How to spot a potential fascist

Wow.  Well worth a look - and then apply it to what you see in politics. Thankyou, Tom.

THE SHOLLEY PROJECT

 

I have a Clax shopping trolley - Original cost $285.00 AU

Made almost completely of injection moulded plastic parts.

Original model weaknesses

1. Front wheels are too small. Even a small ditch stops the cart.
   

2. Bendy. Some would call it a feature but the plastic frame bends on uneven ground. I want something a bit stronger. I am concerned that this will eventually result in it breaking.

3. Folding. The current model has a lot of complexity and parts because it folds flat while I don't need that. Yes, it is nice but unnecessary for now. Who knows what will happen in future though.

   4. Stairs and steps - gettign it up stairs when full is less than ideal.
   

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This one has kept me thinking for a while since I use it every weekend for our home shopping.

I started by designing it in Blender.

The Mk.1 has a simple 4 wheel design and folding frame.

 

The folding frame was a major complication but if I want to sell the design or the finished unit to anyone it is pretty much essential. I may not be living in a place where I can leave it up all of the time in future too so it is a desirable feature.

There was a lot of design work to get to this point and I planned to make it from aluminium extrusions and plates with some 3D printed parts for style or rounding corners. The folding system really needs to be made in the physical to test everything but I am not going to do that at this point.

Here is the folded look:

 

This was all okay but I realised that taking it up stairs or steps is a major need so I designed a new version with stairclimber wheels, the Mk.2

I believe this design of 3 wheel arrangement is patented and you cannot sell anything using it legally without giving a certain big defence contractor money which is a bit of a pest for a tiny one horse operator like me, so I thought up a cheaper slightly different version using two rear wheels per side to cut down on weight and cost. The down side is that it loses most of the benefit of having the three wheel arrangement since the pivot point is level with the wheel axles thus there is no reduction of effort. It doesn't matter if you are only making one for your own use, you don't pay for the patent then.

 

The main issue with building this thing is that I only have a little tin shed and no time to muck around building a milling machine etc. etc. to do the project properly. This is a big pain for me as I like to make things and not having a workshop is annoying but I can't do anything about it right now. I can't move due to family issues.

So there it is for now. Maybe in a few years when I am forced to retire I can get onto it. If you want plans and so on or have comments, just let me know.