my rolling kiln carts

[jimbarry]

The design is not yet tested, and I suspect I will have have angle iron under all the wheels for rolling. Its not a steel frame for sure, but it fit my budget for now.



 


 

[Crusarius]

I always thought that setup would make a great cart system.

[Ljohnsaw]

Looks good. 

I don't see an axle hole.  Is the axle captured between the rails?  What size axle?  How far in to the wood does it go?  How much wood do you plan on stacking on them?  I would just be a little nervous about the axle wanting to crush the wood and allow the whole platform to bottom out.

If that happens, you could just make a small angle iron cradle, maybe as long as the wheel diameter, that the axle is welded to and is bolted to the wood to spread the point loading.

[jimbarry]

Axle for each wheel is hidden. So yes, captured between the rails. 1" steel axle. Each cart is 8ft long and 32" wide. So it can fit a crate of lumber that size, or a 1/2 cord firewood.

These lumber crates are 8ft x 24". Old style. Our newer crates are 32" wide.


 

Our firewood is split and stacked, 1/4 full cord per pallet. Pallet is 32x48", stacked 36" high.


 


The thought occurred to me that the weight would crush the wood fibres at the point where the axle and the wood contact. This is all an experiment. If it does occur I'll try a bigger piece of angle iron to allow the cart more clearance, and then notch the end pieces of the carts in case the angle iron makes contact with it. If all that fails, I'll weld angle iron to the ends of the axle pieces and then screw the angle iron to the wood frame.

[Ljohnsaw]

If all that fails, I'll weld angle iron to the ends of the axle pieces and then screw the angle iron to the wood frame.

I was thinking that the angle iron would be on the inside such that the horizontal part would be under the wood rails.  That way there is minimal stress on the screws - hope that makes sense without a picture.  Kind of like:
[]|-wheel-|[]      
|    is supposed to be angle iron and [] your wood beams

[jimbarry]

I was thinking ...

Yes, I was thinking the same.

[GeneWengert-WoodDoc]

I have seen kilns where the one side of the cart has wheels that look like a pulley wheel and it runs on the angle iron track turned so it has the profile of an upside down "v" but the other side is just a flat piece of steel with flat metal wheels.  If both tracks were angle iron, then track alignment would be critical to keep the distance apart the same and also the carts would have to be aligned.  With the one being flat, a cart can be twisTed or bent and still work well.

[jimbarry]

I seen similar article too Gene. The original idea was to just run one side with V iron and the other side to roll on the floor. The pine planks might put up a fight, so its either V track or like you said, some flat stock. Flat stock would be easier although I did build in some side to side self adjustment for the wheels.

[YellowHammer]

I used all V wheels.  I mounted one set of track, let the other side float, rolled the cart on them to use as a spacer and then anchored the floating rail down.  Basically used the cart as a gauge.