Is the bad weather keeping you inside your house? Yeah, I know, it sucks, but if you have an old battery-powered angle grinder laying around, you can start making a cool electric-powered trike.
It won’t be the easiest thing in the world, and you’ll need more things than a used power tool, but at the end of the day, your kid will zoom around with a big smile on his face. No kids yet? Then you’ll be having a big smile giving the contraption a spin.
The tutorial from Make It Extreme YouTube channel starts with a guy dismantling an old lawnmower. You’ll need the rear axle assembly. You can ditch the wheels as they’re probably not sturdy enough to support a person.
In fact, strip everything down until you’re left with that rudimentary differential and the axles. Next, you’ll need some small wheels, the front fork of an old bicycle as well as some metal bars.
The man in the video appears to use aluminum to create the frame as it is easily bendable and lightweight. However, if you don’t have the special machinery to bend it, you can use steel which you can cut and weld to shape.
You’ll also need access to a lathe to make the wheel hubs and two pulleys to connect the angle grinder to the differential with a rubber belt. Note that the differential uses some sort of clutch you’ll have to connect to a handlebar lever so you can use the contraption without reaching down for the angle grinder’s power button.
You can use the brake lever of your old bicycle to do that, since you already took its front end. And, you’ll also need some sheet metal to create a floor you can sit on.
The process of making your scrap electric trike is detailed in the video below.
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