Wheelchair handcycle

[Wheelz50]

As an active wheelchair user I'd love to get a handcycle attachment that clamps to my existing wheelchair. Unfortunately the ones on the market are way out of my budget. With that in mind, I'd like to have a go at building my own. Does anyone on here have any suggestions on how to go about this?

I'm looking to make it manually powered for exercise so no motors. Also would prefer to do it with no welding as I don't have access to a welder.

Thanks in advance for any advice or help.

 

[Popshot]

Given the way it must attach and raise the smaller wheels I see no chance at all of building one without a welder. There's no particular difficulty in making one but you need to join multiple pieces of steel together just to make the main drive stem of it let alone the chair attachment points.

 

[undertoad]

The cheapest one I see for sale is on e-bay - $500 + tax, but they want $100 to ship it.
It looks pretty simple, but you'd still need to weld, to copy it.
I think something like this would be a great project for trade school shops, which then could be donated to those needing/wanting them.

 

[Trickytrike]

I found this diy build video diy handcycle attachement
Seems feasible but as popshot said access to welding would greatly help, any friend / metal shop nearby willing to do a few welds ?

Have you tried one ? would be nice to have a feel for it and not have to figure out everything from scratch
I have seen some people in my area riding the sporty handcycles, they go fairly fast just uphill seems tough.
Also I imagine the original chair you have is already built to support cornering / side loads ?

Nice project good luck !