Hand Truck Turned Into Motorcycle

For those motorcyclists looking to get a classic American-style cruiser, often the go-to brand is Harley-Davidson. However, these bikes not only have reputations for being stuck in the past, both in terms of design and culture, but they also tend to be extremely expensive—not only upfront, but in maintenance as well. If you want the style without all of that baggage, you might want to try out something like this custom motorcycle which not only looks the part, it reduces those costs by being built around a hand truck.

By the end of the project, though, the hand truck does not retain much of its original form or function. [Garage Avenger] has cut and welded it essentially into a custom frame for the diminutive motorcycle, while retaining much of its original look and feel. Keeping up with the costs savings aspect of this project, the four-stroke engine was free, although it did take some wrenching to get it running and integrated into the frame. A custom axle, a front end from another bike, a gas tank from an online retailer (that needed re-welding), and some wiring finishes out the build.

With a fresh paint job to match the original color of the hand truck, it’s off to the track. Of course it doesn’t have quite the performance of most street legal motorcycles, including some quirks with the handling and braking, but for the trails around [Garage Avenger]’s home it’s certainly a fun transportation mode he can add to his repertoire. If this is your first time seeing one of his projects, be sure to check out his other work including this drifting shopping cart and this turbine-powered sled.

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A Portable Chainsaw Sawmill

Unless you’re running a commercial logging operation, with specialized saws, log grapples, mills, transportation for the timber, and the skilled workers needed to run everything, it’s generally easier to bring a sawmill to the wood instead of taking the wood to the sawmill. Especially for a single person, something like a chainsaw mill is generally a much easier and cost effective way to harvest a small batch of timber into lumber. These chainsaw mills can still be fairly cumbersome though, but [izzy swan] has a new design that fits an entire mill onto a hand cart for easy transportation in and out of a forest.

The entire mill is built out of a sheet and a half of plywood, most of which is cut into strips and then assembled into box girders for the track. The remainder of plywood is machined on a CNC to create the carriage for the chainsaw to attach as well as a few other parts to fix the log in place. The carriage has a 4:1 reduction gear on it to winch the chainsaw along the length of the log which cuts the log into long boards. After the milling is complete, the entire mill can be disassembled and packed down onto its hand cart where it can be moved on to the next project fairly quickly.

For a portable mill, it boasts respectable performance as well. It can cut logs up to 11 feet in length and about 30 inches across depending on the type of chainsaw bar used, although [izzy swan] has a few improvements planned for the next prototypes that look to make more consistent, uniform cuts. Chainsaws are incredibly versatile tools to have on hand as well, we’ve seen them configured into chop saws, mortisers, and even fixed to the end of a CNC machine.

Thanks to [Keith] for the tip!

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