Wheelbarrow, redux

I finally got the wheelbarrow project finished. It's been a two week saga to get everything done. Our 10 year old wheelbarrow had gotten rusty and broken one of the handles off (mid-job, of course). We did some wheelbarrow shopping, and any of the nice plastic yard carts I wanted to use as a replacement cost $75-100. Just a plain old wheelbarrow, like ours, cost around $50, plus it required assembling from the tray, handles, and accessories. We decided to buy some new handles and reuse the old metal parts, after a new paint job. There is nothing wrong with our metal parts, except for rust.

Avinash and Dad dismantled our defunct barrow, using the help of Dad's bolt cutters. I painted the tray, stands, axle, and "lip", and got some 5/16" carriage bolts and nuts from the hardware store. I used the old nuts and bolts as a template. I soon discovered that while the new handles were designed to replace any old tray, the pre-drilled holes were not. Evidently, they started standardizing wheelbarrows after I had purchased mine. I began to drill new holes in the handle section with the biggest drill bit I had (thank you, Dad, for the cordless power drill). It turned out to be 1/16" too small, so the bolts would not go in. So, off to the hardware store again to buy 1/4" bolts and nuts. Fortunately, this only set me back $0.46. Strangely, the handle kit did not come with shims, like the old wheelbarrow had to hold the handles steady under the tray. The old shims were pretty deteriorated, so I tried putting the thing together without the shims.

The new bolts went in with some encouragement, and although I had to take the handles and stands apart about 10 times to get everything together "just so", it's now ready for business again. I pumped up the tires, and it looks better, if not brand new.

Here's a photo of the new, improved wheelbarrow.