Project 2 from Trip. Category: Welding Cart

[Trip59]

Ok, sort of welding cart, I trust Oleg to make the determination if this counts and will abide by his decision...

I Started my cart for the last contest and due to family emergencies, didn't get to work on it till the contest had ended, still posted the pics and writeup so I don't want to try and ask for that one to count. This idea came up a couple weeks ago, as I sat there looking at the new cart and realized I was running out of room, with the addition of a TIG cooler soon and plans for a larger MIG and a Plasma cutter.

I taped together a handful of PVC pipes to hold my filler metal, and realized there wasn't really a good place on the cart for it. Also, as I run out of the 1lb packs I bought, I plan to replace them with 10lb purchases. Not enough room and a ton of extra weight I don't need on the cart. So... a Filler metal cart was born. Scratched out a dozen or so drawings and decided to use 2" PVC for each, as well as a series of 3/4 or 1" for those metals I won't use enough to warrant 10lb orders.

The concept evolved further to include a single pair of non-caster wheels I had laying around, they'll be on one end, the other end sitting on pegs. Lift the handle and it's on the wheels, set it down and no chance of rolling. The inside area is 10x12, enough room for a 4x4 grid of 2" and then a row plus along the front of 3/4 or 1"

Quick, very rough sketch, just to get the idea down. Being non-critical and non-spec'd out, it's subject to on-the-fly changes till it's done.



So I started by figuring out what stock I had laying around and what would do it, lots of 1/2" square and some 3/4" square would be a perfect fit for the base.



Base and 90* upright. Welded a bottom piece, two cross pieces 15" from the last, the top is still open till I decide what to do with the handle. The uprights are 39" to allow me to notch and bend them to provide clearance of the rods (that part is still being thought about)



Some reinforcements (you didn't think I'd count on 1/2" square to support that much weight, did you?)



Don't know what the angle is, about 11.5 out from the back on the bottom and the top meets the second cross piece about 30" up. Lots of eyeball instead of tape measure in a project like this. Cut and ground both sides on the bottom and top and welded them in.





The piece on the left is just sitting there, not welded on, trying to decide where that piece will attach. I'm leaning towards higher up to give a bit more room.

Next weekend will have a hoop welded on about halfway up, plates to BOLT the wheels on (so I can change them if needed/wanted), the back, vertical leg and base, and then the feet in the middle and back it will sit on when not being wheeled. I'll also be adding in some cross-rods on the vertical that can be removed, to hold spools of wire, rather than hanging them under the MIG on the main cart. I thought about a place for stick electrodes, but as infrequently as I use them, they can sit on a shelf in the shop and I can just grab a box when needed. That shelf will also house a rod oven once I come up with my final design.

[Trip59]

Ok, been a while stalled out, finally got another bottle for the MIG and some time to work on my own projects. I decided to wrap up the cart. First order was to decide how to mount the wheels. I decided to mount them vertically, but as the bracket is symmetrical, I had to cut off one side. Quick work with the bandsaw



Once cut, I needed to add in the support for the rear section



You can see I also added strapping under the main section for a floor, and two small legs up front to add the lean.

I added the verticals to support the weight, since the tilt moves the center of gravity. Welded the wheels on the back, I was going to bolt, but this sort of went together as it went together and I figured I won't be replacing them anytime soon.

Bunch of various rods. I also used a large zip tie rather than adding in welded front bracing, as I haven't fully adjusted what pipes will be there yet.



Quite a few 2", several 1" for the various rods.



Still need to add a handle, floor for the rear area, it'll hold several 10lb cans of stick, and then to paint it.