Before I forget about it we need to consider one of the most important pieces of safety equipment there is. Safety glasses are a simple and effective means of protecting your precious eyesight. You would expect to need protection from small splinters of steel produced by grinding and polishing but there are also many other potential threats from flying projectiles. I admit that sometimes I forget to put on my safety glasses because I must wear reading glasses in order to clearly see what I am doing. But most reading glasses do not offer adequate protection. So I find that I can easily fit the safety glasses over the reading glasses. I have had to go to the eye doctor before to have a speck of metal removed from an eyeball. It was not a big deal but it can be easily avoided by simply keeping a pair or two of these glasses handy. It just might save you from something more substantial than a small speck.

A good solid foundation is required for anything regardless of how large or small it is. Before we run off and start cutting metal and throwing things together there are a few basic and simple procedures you can employ to make it go in a more orderly fashion. First of all I will admit that I am not the neatest person in the world. If you think my work area can get messy then you ought to see what I can do in a kitchen. Some people say clean as you go and then you can keep a reasonably neat work area. I usually mess up as I go and then end up having to spend a lot of time cleaning up. Whatever your style just remember that a clean work area is a safer work area. Cleanliness may not be next to Godliness but it is headed in the right direction.


I will start by cleaning up this mess.


It is important to lay a straight and level foundation frame for the rest of the cart to rest on. You can accomplish this in a number of ways. You can use saw horses or even a cement garage floor. I prefer to build a wooden table large enough to accommodate the frame. This way the work is at an easily accessible height and can be constrained so that it will not move around as you tack weld the various parts together. I built my table out of a used piece of 3/4" thick plywood and two by fours. I had built it for a single seat project so you can see it is just barely wide enough for the Trail King.

I will be using one inch square tube with a 1/8" wall thickness for the floor frame. I cannot really give any engineering data that shows it will be strong enough. Just a little experience over the years shows that this is adequate to carry the weight of a small cart. It is helpful to make patterns for the individual frame lengths in order to measure the correct length.

A good way to mark the individual lengths is to use a scribe. I just sharpen a small punch for this purpose. Of course you can also use a magic marker as long as you cut on the correct side of the mark.

You will also need a light weight weight pair of leather gloves unless you just like grime and blisters.

Here is a simple feature on the chop saw that can really speed up clamping. It is a quick release that allows you to move the slack forwards or backwards in order to clamp different widths of parts.This shows the clamp closed and ready to tighten.

This shows the clamp open so that you can quickly move it forward or backwards.

Another advantage of making a template is that it helps in adjusting the angle of the clamp for angled parts.

Another handy item is framing blocks to hold the metal parts in place for tack welding. These are made out of 3/4" thick plywood and measure one and one half inches by three inches. Just drill two holes large enough for an adequate wood screw to screw them firmly in place.

Well, it looks like I undersized the cart to the size of the girls. Ideally it needs to be big enough to accommodate some growth. You keep feeding them and they keep growing. Metal is kind of hard to stretch. I made a scale pattern of the side elevation of the original drawing and found it was way too small for the girls let alone leave any room for growth. After scaling it up I think we are about ready to start construction. Here is a picture comparing the original pattern of the frame floor to the new one.

Building a model can be more tedious than building the actual machine. This seems to be true of many things in life. I have seen men make a living doing things that I would need two right arms and six monkeys to do. Plumbing is one of those professions.

So here is the introduction of every little girls dream.

The Trail King.

What could be more fitting for a little girl than a Utility Vehicle? They are rugged, compact and easy to drive. How about this one for a model?





It is a Kawasaki Mule.

This machine has cute but useful written all over it. So it's back to the drawing board and sketching and scaling as before with the Clawmaster. So what is a good name for this sporty little miniature. This is something that longs for adventure. It needs a name that sounds like a vehicle for adventure and conquest. " Trail King."

I like second chances, a chance to wipe the slate clean and start over. In modern times most young people don't even know what a slate is. It has nothing to do with promptness. Computerization has changed our lives in terms of time and space possibly more than anything heretofore seen by mankind. Don't get me wrong, sliced bread was indeed a major breakthrough but I doubt it has had the long range positive effects on mankind that moving electrons around has had. It is positives and negatives or at least that is what I am told. Does anyone know what a digitizer is? It is another relic of the past. It is sort of like the television sets of my childhood that were built as a piece of furniture, a heavy piece of furniture made to blend in with the rest of the furniture in you living room. A digitizer is sort of like an electronic sketching pad. They can be large or small. Fortunately I have been able to transform into the computer age albeit grudgingly at times.


Unfortunately I am left with a huge piece of equipment that hardly anyone uses anymore. This digitizer board has got many things but mostly it has got to go. Look how much space it takes up in my office. It is very sturdy and I have tried in vain to think of something to use it for. I know that the world does not use these things anymore because I have tried to give it away on Ebay twice and no one will even bid 99 cents. Does this mean that the past is worthless? Well it is not a matter of the past. Right now is what matters. So onward through the fog.

Well it appears that wife and grandmother Brenda does not think that this would be the right cart for little girls. It seems to be too big and dangerous. That just goes to show that it is a good idea to build a model first. Sometimes things don't end up looking the way we thought it would. Maybe I was thinking more in terms of what I would like for myself instead of what would be more manageable for the girls. It is said that a picture is worth a thousand words. I suppose that is probably true as long as it is a picture of a thousand words. I think that a word paints a thousand pictures. It seems that the value of a painting increases with age. Would it increase the value of the painting just by painting pictures of old things? I am not sure that I have an understanding and appreciation for art like some people do. There was a painting that was quite odd to me. The painting depicts a man painting a picture of a picture of a vase of flowers. I think that I will paint a picture of a picture of a man painting a picture of a picture of a vase of flowers. Keep that up and the flowers will become microscopic. This is the very essence of de ja vu like mirrors that face one another. How many times do they keep reflecting back and forth? I once injured my kneck trying to turn around fast enough to see the back of my head while looking directly into the opposite mirror. What does this have to do with modeling and design? "Point of view" my friend. Point of view. Is point of view a complete sentence? I don't know. Sometimes we must be satisfied with partial solutions. But I am going to forget all of this and start on a new idea.

I am using heat shrink film to cover the model although painting can look just as good if not better. Miss Paige said she wanted a pink Go Cart so I bought the closest thing to pink that I could find in shrink film. I found it in the discount rack. I wonder why?

Applying skin to model

I cut 1/8" thick rubber discs and glued them together for the wheels.

The finished "Clawmaster"