Uploaded December 2022 | Updated September 2026, 1 week ago
I've posted before about we modify the IKEA BROR cart to make a low-cost Coffee Cart decentespresso.com/coffeecart
In Milan, Italy, our wheels all bent due to the rough trade show floor, and we've been trying to design a low cost wheel bracket. A big AHA MOMENT came a few weeks ago, when I thought of welding a threaded block of metal into the angle of the cart leg. We made 4 prototypes, and tested them.
The good news is that the new way of holding the wheels is incredibly strong. It held fast, whereas all our previous designs couldn't survive. Alex put 108kg (238lbs) of water on the cart and with Teddy, they push it around the loading dock of our building.
The bad news is that the stress from this test transferred to other parts of the cart, that we now need to address.
- one wheel bolt bent. We think that if we get a wheel that has no nut pushing it away from the bracket, it'll be stronger. We've found a source for wheels like that.
- the bracket pushed away from the cart, because it's only fixed with 2 bolts. We're going to drill 2 more bolt holes that people can optionally put 2 bolts through, to give the bracket a 4 bolt mounting
- the angled IKEA metal leg itself bent. We think that the 4 bolt mount will help distribute the stress more. But that might be a real limit with IKEA's low cost design.
Still, this is a huge improvement. We now have a bracket that doesn't bend, and "only" need to shore up the bits around the bracket, which seems doable, and not expensive to try.
Once we figure this all out, we'll be selling these 4 wheel brackets to IKEA BROR carts, so you can cheaply make you coffee cart really robust, like we have.
-john
I've posted before about we modify the IKEA BROR cart to make a low-cost Coffee Cart decentespresso.com/coffeecart
In Milan, Italy, our wheels all bent due to the rough trade show floor, and we've been trying to design a low cost wheel bracket. A big AHA MOMENT came a few weeks ago, when I thought of welding a threaded block of metal into the angle of the cart leg. We made 4 prototypes, and tested them.
The good news is that the new way of holding the wheels is incredibly strong. It held fast, whereas all our previous designs couldn't survive. Alex put 108kg (238lbs) of water on the cart and with Teddy, they push it around the loading dock of our building.
The bad news is that the stress from this test transferred to other parts of the cart, that we now need to address.
- one wheel bolt bent. We think that if we get a wheel that has no nut pushing it away from the bracket, it'll be stronger. We've found a source for wheels like that.
- the bracket pushed away from the cart, because it's only fixed with 2 bolts. We're going to drill 2 more bolt holes that people can optionally put 2 bolts through, to give the bracket a 4 bolt mounting
- the angled IKEA metal leg itself bent. We think that the 4 bolt mount will help distribute the stress more. But that might be a real limit with IKEA's low cost design.
Still, this is a huge improvement. We now have a bracket that doesn't bend, and "only" need to shore up the bits around the bracket, which seems doable, and not expensive to try.
Once we figure this all out, we'll be selling these 4 wheel brackets to IKEA BROR carts, so you can cheaply make you coffee cart really robust, like we have.
-john
