Well, the yearly Huntington Beach Chili Cook Off is almost here and my boss wanted something special from me again so we can raise more money for the American Cancer Society than the firemen and PD, just like last year.
They've got mostly women running the show and they decided this year's theme will be "Circus Fun". Now, when I think of a circus, I picture mostly kids, but this is just a city employee event. Us guys would rather have a western theme, like "cattle drive" or "chuck wagon". Anyway, They wanted me to build a circus wagon lion cage. So I did.
I was so short of time that I neglected to photo the total build.
I got some pictures off line for inspiration and started gathering materials. The chassis started with four 12" wheels made form 2 thicknesses of 3/4'' plywood glued together and a 1/2'' npt X 3'' long brass pipe nipple to ride on 5/8'' axles and added floor flanges to each side with carriage bolts all the way through the hubs. Very strong and true. Then hole sawed them each four times to give a sort of spoke pattern. Our street marking crew agreed to paint everything with red curb paint to start with. The base is steel strap holding the axles and wooden frame. The front axle pivots on thrust bearings from an old hydraulic pump. Then our maintenance man supplied some 3/8'' plywood for the cage. I bought some 2 X 4'' and other sizes to hold the plywood together. The front side is a frame of wood with 5/8'' dowels for bars and the back side is 2 large doors on hinges and a homemade latch mechanism. I'll explain the reason I made it this way instead of bars on both sides later. The tongue is wood with metal ends to pull with my Scout.
Got all that painted and put together and our street sign guy made up some transfer stickers to decorate it with. I also got some fancy stencils to finish it off.
The grill too. Everything is truly fantastic.
