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Follow Cart 80/20


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So, you got the new BLACK profiles --- neat! It is interesting to see all the parts laid out like that, very well organized, worthy of the 80/20 name "the industrial erector set". I was never that organized and was constantly ordering more parts and cutting profiles myself with a hacksaw (not so much fun). I think you will do great with all your pre-planning.

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Thanks, this has been a year in the making. Design, redesign, waffling, redesigning, second guessing, and finally pulling the trigger. With so many pieces, I had to letter them. Alas, 80/20 cut one major piece 1/2" too small. So the building has come to a screaching halt!! It will give me time to draw and get the custom pieces built. Oh well. You'll see the progress soon enough. Dang!

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Not cheap!! I'll have a better number for you when everything is here. Still waitin for drawers, customs drawers, and custom handles, LED light, hooks, etc. As most custom pieces go, you'll pay for it. I over engineered this to withstand the rigors of my set. I didn't want it to rattle apart. But putting some of these pieces together so far, I realize I could've saved some money with going with single anchors vs double anchors, in places. But that's pretty marginal in the grand scheme of things. These pieces really do hold on tight and sturdy. Could've also gone with the 1010 vs the 1515, with the amount of structure I have built in. But it was suggested by several vets in the business to go with the 1515. If I build again, I'm definatley going with 1010. I'll save weight and money. When you buy from these guys they charge a lot for counterbores, tapping, and notch services. I could've done the tapping, but I figured I might a well just have them do it, since I already had them doing counterbores that I was not comfortable doing. I'll soon know if the over engineering was beneficial. Picking up the pieces, these things are not light!!

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It does seem the trick with 8020 carts when dealing with an 8020 distributor is to send as close to a final design as possible.  The more times you make changes to your design while working with them the more they charge for the revisions...It helps to know all the connectors you want too.

 

I had to get a few extra parts for a cart I built that I also spent the extra money to get anodized black...now it seems you don't need to pay as much extra for the black color.

 

Looking forward to seeing the final product!

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When I did my follow cart in 80/20, the distributor, Knott's, recommended using Google Sketch. It was a bit tedious as I had to build each length of each piece an inch at a time. Copy and Paste helped. But in the end, it was a more exact picture. I also sent in sketches and my design for that cart was very simple, boxy. 

 

The Black looks really cool! 

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I had access to 3D paper that I drew my cart on. 3D paper being graph paper but with 45 degrees lines as well. So you can draw with depth. Not sure if that makes sense. But it gave a great view of the cart. I copied that drawing several times and used a separate drawing for each element. Inserts, anchors, slot nuts, dimensions. I think I ended up with about 30 different drawings. Well worth it. I tried the Google Sketch, but I could draw faster, and the paper really helped.

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And I thought I'd bought out the last of the black anodized aluminum!

 

Have fun with the build, it's pretty much as easy as it seems to work with the stuff.  I'm already thinking about rebuilding my 80/20 main cart with what I learned from building my follow cart last year.

 

The next detail will be putting umbrella mounts on both carts to I can transfer the umbrella to the follow cart for smaller 'bag-on'cart' gigs.

 

Let me know if you end up needing any last minute fasteners, I have a pretty decent supply sitting around.  And McMaster Carr has a decent stock of 8020 parts available for intown pickup if you get desperate.

 

Good luck!

 

 

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I ended up using 6" pneumatics with top plates from Northern Tool.  They're just attached at 3 points to t-nuts with 1/4-20 screws - no issues at all with the mounting, and they provide another cross brace for the frame. The tires were really awful and have already been replaced.  I'm thinking about replacing them again with grey soft rubber ones.  

 

I'd love to use bigger casters, but I'm limited by the height of my current vehicle. If I end up in something larger, I'll definitely switch to higher quality 8".

 

BTW, since it sounds like you went with the double anchor fasteners, you made the right decision getting them pre-bored.  I machined all my own for my first cart.  It took forever, and I spent $$$ on tooling that I wish I hadn't.

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Framework is complete, now waiting for custom pieces and it will be complete. I've already seen some redesign elements for version 2. But that will have to be a few years down the road as this has been a pretty penny to come up with, with all the custom pieces, not pictured.

(null)

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It wasn't too difficult. Had to build from bottom center up. Had a few moments of take apart and rebuild from forgetting to slip in some T-nuts before closing in the ends for pieces that got added later. Biggest gotcha was to not tighten everything right away. Made getting other pieces in on same angle in impossible.

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The lesson about not tightening anything all the way is a good lesson to remember (in more areas than just building the cart). I avoided some of the problems of forgetting to install some T-Nuts by using mostly the drop-in variety (which I have continued to use as I add little things to my cart).

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  • 3 weeks later...

Almost complete. 8020 messed up the handle attachments. New ones coming soon. Also need to redesign the wheel base. I went with the 1.5" 8020 because I wanted a larger bolt size for the wheels. Unfortunately that was still too small. So I designed a plate, but the wheels are now recessed, and somewhat unstable. Workable, but it can be better. I love the look and functionality and all in all it turned out great.

(null)

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The cart is looking really good. It doesn't surprise me that you had a few hiccups on the way, it is near impossible to really specify everything accurately enough to be able to just assemble it all and put it in service.

 

It looks like the handles you built use one of the 80/20 parts that capture the tube (handle) and attach to the profiles. I had the same idea and ordered those very same fittings but never used them. For one thing, they are very expensive, and it just didn't work out for me so I returned them and devised another design for the handle on my main cart.

 

Detail below (from your picture) are these the 80/20 fittings?

 

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No, those are custom machined, and the wrong design. I submitted two designs, the one you see, and another, more machined, and elegant, and black! I wanted them to have options incase they couldn't do the more artful design. I paid for the more expensive, artful design and they sent these. Not sure why, but it's being corrected.

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