To purchase a wheelchair for a giant breed dog is quite costly, so we have come up with a way to make your own wheelchair for under $50, and in just one day. *First: Go to a second hand store, flea market, or a hospital equipment store and purchase a used manual wheelchair. They sell for $20 - $30. electric wheelchair will work but they typically cost more and have a lot more things that need to be removed) *Second: Go to the hardware store and purchase 2 - 1/4" eye bolts with nuts, 2 carabiners (snaps used in rock climbing), 2 - 1/4" pins or nuts and bolts and 1 piece of heavy walled conduit or bar. *Third: Purchase a harness to fit your dog. *Fourth: Go home get started! First remove all things that will not be needed such as the foot rest, the back, etc. (Do not throw away the back canvas you can keep this as a spare seat if the other wears out.) the extra's are removed you will need to cut the cross brace off of the
Replace the cross brace with 2 bars or heavy walled conduit to hold the chair together. You can bolt or weld the bars onto the chair. You want to make sure that the bars are not going to interfere with the Above picture is looking from front to back. Above picture is looking from back to front. Next you want to weld or bolt a brace at the top of the handles. This helps hold the chair steady Next, where the seat is attached unscrew one side, drill out the holes and replace 2 of the screws with your eye bolts. You also have noticed that these bars raise up and down (this is how the chair used to fold for easy storage). This now will be to raise and lower the seat to adjust to your dog. Drill holes at about 1 or 2 inch intervals to allow plenty of adjustment. Our chair can adjust from 19" to 29". Remember this is the height from floor to the underneath of your dog. Place the carabiners through the matching hole in
the seat to the eye bolt, as Adjust the seat to the height your dog needs. The pin below is easy to adjust height with little effort. Your chair is ready to use. the seat out of the way to allow the dog to step into position. When the dog is in position, fasten the carabiners to the eye bolts. Attach the harness to the sides of What we liked best about this wheelchair for our dogs is that it supports the dog completely so no matter if the dog can not use his front or back legs he can use this chair. All images and text on this site Copyright � 1998-2017 Harlequin Haven Great Dane Rescue, Inc. unless otherwise credited. Use of any image or text without written permission is expressly forbidden. One of the things that gets under my skin the most when people talk about 3D printing, are those individuals who focus on only the negative aspects of the technology. This mostly stems from the existence of various designs for 3D printable guns, which the media seems to be all over, sometimes depicting 3D printers as a means to ending the control that government exudes over dangerous criminals.
Fact is, 3D printed guns have not been used to harm a single soul, as far as we know. try to focus on the good that is being done through the use of this tremendous technology.Back in August, we reported on a dog named TurboRoo, who was born without fully developed front legs. To combat this birth defect, one man designed a 3D printed “doggy cart” which enabled TurboRoo to get around just like a normal dog would. This story gained a ton of media attention, rightfully so, and showed that 3D printing can and is being used for doing plenty of good. learns of another story that might even top that of little TurboRoo. This story takes us down to a town in Southern Brazil, called Blumenau, and introduces us to an extraordinary dog named Branco, and an equally extraordinary man named Gilmar José Purin.Purin lives a rather simple life, as a work-at-home software architect and developer for a Canadian company called Omniware. He is one of those on the ever-growing list of individuals who have become quite fond of 3D printing technology.“
“I started making stuff for home, and creating new projects from scratch. Watching them jump from the screen into reality became a hobby.”Purin’s girlfriend Kelli, is a volunteer for a newly launched initiative within Blumenau, responsible for picking up injured, mistreated, suffering and dying animals from the streets, and helping them recover before putting them up for adoption into caring homes.“One day this dog was left in the institution,” Purin tells us. “It was run over by a car, lost an eye and broke his backbone. His name was Branco, and he was a healthy dog. It seemed like the incident ocurred quite a while ago, as his backbone looked calcified and the back legs were atrophied. My girlfriend took me to see [Branco] and he was so full of life, and exuded so much passion. He was dragging himself around and was trying to stand up but could not. The way he was looking at his legs, not understanding why he was unable to stand, broke my heart.”Purin wanted to do something to help this misfortuned dog, so he began looking on the internet for wheelchairs built for canines, but found that they were way too expensive.
He then considered building his own wheelchair using PVC pipes and other materials, but none of the designs he saw looked very strong, nor very customizable for different sized dogs. Finally he got the idea of designing and 3D printing his own wheelchair for Branco.Purin decided to make his design scalable so that he could create wheelchairs for dogs of all different sizes. He printed his first version of the wheelchair, and had his mother-in-law create the fabric bed portion for him. Then he took the device and gave it to Branco. “It was a success,” explained Purin. “The first version was a little high for Branco, but with a few adjustments it was made perfect. He started running along the corridor, but this first version used bicycle training wheels, and because they were too wide, Branco kept crashing against furniture. So, I went back home and designed a new wheel for the chair with ball bearings to make it very light.”Unfortunately this story takes a turn for the worse.“I had to go on a trip for a week and when I came back home my girlfriend told me that Branco had passed away,” Purin sadly told us.
“I was devastated, it happened a couple of weeks ago and it brings me tears just by [telling you this]. Branco died and could not even try his new wheels.”The cause of death is unknown, but Purin doesn’t plan on keeping these upsettling circumstances from allowing Branco to leave a bit of a legacy. He has decided to put the design files as well as assembly instructions on Thingiverse for others to download and build for free. Without a doubt this wheelchair will go on to serve plenty of other dogs, thanks to Branco, and his good friend Gilmar José Purin, who sums up this story by saying:” Branco died and left a gift for his injured fellows.”In all, it takes approximately 15 hours to print the needed parts on a typical FDM based 3D printer. Purin recommends using flexible filaments such as NinjaFlex or FilaFlex to print the tires of the wheelchair, but he says that high tension rubber tape will work as well. Also, if there is room available for the dog to roam freely, bicycle training wheels may remain an option.