[ John Haskey wrote in 140728 MMDigest --

> I'm planning to build a crank organ cart and, before I unknowingly
> make a huge design mistake, I'd like some ideas and hints into what
> makes a good cart. ... ...
>
> [ The cart plus the organ should fit within your vehicle. ;-)
> [ -- Robbie

I feel tempted to wise-crack like Robbie and say, "It's gotta have
wheels!" ;-)  No; but seriously:

The organ cart height is custom to both your organ as well as yourself!

- What are the dimensions of the organ?

- At what height should the crank be ending up, so that you can
comfortably play your instrument?

- What type of organ is it?  Music rolls?  Electronic?  Music books?
Barrel?

Accordingly you might need a drawer in the cart to store the rolls,
battery or books.  For an old barrel organ you might want to be sure to
stay very traditional with the look of the cart.

- _Budget!_  How much money are you willing to invest?

You can find bicycle wheels of all dimensions for fairly cheap, but how
do you make them work?  You can get wheels from a wheelchair (that's
what I did) or you can build the entire thing based on an existing
vehicle, for example, a bicycle trailer, a jogging stroller, a vintage
baby carrier.

If you have the money (or know-how and shop-equipment), wooden spoke
wheels add a really nice touch.

- Do you prefer a four-wheeler or more of a push-cart two-wheeler?

- You will probably have to think about some sort of handles to lift & steer

- How are you going to attach the organ?  Traditionally you can often
see belts for that, but a few wing-nuts might do just the same trick.
Myself, I shaped rails into which the base of the organ slides into
with no other fixation other than gravity.

- You have mentioned about suspension; from experience it's a bad thing
that should be avoided or dealt with in an ingenious way or another;
I've had an old baby-buggy -- it bounced around like crazy!

Going back to one of the previous points: you might find yourself content
enough with having air-filled tires as the sole means of suspension.

Personally I don't want to have to deal with a potential flat tire on my
organ cart...  What works traditionally are very stiff leaf-springs --
good enough suspension for pot-holes while moving around, but at the
same time not bouncy while stationary.

Over the years we have bought, modified and built a large variety of
carts for a variety of our organs.  I'll be happy to assist you further
with bouncing ideas back and forth.

What Robbie said about it fitting in your current vehicle is very
valid, too.  Myself, I have indeed measured the trunk of our car to
make sure it will still fit the cart; however, all my instruments are
thus now on the back seats.

My current cart is a monster, but I was able to incorporate all the
things that used to be flying about separately.

I'm not sure if you have been to any rallies or not, but even looking
at some of the footage on YouTube, you will find others carting around
several bags or boxes for rolls.  Everything I need is inside my cart;
if I need to move, I can simply lock a few key spots, so the drawers
don't fly out, and off I go.

I think your approach is quite correct: find out what you shouldn't be
doing, think it through carefully and confirm that what you are building
is not only pretty but actually useful.  Do not hesitate to abandon
something that is starting to turn out not quite ideal -- learn and
restart.

Hope this helps; all very cryptic and general, but without more
input...

Musically,
Ingmar Krause
Surrey, British Columbia, Canada
http://www.grindorgans.com/