A Wagon for Alice

It all started with the question: What should I get Alice for her birthday. In talking with her dad we figured one of those little wagons would be perfect as she has spent most of her summer roaming around the yard picking up nice rocks and flowers and stuff.

I thought It might be a good idea to get her the same wagon I had as a kid. I was shocked to find out that they wanted close to 200$ for what is essentially a big cake tin on four plastic wheels. They do make an all plastic version for around 80$ and after having a close look at it in the store, well, let's just say it wasn't good enough. So I decided to build one. With only five days left before her birthday it was going to be a tight fit but I work good under pressure!

What you see in the pictures is the end result. The axles are welded steel. The wheels are lawnmower take-offs. The floor and struts are plywood. The handle and its shaft are Ash. The rest of the body is made out of pine shelving. It looks a bit chunky but this way it'll be able to weather years of use and abuse. The wheels stick out a bit more than they should because I had originally planned on fitting fenders. There is no Ackerman in the steering gear (look it up on wiki) because a) it's a pain in the ass to figure out properly and b) isn't needed at the speeds this thing travels at. So there you go.