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The farm had lots of old cotton wagons used to haul the cotton to the cotton gin that my wife's father owned.
Again being thrifty, I did not want to totally scrap them. Always thinking ahead, I saw a way to use the frames and axles. The body and sides were rusted through in places making them scrap so they were removed. The axles are connected from front to back with a pipe in a pipe design that allows for changing the length of the wagon. The length was set for a bed length of 16 feet, since that is a standard length of lumber. The frame, cross members and outside boards were cut and painted then assembled.
Knowing that the wagon would be used to carry people, side standards were added. I had a collage student that I will call Skippy helping me. After laying out where the standard pockets would go I gave him a drill and a 5/16" drill bit. In under 10 minutes the first bit was broken. This happened several times before I ask to see how he was braking the drill bits. As he drilled he would try to straighten the hole by tilting the drill snapping the bit. I glued several 1 inch sprit levels to the drill and told him to keep the bubble in between the lines. The problem was solved after braking 5 bits.
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