Progress in Paradise...

Progress in Paradise...  That may not look like all that much at right, but it represents a whole bunch of progress.  As I write this, I'm pretty much wiped out, physically, from the effort it took to get to this point today :)

The first task came before I mounted the wooden platform (the orange thing) onto the steel frame (the part with the wheels).  I'd already assembled and aligned the frame, but I never had aired up the tires or greased all the (numerous) points that need it.  There are 8 zerc fittings plus a couple dozen exposed metal points where good old-fashioned grease was needed.

I figured I'd do the easy part first: the zerc fittings.  Little did I know how much work that was going to be!  I used up all my grease (about a half tube) on the first zerc fitting.  I have a pneumatic grease gun, so that took about 15 seconds.  Off to Tractor Supply I went to pick up a couple tubes of grease.  When I got there, I found them on sale for half price, so I bought eight of them.  Good thing I did – I went through four entire tubes before I filled those fittings.  There must be huge grease reservoirs inside the wheels.  That's a good thing, I guess, but I was sure surprised!

Then came the time to mount the wooden platform onto the frame.  That platform weighs around 160 lbs., more than I can maneuver by myself.  It started out up on sawhorses, as you've seen on previous posts.  I roped it to my hoist and lifted it up, then positioned the frame under it and lowered it back down.  The job of getting it exactly in the right place while lowering it the last little bit was made especially challenging by the fact that the control for the hoist was 15 feet over my head, in the loft.  I ran up and down the stairs about 20 times before I finally had the thing in position, about 1/2" above the mounting holes.  Then all I had to do was lift the frame slightly and slip the bolts into place.  That sounds easy when I write it like that, but it was actually quite a challenge: heavy parts that needed to be held to within 1/16" or so of the right place while inserting the bolt with my “free” hand.  That part would have been a lot easier with a couple of helpers :)

But I got it done.  Yay!

The cart rolls around very nicely.  All the sides are built (I forgot to take photos of that event), and tomorrow they're going up on sawhorses to be painted.  Then I'm done!