My Sky Color

A forty something Dad, Husband, Engineer guy living in Western Oregon. Reflections on all things in life. A few technical things and whatever else comes along.

Monday, May 17, 2010

Junior's Got Wheels

So little C got the idea in his head about 6 or 8 months ago that he wanted to build a go-kart. I steered him in the direction of starting with an old fashion down hill coaster type to start out. Finally I got tired of hearing about it and just stopped everything and built one with him. He has had the wheels and tires from Harbor freight since before Christmas. They require 5/8" axles and of course I don't have an 5/8 round stock. I we started digging through the wide array of cans of bolts and found some 5/8 socket head capscrews that would do the job. So we welded 5/8 nuts to some flat bar. Luckily a couple of the nuts were lock nuts to keep the front wheels from falling off.

We cut a piece of 2 by 12 from the scrap lumber pile and some 1 by 4's as axle crossbars. A little drilling, a little welding and some assembly and now every incline has potential.


This vehicle is simple, alas no brakes and you have to tighten the nut for the front axle steering before each run. It is fun and keeps him busy.

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