The Daring Book for Girls - Andrea J. Buchanan [88]
Bolt the runners to the neck using two ½″ × 6″ carriage bolts, with a washer and nut on each. If there’s any wobbly space in between, use nuts, washers, and spacers on the inside to fill it up.
Attach the two 3″ eyebolts to the steering upright, with the eyes facing the body of the scooter, and then attach the 4″ eyebolts to the front side of the neck.
Line up the two pairs of eyebolts and drop the ½″ × 8″ carriage bolt through all four. That’s the steering column. Make sure it can turn freely. Then tighten two nuts together at the bottom of the bolt.
Now for the wheels
The front axle fits into the hole at the bottom of the steering upright. Find the ¼″ × 5″ long
THREE TRICKY THINGS TO LOOK FOR
The scooter wheel may have a spacer inside—you’ll see and hear it rattling around. It needs to be threaded onto the axle separately. Pry off one of the plates covering the hole, and you’ll find it. Slip the spacer onto the axle separately (as in wheel-spacer-hole cover), and it should work.
Depending on the exact proportions of your wood, you may need a longer 6″ bolt (alas, 5½″ is not a standard size). Similarly, if the openings on the wheels you find are ½″, or 3/8/3/8″, just use a larger width hex bolt for the axle and drill a larger hole to match. By now the bolt bins at the hardware store are as familiar as the back of your hand, and you can pull the right bin in your sleep.
Fiddle with the extra ½″ nuts, washers, and spacers to keep the back wheel centered on the axle and the front wheels set apart from the steering upright so they don’t rub. Our back wheel has three big ½″ washers on either side, and can use even more. Our front wheel looks like this: washer-wheel-washer-½″ bolt-washer-steering upright-washer-½″ nut-washer-wheel-washer and finally, a ¼″ nut and a ¼″ stop nut to hold it together. Yours might use a similar combination to keep everything in place. Just remember to place washers on both sides of each wheel, and then toy with it till the combination is tight enough to hold everything in place, but still loose enough for the wheels to turn freely.
hex bolt. Place a washer on both sides of both wheels, and push the axle through one wheel, through the upright, and through the other. Make sure everything can turn, and top it off with a pair of nuts, or a stop nut.
The rear wheel sits between the runners, which makes it a bit harder to assemble. Use the other ¼″ × 5″ hex bolt, with washers on either side of the wheel, so it can turn smoothly and won’t get caught on the wood.
Once the wheel spacing is fixed, top the axle off with two nuts or a stop nut.
Step Five: Final Touches
If you’re the kind who stops her scooter by dragging a sneakered foot alongside, forget this next step, but otherwise, a 4-inch triangle hinge makes a good brake. Attach with screws at the rear of the platform so the hinge leans over the back wheel. The neck and platform can be extra-secured, if you wish, with an angle bracket and wood screws, though we skipped this step on ours.
Adjust and tighten all the nuts, fit plastic safety covers over bolt bottoms, erase the pencil lines and clean up the tools. You’re off!
Flat Scooter
WHAT YOU NEED
♦ ¾″ plywood, cut to a 12″ by 12″ square.
♦ Four rubber swivel caster wheels, available at the hardware store. Find the type attached to a plate, with four screw holes.
♦ Sixteen small bolts with nuts (3/16/3/16″ and 1″ long).
The caster wheel package will suggest screws, but this option assumes the respectable path of attaching the wheels to a chair or desk, not using them to roll high speed and rough-and-tumble across the floor on a scooter. We suggest small bolts, which are stronger than screws because they are held in place by a nut. If in doubt, ask at the hardware store. See below, you might need sixteen washers, too.
Tools
♦ Drill with a 3/16/3/16″ bit
♦ Saw or jigsaw
♦ Adjustable wrench or 3/16/3/16″ wrench
♦ Sandpaper. Wrap the sandpaper around a small block of wood secured