Help me design a handle for my cart...?

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Ever have a project that causes you a sleepless night cause you can’t figure out how to do something? Are you the kinda guy that does his best work while listening to his pillow? Me too, and I need the collective engineering power of the forums to help brainstorm a hinge inside a piece of square tubing.    Let’s toss and turn together now, ready: picture a ladder laying horizontally on the ground. Your mission is to install a hinge in the middle of the ladder so you can lift up half the ladder at about a 45 degree angle while the other half stays flat on the ground. Sounds relatively simple, right…until you realize you want to do the same thing with a piece of square tubing, avoiding welding anything to the outside of the tubing as it must sleeve inside another piece of square, until it’s pulled all the way out past the hinge. Oh, that’s the brain buster!!  I want to design a handle I can weld onto the bottom of the cart and it stays pushed in under the cart when not needed. To move the cart you pull the handle out all the way, lift it up to a standing position so you don’t have to bend over to pull your cart around, then you return it to horizontal and it’ll slide back inside itself out of the way. I don’t have to necessarily use square tubing if you can come up with another way to do it using pipe or something else.    Thanks for you input…here’s hoping you lose some sleep too !!Last edited by ronnielyons; 12-21-2006 at 07:55 AM.
Reply:like a telescopic handle?  that hinges?  Got any pics of what ya got so far?DewayneDixieland WeldingMM350PLincoln 100Some torchesOther misc. tools
Reply:Yeah, works like a telescope. One piece slides inside the other. No photo, just in my head so far.
Reply:Cruise over here: http://www.hobartwelders.com/mboard/...ad.php?t=22813Lots of bitchin ideas pouring in...even at 0400 in the morning. The world never sleeps. Thanks for all the help !!
Reply:How about drill a hole through the top of each piece of tubing, near the edge. Insert a hinge *inside* the tubing, weld through the hole you just drilled. So the hinge is on the inside of the tube. Space the tubes apart enough that you have clearance for them to bend. something like this:_______   _________   <- top wall of tube    _____O_____          <- hinge welded to inside top of tubeOk so my art ability sucks !- John
Reply:here's one I made for our tig at work it goes under the cart and pulled out when needed Creative metal Creative metal Facebook