So I wanted to make a nice dolly for maneuvering my formula car around the shop. I found some great heavy duty (750lb rating each) swivel casters at casterconnection.com. I attempted to build the dolly from wood at first, but when finished it had a warp/twist to it that prevented all the wheels from sitting level. Me standing on it wasn't enough to square it up, I used a lot of screws in it!
The weight of the car might have been enough, but overall wasn't thrilled with it so I started looking at 80/20 aluminum as an option since I do not weld. Two sources popped up online - 8020.net and tnutz.com. The latter had much better prices so I got two pieces of 1545 series for the ends (24" long each) and 1530 (60" long) for the center. I had everything cut to order so all I needed was my tape measure and a 3/16 allen wrench to assemble it when it arrived!
This first design ended up being very hefty, about 30 lbs of aluminum and the casters weight 5 lbs each so overall 50lbs for the cart.
The design did allow for adjustability of the cross beam distance as a note. The height is 8 inches, which is what fits under the car when lifted with the quick jacks. I could easily add vertically to this and create a taller cart on this same base.
So then I wanted to know how lightweight I could build one. After all, my aborted wooden attempt certainly was a lot lighter! I found a nifty beam deflection calculator on the 8020.net site and did some math with the goal of building the lightest version I could. 8020.net offers light and ultra-light versions of the 15 series so I bought the beams from them the second time around. The website gives you the weight among other characteristics when you click on each profile type, so I knew exactly what the final project should weigh before deciding if it was worth re-buying parts using the UL profile. End result was I shaved nearly 20 lbs off in total.
This stuff really is like man-sized erector set! I found rubber tread strip inserts for the slots also which help cushion and grip the car floor. You can get lots of different fasteners, hinges, adapters, inserts, etc. You can get pieces pre-cut, with angles, drilled and countersunk, etc. You can use the inner cavity as a pressure chamber - which would be handy if making a workbench as an idea.
All this cost less than buying an aluminum fabricated rolling cart and it's modular and re-configurable into different dimensions later if I want, with re-use of parts as an option. Pretty cool if you ask me LOL!
Anyway, just wanted to share, hopefully some will find this helpful if you struggle like me and can't weld or you just want to make cool things.
Cheers!
Mikey