My Project-Converted a pallet into dolly 4 tiller

[rox]

Now compared to all your projects this is not that much of a project but I am still pretty happy with the way it came out.

I bought some wheels at the hardware store and attached them to the bottom of a pallet to make a dolly for the rototiller. The Moracan farm worker had one but he did a poor job and the wheels were too small and he didn't apply thim onto a large enough piece of wood and it failed.

I work completely differently than my husband. I think through my whole project, get everything I need and then start. Which means I always apear to be slow starting. he on the other hand, jumps right in there with any old tool that is laying around and starts to work.

I'm int he store and thinking through the project visualizing how I am going to attach the wheels to the bottom of the pallet, visiualizing predrilling the holes for the screws, and looking at the wheel when I realize that I am never going to be able to get this big drill we have close in enough and down enough because the wheel si going to be in the way.

So I bough my first extra long drill bit. In Europe I bought a #4. Then I msut have spent 30 minutes looking at all the screws. I wanted a screw that would screw down flat against the metal plate of the wheel. I also wanted a thread along the whole screw. Well i had to compromise, man I miss my good hardware store Elliots Ace Hardware in Elm Grove Wisconsin, ont he screws because they didn't have what I wanted. I finally picked out a good long screw, that had a hex a nut like cap on it, however the threading didn't go the full length of the screw. I thought it would be more important to have the head of the screw flat against the plate for the wheel, and give up the idea of having it threaded all the way down. Because the rototiller is so heavy I put in an extra wheel int he center, which had a 6"x6" pice of block. And becaue of the other problems we ahd getting some parts off the tractor, I used an oil an and squeezed in oil on all the wheels to keep the bearigs oiled. They really whip around with that oil on them. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif One thing I did learn after my first wheel, don't screw thm on too close to the edge, else when the wheel swings around it is actually outside the pallet. A bit of practical experience I will remember the next time I am screw on wheels.

Then I used a crow bar, a hammer and some wood to block the hammer, and pulled out the nails and screws from the pallet that the morocan made. He had some really good 3/4" marine plywood that i was able to re-use on the new pallet.

I decided to screw on the plywood instead of nailing onto my new pallet. Hmm more decisions on screws. For the top of the pallet I didn't want those big heads on the screws I wanted it flatter so I found some real good screws about 4" long in the barn. The plywood was in 2 pieces. I put in 6 screws on each piece and I was done. I really anaylzed if I should add any more braces to the pallet but I left it as it was, becasue it really looked strong to me. It has 9 - 6"x6" blocks of wood between the top and bottem of the pallet and I jsut didn't see where any more wood was going to make it stronger.

My hsuband has the rototiller on the tractor right now, I am most anxious for him to take it off to see how the Dolly/Pallet will work. I hope it doesn't tip over.

Because I enjoy photos so much when people share them I have a photograph of my Dolly/Pallet project.

Now I am busy prunning the olive trees and will be doing that until Mid May. The almond trees are in Pink Bud and my husband will spray them in 2 days.

Admittadly not much of a project compared to everyone else, but it was mine and I enjyed doing it. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[rox]

Here is a picture of my husband showing he got his hands dirty, as we were cleaning up the barn and re-arranging things. You can see a wood chipper with two chuts behind him and one of our big PTO sprayers behing the tractor. he is buy the big tractor a Goldini.

Oh yes when cleaned the barn we found we had a bucket. Man was that thing ehavy. We never even knew it was there and it is brand new, neber used. It is about 42" wide.

 

[rox]

Here is a picture of me on the small tractor, a Staub. As ugly as this thing is it starts every time, however we have to jump the battery to get it to start. we will ahve to get that fixed some day.

 

[rox]

Here is a picture showig what a nice workbench area we have.

I think our tractors must be okay becasue my hsuband leaves the rotottiller ont he back of the big tractor, the Goldini and it is raised and it never bleeds down. The same thing on the blue Staub tractor. Taht little wagon on the 3PH just stays up and doesn't go down, because of hydrolics. I learned about bleed down on this forume, thanks guys /forums/images/graemlins/cool.gif

 

[billbill1]

Nice project Rox, depending on the weight of the tiller, your casters might be a little on the small side (maybe not-too) Your work bench is much better arranged than mine. Thanks for the pictures.

 

[midlf]

The value of a project is how well it serves the intended purpose as well as economy of time and $. Yours looks like it hits both counts right on target. Glad to hear you had a good time doing it.

Don't forget that on some peoples projects building the project itself is a major part of the goal.

Our True Value hardware does a very good job. It is well stocked to serve a rural farming horsey area. However there are many times I still have to hit Elliot's. We refer to Elliot's as "THE" hardware store. Rox - I feel your pain. Thanks for the project pics.

 

[rox]

billbill1 & midlf,
Thx. I hope the wheels are not too small. We will find out when my husband takes the rototiller off. Again Thx.

 

[EddieWalker]

Rox,

Nice to have a face to go with your posts /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

It's very interesting to hear how you do things over there. I'm always amazed how different things are just around the state of Texas, but learning about France is just fantastic!!

Thanks for sharing,
Eddie

 

[LarryD]

<font color="blue"> ...however the threading didn't go the full length of the screw. </font>

Don't worry about the length of the threads, there will not be any pulling force on the screws once that tiller is sitting on the pallet.

I made a dolly for my tiller from 4 chunks of angle iron welded together. Casters at the corners. It's very flexible by itself but once I set the tiller on it, she tightens right up.