Flip-Cart for Wood Planer - Best Hardware and Construction

Question

I built something that is essentially this:

And it has beaten itself to death, almost falling apart. The original cart, like the one in picture, is 2x4 construction, uses allthread to spin on, and door-slide-locks to secure the tool up or down.

My questions are:

1) What is a good hardware for the pivot mechanism of the flip cart?

2) What is a good securing hardware with less play and perhaps more robust in general? (the slide-locks were jangly over time)

3) Any good ideas on making a heavier-duty cart? Like the one in the picture, mine used 2x lumber and is racking to the point of falling over.

Answer 1

1. The easiest improvement I can think of is to insert a metal sleeve (or bushing) in the opening for the axle. This should eliminate a lot of the wear and tear caused by the bolt axle on the wood in the opening. I have used copper pipe or electrical conduit inserts with success. If you rotate the table a lot, then a more precision fitting would be desirable. I do not know of a ready made item but I found this ball bearing pivot online (search for "ball bearing and axle")

To mount it to the table top I would suggest a short section of steel angle with a hole to slide the axle into. Then secure the ball bearing housing into an opening in the wood secured with epoxy.

2. Rather than the slide locks I would suggest wood plates mounted to the inside face of the leg to that screw to the leg using threaded inserts. The table top would simply rest on the shelf this creates.
   

3. The table in the picture can rack because there is inadequate lateral support. If you used full height plywood panels at the side glued and screwed into dadoes and similar 6-8" aprons at front and back then the entire frame would be much more rigid.