Today I planned to move a palette of concrete into the basement to take weather out of the equation for putting in the concrete floor.
I loaded 8 bags on the skip hoist
But when I tried to run it down the trolley hung up! After unloading one bag at a time I discovered it wouldn't work with more than one bag. 56 trips up and down the stairs is not good.
Investigation showed we had worn out one of the rollers.
These are cheap Harbor Freight rollers that have riveted in axles with the bracket welded to the trolley frame. I could have ground off the welds and welded in a spare but that would have required a run home for the mig welder (who carries a welder in their Jeep?) and there other rollers that are showing signs of wear. Decided I needed a better solution that would let me change the roller without a welder.
Besides, it gave me an excuse to do something different. I decided to create an axle that I could remove and replace without a welder.
Using a spare roller I started by drilling a pilot hole for a tapped hole.
Then I stepped up to a1/4 bit to drill out the riveted axle.
The axle came out cleanly and let me move on to modifying the axle to accept a scew.
After drilling and tapping a 4-40 screw.
I was able to reassemble the wheel with a removable axle.
Now that I a process worked out I should be able to duplicate this work for other rollers.
Tomorrow I will learn if this roller was the culprit.
Watch for an update tomorrow.
Ben