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I have been getting a lot of requests from people interested in making a DIY wooden wheelchair. While I have detailed CAD plans and photographs on my website, I think some people would like more introductory information to help them get started.
The Legacy Wheelchair Industry has made active manual wheelchairs more complicated than they need to be in order to increase their monopoly control of parts and pricing power. Therefore, making a DIY wheelchair is a lot simpler than it would seem.
A wheelchair (system) consists of the following major components:
1. Manufactured wheelchair wheels, front casters, axles, axle receivers
2. The wheelchair frame
3. The brackets (methods) for connecting the manufactured parts to the wheelchair frame.
4. Accessories such as cushions, backrest pad, sideguards, wheel-locks, etc.
A wheelchair design is essentially a “recipe” which uses certain ingredients to make the wheelchair. If particular ingredients (parts) are not available, then the wheelchair builder will have to make substitutions.
The Legacy Wheelchair Industry uses a wheelchair recipe (design) that requires expensive materials and complicated manufacturing processes to make their wheelchairs. On the other hand, I have created a recipe that uses inexpensive commonly available materials and building processes. Substitution to using locally obtainable materials is expected and encouraged.
The reason for using wood for the frame is due to its worldwide availability and low cost. The strength of the wood frame comes from the use of self-reinforcing box construction rather than the frame material itself. A wood frame is also relatively straightforward to fix if any part of it breaks or splits. Therefore, it doesn’t need to be super strong. It needs to be strong enough.
Rectangular wood pieces are simple to join together with screws. Edges and corners can be sanded and rounded. Oils, stains and other products can be applied to protect it from the elements. Wood can be cut and drilled with basic hand tools. All in all, wood is an ideal material for getting started with DIY wheelchair building.
Many previous DIY wheelchairs builders have run into difficulties connecting the wheelchair’s wheels to the frame. As a result, DIY wheelchair building was too complicated or expensive to make sense for most people. DIY wheelchair building has been difficult because no entities (until recently) are actively trying to make it easy by creating parts to facilitate the process.
The Legacy Wheelchair Industry does not want DIY wheelchair building to occur. The existence of inexpensive and functional DIY wheelchairs calls into question why they sell active manual wheelchairs for $5,000-$10,000. They have effectively prevented DIY wheelchair building by controlling access to the parts which enable DIY wheelchair building.
Imagine how hard it would be to make home cooked meals if you could not get the ingredients at your local supermarket. Few people would do it. Almost everyone would have to purchase commercially packaged meals with few alternatives at whatever purchase price demanded. This is the current state of wheelchair provision.
The majority of inexpensive aftermarket wheelchair parts are made in China. Therefore, my wheelchair recipe uses these components. If they are not available, different parts can be substituted.
The first part of building a wheelchair is to acquire the critical manufactured parts. The most expensive component of a DIY wheelchair are these components. If you already have some or all of these parts (from prior wheelchairs or other sources), then making a DIY wheelchair will cost relatively little.
The critical ingredients:
1. The rear wheels, quick release axle, and axle receiver. If you do not have these parts, you can purchase them from my DIY Wheelchair Supply. You may find them on eBay, or use traditional online retailers.
2. Wheelchair front stem casters are available from my DIY Wheelchair Supply or traditional online retailers, or you can use locally available industrial plate casters. But their performance is lower.
3. Punched square metal (Zinc coated steel) tubing: 1 ¼ x 1 ¼” and 1”x 1” sections.
4. Wheel-locks are available from my DIY Wheelchair Supply or traditional online retailers.
A DIY wheelchair is essentially a custom frame (that you made) that is connected to manufactured parts such as wheels and casters. Note that a professionally manufactured active wheelchair is pretty much the same thing, except that someone else made the frame and charged you a lot for it.
The key to my DIY wheelchair design is the use of a DIY rectangular camber tube which is a wood box that holds the square metal tube which houses the axle receiver which secures the quick release axle which secures the drive wheel. The rectangular camber tube is bolted to the wheelchair’s frame. This process duplicates the propriety brackets and expensive materials used by the Legacy Wheelchair Industry.
If no machined axle receiver is available, a 1 ½”x1 ½” square metal tube can be used as a substitute (lower quality) axle receiver.
The stem bolt of the front caster is secured to a 1”x1” punched square metal tube. The square tube is bolted to the wheelchair’s frame. This method duplicates the (proprietary) integration of the front caster into the wheelchair’s frame used by the Legacy Wheelchair Industry. Since the front caster is bolted on, it is simple and cheap to replace it with another aftermarket caster fork when repairing.
The Legacy Wheelchair Industry designs its active wheelchairs so that it is difficult or impossible to use inexpensive aftermarket casters to make repairs. This is how they maintain control and pricing power. On the other hand, my design is intended to use aftermarket parts to reduce build and repair costs.
If wheelchair stem casters are not available, (inexpensive) industrial plate casters can be substituted, but they reduce performance.
The seat pan and back support uses ¼”- 3/8” plywood or PVC sheets. There are a variety of these materials available. You want to use the strongest (thin) plywood sheets you can find. Too thin sheets can be doubled to increase strength. I think durable and stiff fabrics would also work as a substitute.
Besides the huge cost savings, a DIY wheelchair is also a custom wheelchair. The advantage is that you can make it to your specifications. The disadvantage is that you need to know what your specifications are in order to build.
The wheelchairs I have been making are designed to fit me. I am 5’ 8” tall. From experimentation, my wheelchairs also seem to fit people as short as 5’ 4” and tall as 6” as is. The width is 15”.
If you need a wider wheelchair, you will need to make it proportionally wider. If you need a longer wheelchair, you will need to make it proportionally longer. If you want to sit higher, you will need to mount the axle lower. If you want to change the center of gravity, you need to place the camber tube forward or backward.
The difficulty in customizing a wheelchair is not making the physical customizations. It comes from knowing what configuration is actually optimum for you.
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