Hello my fellow Steemian artists. I'd like to share this with you and I hope you like it.
In my quest to learn kitesurfing I have had a few accidents in which I have torn or pretty much exploded my kite. In all of these cases I have taken my damaged kite to my friend Miguel. Miguel is the only guy for miles around who is capable of repairing just about anything textile. He specialises in Sail and Kite repairs here in the small water sports mad village where I live. Miguel has promptly fixed my kite 5 times so far, and on more than one occasion has refused payment.
I had been waiting for the chance to return the favour and knew it was only a matter of time before such an opportunity would present itself. A couple of weeks ago he brought me his wheelbarrow and asked if I could take a look at repairing it for him.
I looked at it and knew the chance I’d waited for had arrived. It was not worth even attempting to weld any kind of repair on this particular wheelbarrow; it was more rust and old cement than it was metal but looking at it did give me an idea. I had a look around my back yard where I keep a few bits and pieces which may come in useful and came across this old washing machine.
I dragged it in to the workshop and thought a little more. You may remember the Hammock Chair I built (https://steemit.com/art/@handsolo/the-hammock-chair) well, I built a few others and one of these had not sold.
The basics of a wheelbarrow were gathered in front of me in the middle of my shop and it was time to cut.
Then it was time to bend some steel. I brought out my favourite home made tool. I made this apparatus a few years ago to bend ¾ inch steel bar, cold.
Turning this
Into this
Then it was time to cut the wheel and axle off of the old one, as well as the tips of the handles. Why the tips of the handles? Well, I wanted it to feel the same as his old one, you know how people get attached to things and looking at the old one I could tell that he’d had it for a very long time.
After cutting up the old chair and bending, then welding it, I had the beginnings of what could be the first ever hot rod wheelbarrow.
It was time to put the bucket together. As it is with a lot of the stuff I make I only use rough dimensions. Let me be clear. If you want a table then there are certain arbitrary measurements, such as height if it’s a dining table or even if it’s a coffee table you wouldn’t want it too low, or too high. But other than these considerations there is so much freedom to create.
In deciding the dimensions of the bucket I was pretty much only restricted by the position of the wheel and the actual square footage of the steel I could salvage from the washing machine.
After cutting the sides and the base it was time to drill and rivet the pieces together. Being one handed this was the perfect opportunity to get my feet involved in the project and so it was that I spent almost a day and a half bending, shaping, cutting and riveting the pieces together. Unfortunately I didn’t take any photos of my legs but believe me when I tell you that they were covered in tiny scratches and not so tiny cuts caused by the sharp steel. I didn’t mind so much as the bucket looked great.
First this
Then like this
Becomes this
Then this
Then lots of this
And you end up with this
Bucket completed and it was time to unite the two pieces then finish of reinforcing everything and preparing it for paint.
The finished product ticks a good few boxes. It’s made almost entirely out of recycled components, it was enormous fun to build, it is 100% fit for purpose, it looks great and the smile on Miguel’s face when I presented it to him was all the payment I needed.
The white wall tyre was all it took to make this a true 50's throwback, hot rod of a wheelbarrow. Roll on the next project :D
