Finished my Welding cart

[Ron of Va]

I finished my welding cart for the Power Pro 256. I hung the filter and desiccant drier for the plasma cutter off the side in the back. All hook-ups are with quick disconnects.

[its_34]

Nice work! Looks like you packaged a lot and still managed a relatively narrow footprint.

[johnnymg]

Ron

That's a seriously nice cart. Thanks for sharing the pics.

cheers
JohnG

[Jason]

Nice, does the top shelf have any tilt to it? If not, would you rather have had it or does it not make that much of a difference.

[Mr120]

Not too top heavy? I was wondering if you considered putting the water cooler on the bottom to lower the center of gravity and that would put that storage space higher for you. Minor stuff. Regardless, very nice looking cart!

[Ron of Va]

Thanks guys for the kind complements.

I wanted the water cooler close to the welder to minimize the amount of water tubes stretched out everywhere.

I was concerned that the cart would be a little top heavy. But with the two back eight inch wheels fixed that problem. I had swivel casters on the back at first, and the cart was very unstable so I changed to the regular fixed position wheels. It does make it harder to maneuver into tight places. If I find it becomes a little tippy, I will find something to throw on the bottom shelf. But it seems pretty solid.

The top shelf does not tilt up. The front of the machine is high enough to see the controls clearly. If I find I need to raise the front of the machine, I will simply put a 2X4 under the front. The top and middle trays are made from 11 ga. 1-1/2” angle. So if I raised the front, there would be no danger of the machine sliding back.

This was my first official welding project. I even made a wooden jig to hold everything together and square while I tacked it up. I have very little experience stick or tig welding, so I hope the cart doesn’t fall apart. Towards the end of the project I finally learned how to fix a hole blown into the 16 ga. square tubing without making it worse. (A grinder is a wonderful tool for hiding mistakes)

[DaveO]

Hey, Ron, welcome to the forums! The cart looks great.

Just curious, what part of VA are you? I'm in NoVA, outside of DC.

[Ron of Va]

Dave
I live in the Hampton Roads/Tidewater area (Newport News).

[DVA]

First nice build. Looks clean and like the hooks to hold the torches. But, how did you attach the wheels?

When I receive the 255 EXT, I will be making a cart to take my water cooler and hold the argon bottle. It sure would be nice to roll around the welder with the argon bottle.

[geezer]

A cart is a cart is a cart,,,fact is ,,,you built one,,,looks like it will do,,,tells me that you can do other things,,,that,s a good thing,,,nice to see people,,,using thert heads and talent to to build stuff,,,look forward to your other builds...

[Mr120]

Thanks guys for the kind complements.

I wanted the water cooler close to the welder to minimize the amount of water tubes stretched out everywhere.

I was concerned that the cart would be a little top heavy. But with the two back eight inch wheels fixed that problem. I had swivel casters on the back at first, and the cart was very unstable so I changed to the regular fixed position wheels. It does make it harder to maneuver into tight places. If I find it becomes a little tippy, I will find something to throw on the bottom shelf. But it seems pretty solid.

The top shelf does not tilt up. The front of the machine is high enough to see the controls clearly. If I find I need to raise the front of the machine, I will simply put a 2X4 under the front. The top and middle trays are made from 11 ga. 1-1/2” angle. So if I raised the front, there would be no danger of the machine sliding back.

This was my first official welding project. I even made a wooden jig to hold everything together and square while I tacked it up. I have very little experience stick or tig welding, so I hope the cart doesn’t fall apart. Towards the end of the project I finally learned how to fix a hole blown into the 16 ga. square tubing without making it worse. (A grinder is a wonderful tool for hiding mistakes)

You did great on this project and it looks like you've got all of the operational scenarios covered. Welding carts are a good early project. Good to learn on and in the end highly functional to help get your other welding jobs done easier.

[Ron of Va]

First nice build. Looks clean and like the hooks to hold the torches. But, how did you attach the wheels?

I attached the wheels to the bottom of the cart using some 1-1/2” X 2” steel blocks with 5/8” holes drill into them for the axle.

The bottom tray didn’t lay quite flat. I thought the slight twist would come out when I welded it up, but it didn’t. So the holes in the blocks were slightly offset to compensate so the cart would not rock on a flat surface. I put the cart on the top of my table saw to take the proper measurements for the off set.

I figured you would want to see how the wheels attach, so I made a mock up of how I made sure the axle was square. I used a 5/8” drill rod and clamped a framing square to the bottom tray, and used a tri-square to check against the axle.

[Ron of Va]

I thought you would like to see how I turned my old air filter into a desiccant moisture filter.

There is a photo of the original filter before the alteration. I removed the guts of the original filter and replaced it with an upper collar made from Acetal that slipped over the inside top casting lip. I bored a hole in the other side for an aluminum tube.

At the bottom of the aluminum tube is another acetal sleeve with a 40 micron filter screwed into it. That sleeve is held in place with a small screw. I tried a slip fit like the top, but filter sleeve kept falling out. I also inserted a screen at the intake end to keep the desiccant from spilling back out with the unit was tipped. (It also spit those blue bb’s at me when I disconnected the air, so the screen had to be added)

[nitris223]

I plan on making a new cart also. Way back when I had my first small mig, that was the first project. Right now I have a big 210 with it's own wheels but I am going back to the smaller mig along with a tig welder. My plan is to have the mig on top , tig in the middle and plasma cutter on the bottom or something like that and mig and tig tanks mounted on the back. I want to grab the handle and roll it all out in one shot. I figure these smaller inverter machines will only occupy the same space and my current mig welder.

[everlastsupport]

I plan on making a new cart also. Way back when I had my first small mig, that was the first project. Right now I have a big 210 with it's own wheels but I am going back to the smaller mig along with a tig welder. My plan is to have the mig on top , tig in the middle and plasma cutter on the bottom or something like that and mig and tig tanks mounted on the back. I want to grab the handle and roll it all out in one shot. I figure these smaller inverter machines will only occupy the same space and my current mig welder.

We had ours that was for years. Now we have TIG top TIG middle and Plasma on bottom, the MIG-250P has wheels. But it was a great layout MIG on top to change spools. Make sure you put large good wheels so it rolls well and over things.

[Winky]

Your cart looks very cool ... nice job!