Wheelchair Wheel Dryer

This instructable is made in the context of a project of cocreation to help people with
disability. The goal was to design a DIY solution for a problem they had, considering that the products that they need are very expensive and so many times they don’t have funds available to buy it.

In this case the problem were that our test person sits in a wheelchair and has to take a shower in a special shower where you can sit in on a small chair fixed to the wall. After taking the shower, his wife comes with his wheelchair and he does the transfer to it, but the wheelchair has to enter to the shower, so the tires get wet. That’s why when he rides to his living room, he leaves traces of water behind him and his wife has to clean it.

With this solution he can roll over a platform, ride at the same spot to dry his tires and ride back off.

- 1 plate of multiplex 8 mm 750 X 1500 mm
- 30 corner brace joints right angle (https://www.brico.be/nl/gereedschap-installatie/ij... )

- a lot little screws 3 x 10 mm
- 5 long threaded bars M8

- 18 washers M8
- 10 Hexagon domed cap nuts M8
- 16 Hexagon nuts M8
- 5 steel rolls (diameter 50mm length 700 mm) (http://www.rollenbaanspecialist.nl/rollenbaanrol-s...
- 1 bottle floor varnish
- 1 bottle stairs varnish
- 1 paint roller (small hairs)
- accu screw driver (drilling bits and screwing bits)
- painters tape
- sew
- hammer
- 6 dowels
- 2 single speed bike ratchet

- towel
- push buttons
- 3 X 0.70 m Velcro
- 2 screws 2.5 X 40

- wood glue

Now it's time to
prepare the rolls, which will be used to spin the wheels in a unique direction.

First thing to do is to take the bike ratchet and make a wooden circle that fits perfectly in each other. Make the wood a little bit bigger than the opening and slam it into the ratchet with a hammer, to assure that it is totally fixed.

Next take a drilling machine and a drill bit 2 mm and drill 2 holes through the wood and the side of the rolls. Take 2 screws 2.5 X 40 and screw them in the wood and rolls. Now the ratchet is fixed on the steel rolls.

Do this 2 times.

Take a piece of velcro of 70 cm and connect it to the 2 rolls with the ratchet and one without it, in total you need to have 3 rolls with velcro on it.

Before we start, you
have to cut the wooden multiplex plate at the right dimensions. This is to make the platform structure.

You need:

- 4 times 750 X 70 mm

- 2 times 750 X 50 mm

- 2 times 355 X 70 mm

- 2 times 750 X 500 mm

Put on, the next pieces on the short side a chamfer of 45 degrees

750 X 70 mm, 750 X 50 mm, 355 X 70 mm

These pieces that we are
going to make now, serve to hold the rolls in the wooden structure.

Take the 2 small pieces of 355 X 70 mm and drill the holes like the pattern in the pictures. Be sure that they are mirrored, by the contrary, when you put it in the structure the holes won't be symmetric.

Take the roll with the ratchet and place it in the last hole. Now drill 3 holes round the ratchet without pierce the wood. This is for placing the dowels to fix the ratchet.

Some holes cross totally the plate. A tip to this is mark the depth that you want to drill with a piece of tape (like in the picture). Attach the tape at more or less 6 mm of the tip of your drill bit. When this touches the wood you know you have to stop drilling.

Before putting
everything together to be assembled, we are going to varnish the pieces separately. It is very important because the result will be better. The floor varnish gives the colour to the wood and the stairs varnish protects the wood from wear.

Apply the paint layers carefully on with the paint roller and sand off (grain 240) between the layers for a better connection of the layers. In this case we applied 2 layers of each on the wood.

In this step we are going to assembly
the structure wood, so we need:

- 2 wooden pieces of 750 X 70.

- 6 Metal Corner Brace Joint Right Angle

- 12 screws

- Screwdriver

Attach 2 metal pieces in the middle of the height of the beam at the inner side (the side where you see the chamfer). One left and one right.

Put also one at the bottom in the middle of the wide side.

Do this two times that you have 2 long side walls.

Continuing with the
assembly, take the 2 small pieces with the holes.

Put some wood glue in the holes those are not entirely pierce the wood.

Place in these holes 6 dowels and fix them with a hammer.

Fix also the metal pieces with screws with the same position that appear in the picture.

At this point we
connect the four sides together.

A trick to do this easy is to use painter’s tape.

The principal is that you make in fact a hinge with the tape by attaching it at the back of the 2 pieces you want to connect. The surplus is that they are fixed relative to each other so they don't move when you want to screw them together.

The result of the structure is now a rectangle frame with the metal L shape connection pieces oriented to the bottom…

In this step we add the
bottom to the frame, that it make more stable the structure and it serve as a support for the floor.

The first thing that needs to be done is to take the 2 beams of 750 X 70 mm that are left and lay them under the frame. Make sure that they come out the frame (for the stability). More or less 30 mm. Then fix them with the L shapes.

The other 2 parts left (750 X 50 mm) you have to fix where are the other metal L pieces like in the picture.

The function of the textile
is to dry the wheels after taking the shower, so we are going to make 3 rectangles of 700 x 80 mm (the same measure of the length and the diameter of the roll) Despite we have 5 rolls, we tested that with just 3 pieces is enough to dry the wheels.

Next step is stitching the seams to not unravel.

When this is finished you need to sew the push buttons on the edges, one in the interior side and the other in the exterior side, we used seven buttons to be stronger and the velcro to join with the rolls and cover the three rolls.

Now is time to make the two
ramps to go up and go down of the platform.

For that, take the big wooden pieces, 8 metal connection pieces and screws.

Screw them onto the wood in the configuration like on the picture. The distance from the edge is the width of one connection piece.

In the middle of the wood you only use 2 metal pieces.

Do this 2 times.

This is an easy way to assemble and disassemble, to take up less space and carry easily.

Once that we have all the parts of the platform, it's time to assemble the rolls in the frame.

Take the threaded bar and cut it with the correct length, put it through the rolls, and put 2 nuts on each side. End with a washer. Now put the roll in the frame and put another washer and a domed cap nut.

Make sure that the 2 rolls with the ratchet are at the outside and the one with the velcro is in the middle.

When all the rolls are in the frame, attach the textile with the velcro and connect the push buttons.

Due to this product is

going to use in the bathroom and probably the floor will be wet, put some anti slip stickers on the bottom of the construction to prevent it from displacing during use.

To dry
the small wheels is necessary to cover the big wooden pieces (ramps) because the rolls are used to dry the big wheels, so take a carpet and cut out the size of it. Attach it to the wood with 2-sided tape.

The last step is to put the ramp on the frame with the rolls and it is ready to use!