once you get these, start by cutting the ¾” plywood disks. You want to go for a diameter about 10”. Use 1-1/2” hole saw for drilling out the center. Now you want to fix donut disc with solid disc using gluing. You should get 1-1.2” thick two hubs by now.

Its time to hold the wheel with hub. You want to next scribe bolt holes into the plywood. Simply drill them out. Through bolting the plywood into wheel comes after that. You should ensure that the hub’s drilled out portion is facing in.

Assembly to Finish

You should cut down some plywood pieces into U shape. The measurement should be around 12”x6” somewhat. Use the dimension to cut rectangles first. And then finish it with rounding using a jigsaw.

On the curved part of U shape, you want to drill out hole of 1-1/2” to nestled down. Next, simply attach them with gluing and screwing in pairs. Inside of each hold, you should apply some wax as well. And finally, thread onto axle.

The hub’s socket area should hold axle. Use some glue to attach it. Don’t forget to fit through the other side as well. Use a ¼” lag bolt to connect here. Drilling beforehand will help you to avoid any split. There may not be much strong end-grain connection. So, you want to use triangular braces or toe screws by popping in.

The mounts should be freely sliding in center once you are done with both wheels attaching. Simply jack up the cart next. Then try screwing the mounts easily. Each wheel needs to have freely wheel turning ability. Otherwise the tracking won’t be right. So, cutting down the axle using half and double number of mounting points will help a lot.

Conclusion

And with that note, you have a better idea over how to make a garden cart axle now. Hopefully the tutorial will help you try a basic DIY for fun. Also, it’s better to know about a rescue path when there’s a problem suddenly. You don’t have to visit repair shops or wait for anyone else to come and fix your problems.