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There are many readily available designs posted for welding carts all over the internet, so finding one that fits your needs shouldn't be a real problem. Of course, there is always room for one more good design. There are plenty of bad designs as well. One item that is often forgotten on many welding cart designs is a good pull handle. Something that you can grasp to steer and guide the cart is important. It should be stuck in front of the welder of course, but I have seen a grasp bar mounted all the way around the sides of the welder as well.

After determining height, width, and axle placement, you can start to visualize the overall design of the cart. Most carts need at least two shelves. Some carts may have 3 shelves, which allows for a water cooler or small tool box to be carried as well. The top is where the welder is usually mounted, and the bottom is where excess cable and accessories are stowed.

Take a look at many welding carts. One thing you will notice is that they are taller than they are wide. This makes for a top heavy cart, prone to tipping if it travels up or down an incline such as a concrete ramp or even in a pock mark in a shop floor. Having your welding cart wheels set at the very outside corners is one way to increase stability. If possible mount your wheels outside of the main cart frame for maximum stability.

Next to having a welding table, the next most common welding project that most people tackle is having a welding cart to carry around their welder. Although a lot of companies, including Everlast, offer their own carts, most people prefer to build one to suit their needs. If you are considering a building your own cart, the few blogs will be dedicated to giving some helpful advice on building your own cart.

A final part of the welding table is knowing how to finish it out. There will always be something that you will find that you need to add. A common item that is commonly added is a cutting grid that will allow you to cut pieces of metal. This can be a small box with expanded metal, or even catwalk material that allows you to make cuts without totally destroying the cutting surface. Another way is to turn up pieces of flat bar on end and space them every inch so that they are flush across the top.

After you have gotten the basic design down good question to ask is how you can increase the utility of a welding table. There are a few nice items you can add to the table that can really increase the usability of the table. The first is to add rolling wheels. Having at least two out of four wheels with swiveling casters helps to get the table where you need it, whether out on the concrete apron in front of your shop or over in the corner out of the way.

Another couple thing worth considering when building a welding table is the overall strength. Starting with the top thickness, it must be sturdy enough to handle the heat and pounding a work table will receive. Thin light gauge material is a poor choice for a true welding table. Go no thinner than ¼” and if obtainable at a reasonable cost, use ½”. Sheet metal is a poor choice and will warp and droop with the slightest addition of heat. Keep it simple and use plate metal to make the top out of.

As we discussed in part 1 height is important to a table. To sum up,on average most welding tables stand between 34-40 inches tall depending upon the operator's height. Another factor is the comfort level it provides at the selected height when seated. This is worth considering since a lot of welder’s find themselves trying to obtain a more comfortable welding position.

The next few days I will be going over some general construction techniques and plans for welding projects, and hopefully encourage some venturing out on your own to build what you need for your welding shop instead of buying ready made projects.

A stick welder has nearly unlimited applications in a home shop or small repair facility. But I would be remiss if I didn't mention that it does have a few draw backs. A couple of things that most people quickly realize is that most stick welders, at least the transformer kind, take up a considerable space, and  weigh a lot. This can be remedied with an inverter type welder, such as the Everlast PowerArc series welder.