Wheelbarrow

[T i m]

<snip>

Agreed. If it were mine I'd give it a go but then I'm very familiar with the processes and like a challenge. ;-)

And of course you could take it further with carbon fibers these days.

To 'make', yes (plugs / moulds etc) but at the same times it's actually quite easy (as in effort).

Best case situation.

Take barrow to bits.

Clean up frame (best case, get it shot blasted).

Inject frame with expanding foam to 1) seal it whilst working on it and 2) stop too much resin going inside (and wasting it).

Reinforce any high strain / weak areas with steel strips, section (exhaust tubing cut in half ?), or fibreglass.

'Spiral wrap' the entire frame with a woven 'bandage' (as easy as putting a bandage on an arm etc). Resin in.

Rinse / repeat the above stage to build up a reasonable section, depending on how bad it is overall.

Re assemble, use for ever, leave to the kids in your will. ;-)

As an aside and assuming the frame is still in once piece, any company that makes car exhaust systems with a hydraulic pipe bender might be able to duplicate the old frame for a reasonable price (if they aren't that busy)?

Cheers, T i m

[newshound]

The problem is that the elastic modulus of fibreglass is very much lower than that of steel. So that once you are carrying a significant part of the load in the fibreglass, it wants to stretch much more than the steel does. This mis-match fractures the bond at the interface.

[T i m]

<snip>

Understood ... *if* it does (at any level that matters etc).

From my personal experience and certainly when laminating clean shot-blasted steel with fibreglass and where the glass is proportionally substantial compared to the base steel, there hasn't been any separation.

And with concentric tubes, there isn't anywhere the inner can really go if tightly bonded inside a fibreglass skin is there?

I have actually been quite surprised how well fibreglass, laid up on clean and 'rough' finished (eg, shot blasted or very course wire wheel) steel really bonds.

The problem is that most people (not you of course <g>) don't 'get' how clean or how good the prep and process needs to be (inc humidity / temperature / pressure / viscosity) needs to be to give any form of adhesive bond a fair chance.

Most things I glue together tend to stay together because I have a reasonable ides of what's likely to work before I even give it a try. [1] ;-)

Cheers, T i m

I have the daggerboard casing out of my smaller folding dinghy because it leaked when I first tested it in my mates pool.

When I took it out (6 screws and some flexible compound) the bottom surface on the casing was far from flat / uniform so I have sanded it down till it was (on my linisher). It's not flat as it has to follow the curved contour of the hogpiece so I have bought some hardwood sheet about the same thickness as the material I had to remove that I now need to bond to the bottom of the existing (marine ply) casing.

To give that the best chance, I need to first pre-bend (steamer) the plank to the same curvature (2D luckily) as the hogpiece then bond with a strong and fully waterproof adhesive (probably a two part resin) and PB / stainless screws to the casing (that will be left in there) .

Sand, varnish and then re-fit into the boat by making up a 'wet' gasket of CT1 that will be slightly tightened once cured to give it some compression. It can't be bonded ''hard' as the hogpiece flexes quite a bit between the folded and unfolded states. Also, being a folding boat it's all a bit 'live' so anything acting as a seal needs to have some give in it.

[David]

Have you looked for a local blacksmith?

Our local forge will fix/fabricate almost anything, and very reasonable priced.

Cheers

Dave R

[David]

I learned my barrow running on building sites many years ago, and the ability to run along a scaffold board, stop, and stand the barrow on the nose to empty it was very useful. Swivel from side to side as well.

I remember builders using a shovel as a stop to help get the barrow up on the nose, especially when running in concrete.

So I'm not sure how I would cope with multiple wheels!

Cheers

Dave R

[NY]

Broadly speaking, the distinction between a wheelbarrow for gardening etc and a wheelbarrow for the construction industry.

How much practice did it take (ie how many times did the barrow fall off the plank when you were learning!) before you got the hang of running a single-wheel vehicle along a plank that was not much wider than the wheel?

I've always admired the skill of the drivers who drive cars on and off car transporters (*), without straying a few inches one way or the other and letting one wheel fall off the narrow ramp - without any way of seeing where the car's wheels are in relation to the ramps. I suppose the shallow lip on the ramp helps to keep an errant wheel from falling off and makes it obvious to the driver if he's strayed close to the edge. When my car had to be collected by recovery driver onto a transporter (ie all wheels off the ground) when it broke down, the driver made it look as if he could have done it with his eyes closed.

(*) Eg on "Bangers and Cash".

[Adrian Caspersz]

In their home stores the other side of the pond, there is none of this. Anyone can have a Costco membership.

The UK is perhaps strange, they must be protecting themselves from problem customers or practising something that ensures the well heeled get better rewarded with supply and discounts.

I used to be a member back when it was the place to acquire cheap Levi Jeans and ready roasted chicken. That was before next day internet shopping became a thing.

[PeterC]

Be too expensive. Nearest one is about 4.5 miles away, so would need collection and delivery. The amount of work is another factor and even then there'd still be a wobbly wheel unless I could wrap something round the axle. Ah, quick search, no longer there and no results.

[T i m]

<snip>

Did I miss the previous mention of that OOI? ;-)

So is this a worn (collapsing?) wheel (/ bearing), axle or both Peter, as having to also deal with that (properly) would all push the cost / ease / time of any DIY repair up. ;-(

Cheers, T i m

[Bob Eager]

You don't have to be well heeled; the criteria don't guarantee that at all.

The one I go to is in Essex, and if I just say that the Costco is full of 'Essex girls' and 'Essex lads', I am not being derogatory to all Essex people. But a lot of the occupations allowed don't have high pay scales.

Mind, some of the Essex lads are bricklayers, so, yes, they are well heeled.

[PeterC]

Wheel is sound, holes/axle worn, probably easy to do a bodge (I had a Vincent where the forks' bushes had bits of oil can wrapped round them!).

I've decided against Walsall for two reasons: Puncture-proof tyre started to fail after a few months; Waslsall no help Not made for me - small grips and 'feet' close together so that easy to catch with big feet (tick) and long legs (tick), according to reviews.

I'll go for one of these:

don't know why the difference in price. Some of the 'plastic' ones look good, but the pans are too fragile.

[T i m]

<snip>

Yeah, they can work, given a fair wind and a splodge of grease. ;-)

Luckily they only oscillate though a few degrees so often easier on any repair than anything that fully rotates. Nice fix though. ;-)

And that's the thing, the after sales service / attitude. 'Sorry sir, it could be a bad tyre, let us send you a new one and see how you get on with that ...' etc.

That was something I was thinking re the skinning with fibreglass, if the tube diameter was already 'substantial' and the solution made them 'too big' (and there is such a thing).

Yup, been there with all sorts of wheeled garden kit and it really makes stuff difficult to mange comfortably (short steps / back strain).

Flatproof V std inflated tyre?

And that's the thing isn't it, it really needs to be able to 'take' anything you might throw at it (literally and within reason) without breaking (even the steel will dent etc). At least being able to collect up a pile of bricks and lob them in, from a couple of m away and in the cold.

I'm guessing most of the plastic ones would be used in gardens or where you are only likely to be carrying cement and want to be able to knock it out when left in the barrow overnight. ;-)

Cheers, T i m

p.s. Daughter got a pretty heavy barrow just before she closed her Tree Surgery business and it's round Mums (unused). I'll have to check it out when I go round there next.

[PeterC]

Thanks, I appreciate your opinion on it.

Flatproof tyres are expensive; the 'punture-proof' aren't - they're easily pierced but don't have tubes. Foam has to be very good before it doesn't deteroriate and fall tp pieces. I had some Clark's Hikers, didn't use them for several years. They were in a cupboard with no exposure to sunlight. Next time on they just crumbled and fell to bits. Methinks a barrow's wheel gets more exposure.

[T i m]

Np.

On that, I'm about to treat the tyres on a chipper daughter is going to sell at some point with 'Punctureseal'. It's a pre-puncture, fit-n-forget sealant that I have used for over 20 years on all sorts of things (mostly on-road vehicles and trailers) and found it very effective. A mate has also treated his employers ride-on-mower, fed up with having to take a wheel into a local place to get thorn punctures fixed on a weekly basis. It took quite a bit of sealant (balloon tyres), but he didn't suffer a puncture from that point on. It also seals the pores against porosity, the tyres don't need re-inflating up often either.

I can imagine.

Yup, I've had that, as did the FIL. He put on a new pair old NOS shoes and was just wearing the uppers by the end of the street. ;-)

*Apparently*, (according to a show shop insider) there was a batch of rubber as used for shoe soles that was bad but used by many shoe manufacturers for some time, a bit like the bad capacitor thing.

I took a brand new pair of trainers out of their box (after storing them for a while till I wore the first pair out) and the soles broke in half when I flexed them with my hands. ;-(

Quite, and I really don't think you can beat a pneumatic tyre on a barrow for ease and comfort of use.

As you say, if the foam is soft enough to 'give' with anything below a full (weight) load, the chances are it won't last that long after being driven over sharp edges (rubble and the like).

Hard enough to be tough and it ends up being solid, especially with a medium load and you feel every bump and can't easily start moving over even small obstructions. Easy effect to see when you hit a small stone with a reasonably loaded std in-store shopping trolley. ;-(

If you end up with an inflatable tyred barrow and want to run an experiment with me, if we confirm the valve position I'll get a suitably sized tube (normally 3.50x8?), treat it to a dose of Punctureseal and stick it in the post (all foc), as long as you let us know how it works out? ;-)

Cheers, T i m

[Tim Lamb]

My *two ply* ones have all had a dose of puncture sealant. Semi industrial tyres rarely puncture and will fit wheelbarrow rims.

[PeterC]

The old barrow has a solid tyre, don't know if it's foam (and don't intend to find out!) Could be useful as a bodge-on spare. It's at least 30 yo and spent about 15 y on a building site (all guestmations). It is hard, though.

Thank you very much. It might take some time as use is intermittent. A mate put something in the tubs on his time-trialer (in the '70s. Saved the frequent pumping up, as they leak a bit at 7 bar, and saved unstitching thetyre to get at the tube).