Introduction: Make a Hand Truck From a Shopping Cart in Minutes

By www.mit.edu/people/robot
About: Tim Anderson is the author of the "Heirloom Technology" column in Make Magazine. He is co-founder of www.zcorp.com, manufacturers of "3D Printer" output devices. His detailed drawings of traditional Pacific I…

I need to move some stuff. I can't find my hand truck (moving dolly). Damn. I must have loaned it out.
Am I going to go buy another one? No. I'm going to make one from a shopping cart and frankly Scarlett, Tara the land, as God is my witness,  I'll never run out of hand trucks ever again!

It turned out great. Not only is it a good hand truck, it also works great as a four-wheeler floor dolly.

Time: It took an hour and fifteen minutes to build this while taking pictures, figuring out how to do it, and not rushing. The next one would take less than an hour.

    Tools Used:
safety glasses
dust mask
angle grinder with thin cutoff wheel
    with grinding wheel
I used my solar welder with spool gun and flux core welding wire. I wore my good respirator mask under the welding helmet. I don't want to get manganese poisoning.

You don't have a welder yet?  Make your own stick welder or weld from car batteries.

Step 1: Donor Cart

I got this bent shopping cart off the train tracks in Emeryville. A train removed the basket, which was a big improvement. I've been using it as a lowboy dolly ever since. Turned on its side it almost looks like a hand truck already!

Step 2: Surgical Planning

If your shopping cart is still all in one piece, figure out where you're going to cut the basket etc. off. Here I draw the line to cut the handle and rear cross brace off.
I've already removed the heavy wire bottom platform. Save it. You'll need it later.

Step 3: The Incision

Wear safety glasses at least. A grinding face shield, dust mask and leather apron is even better.
I'm using an angle grinder with a thin cutoff wheel. Cut off everything except the bottom platform and wheels.

Step 4: Bend the Frame Narrower

Now the frame is a simple U shape.
Bend it narrower so it won't hit door frames etc.

Step 5: Bend the Wheels Straight

Squishing the frame in makes the wheels not be parallel any more.
These wheels were already bent out of line by the train that hit it.
I use a vice and the gap under the shipping container to bend the wheels straight again.

Step 6: Weld the Lattice to the Scoop

I got a sheet of 1/8" steel out of the scrap bin and used a wire brush to clean the rust off it.
I welded the wire lattice bottom platform from the shopping cart to the sheet of steel, forming the scoop of the dolly.

I used my solar welder with spool gun and flux core welding wire. I word my good respirator mask under the welding helmet. I don't want to get manganese poisoning.

You don't have a welder yet?  Make your own stick welder or weld from car batteries.

Step 7: Weld That to the Frame and Wheels

Next I welded that to the wheels/frame assembly.
I welded in two chunks of angle iron between the scoop and frame to fill a gap and give the assembly more strength there.

Be sure to paint your dolly. If you paint it bright pink macho people won't want to keep it. Put your contact information on it. Who knows, you might get it back the next time someone steals it.

Step 8: Paint It Now

Paint it right now. Otherwise any bare metal will rust and your fine project won't look like a real thing. Painting something all one color does a miracle of making some cobble-together monstrosity look like a "unified design".

I used silver engine paint because I got some for free. It almost matches the original chrome color, so I don't need to be very careful.

Damn it looks good!

Step 9: Did I Steal That Cart?

Speaking of stealing, young philosophers tend to get excited about the idea that projects built from shopping carts are unethical because they entail stealing. Don't worry. There are lots of ways to get shopping carts without stealing them. The ones you want are discarded by stores. You can ask and they'll gladly give them to you.

But if you'd rather do it the Cheney American way, you can game the Law. Find them as lost, mislaid, or abandoned property. Look that up to see which best applies. Or you can honestly intend to someday return the cart to the store, or you can believe that the store owes you this much value.
Under our laws, theft is only the
1: knowing
2: taking of the property of another
3: with the intent
4: of permanently depriving them of it.
So there you have it, act without those elements and you've got four solid defenses against a charge of theft.

I really wish Dick Cheney and our other Great Men had made a massive hobby out of stealing shopping carts instead of what they actually did.
I'd like the young philosophers to get upset about the "big game" of moral guilt. Our collective participation in state sponsored kidnapping, torture, aggressive war, genocidal land and resource theft, a series of undeclared wars, imperialist trade policy, overthrowing democratic regimes and installing police-state dictatorships, etc. etc.
There are reasons why we 5% of the world's population get to consume 30% of the world's stuff. It's by playing hard and not playing fair for a very long time.