Finally got around to making some progress on my scope buggy build. I am building a cart, aka scope buggy, which will allow me to easily move my gear from the garage to my observing area in the backyard without disassembling the mount and scopes. In Part 1 of the Scope Buggy Build I built the base and cut the holes to fit the tripod legs. I this, Part 2, I have added the rear wheels to the base. I fabricated the plates to connect the rear wheels to the base, tack welded them up, and got the rear wheels mounted.

Picked up some 10″ pneumatic wheels from Harbor Freight. The axle on these needs to be ~5/8″, I picked up some 4″ x 5/8″ bolts, locknuts, and washers from Lowe’s which work perfectly.

I fabricated the rear wheel mounts out of 2″ square tube. I cut them out of the 2″ square tube using a cutoff wheel on the angle grinder. Then fit them up to the back arms of the scope buggy base.

Yep, that should work.

Measured, marked, and drilled a 5/8″ hole in each mount to bolt on the wheels. I didn’t have a 5/8″ drill bit but I had a cheap step drill bit set I had picked up for a different project. I center punched the mark for the hole and on the drill press drilled a 1/4″ pilot hole, then opened that up to 1/2″, and finally used the step bit to open it up to 5/8″ to fit the bolt to mount the wheel.

Testing the fit to make sure it’s going to work.

Happy with the fit so I cleaned up all the rough edges and tack welded the wheel mounting plates to the base. Bolted on the wheels just to double check the fit.

I’ll finish the welds once I have the front wheel figured out and tacked on, just in case I have to adjust anything.

Still trying to work out the front wheel and steering mechanism/handle. Have a couple of designs in mind just need to figure out what is going to work best. You’ll have to wait for Part 3 to see what I come up with…

Cost of this scope buggy project so far:

10′ 2″ Steel Square Tube (~5′ used so far): ~$50
5/8″ bolts, washers, and locknuts: ~$8
Rear wheels: ~$16
Total: ~$72

Couldn’t buy one for that. It’ getting there…