Extra Projects & Event Page's

July 11, 2017

R5's transport sledge 'upgrade work' pt5

The small caster wheels on the skid where not up to the job and became a pain whilst loading into rear of car. But they needed to be small to keep the sledge at a height to fit in the rear of the car, so I'm not mad at them :D.

I looked at collapsible sack truck's but reports I've read recon that unless your droid is light, then they can't handle the weight. And I'm not up for spending loads of money on a solid fixed one. Plus the fact of then having to load for transport to events with already limited space, were also negative points.

I read on www.astromech.net that one builder had done a similar thing to my way of thinking. But instead of lifting brackets, he's used large threaded hand wheels. But how R5 is, foot heavy, I didn't want to be struggling holding the overhang of the sledge up with one hand, whilst trying to unscrew the locking hand wheels.

So my idea was to build a removable set of wheels, but sack truck style.
I cut up a piece of 18mm thick Plywood, attached two old, large, rubber'ish wheels and made up two brackets that hook underneath the transport sledge. The brackets were something I had keep from something that would of needed fixing brackets lol. Always good to keep stuff. One of the brackets I bent and is a little bit snug fitting on the bent edge, but it goes on and stays put, so not the end of the world.

The wheel brackets have T-nuts on the rear face, countersunk. I only had hex bolts the right length, two of which needed to be cut to a more suitable length.

Tried it out last night and it didn't break :D
 Wheels fitted, next was to mark out the bracket position.


 Countersunk T-nuts, as this is the face that will be up against the sledge.

And here it is test fitted, before I then gave it a mini test run, lol.

The metal brackets are very strong, and should last.
But if they don't I can fabricate some new ones.

Next up is to fit some sliding strips to the rear of the sledge.
Less resistance, point contact etc.

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