Diamond Plate TIG Cart

[dave s]

I have a 110A Century MIG welder that I have used to fabricate equipment for my company, myself, friends and neighbors in my garage/shop, but was limited to steel and stainless. I have a lot of projects in my head using aluminum so I decided to buy a TIG. After looking for used stuff, limited by my 220V 50A single phase power and budget constraints I decided I needed an Inverter unit. After much research and a lot of input from this site and www.weldingtipsandtricks.com, I purchased an Everlast PowerPro 256 combination TIG, Plasma (bonus!), Stick. The TIG Carts in my price range all looked like junk, so I decided to design and build my own as a first project. All cuts and welds were done using the PP256.

Criteria: lightweight aluminum, low cost, all the bells and whistles, must look damn good!

Diamond plate, angle, and u channel from scrapyard = $1 lb.

Wheels were leftover from upgraded company equipment = free (back wheels look too small but are solid w/needle bearings and heavier duty than they look)

Filler rod tubing - from some kind of extension handles left in garage when I bought the house = free.

Overcenter clamp to hold argon tank - Okay, I pulled a whole box of clamps along with 100' of 1/2" copper pipe and a bunch of fittings and valves out of a dumpster at a machine shop customer of mine 20 years ago = free

Finally using some of the "junk" in the garage my wife has been telling me to "get rid of that junk, you haven't used it in 20 years and you never will" = PRICELESS!!

More photos here - click slideshow
http://www.flickr.com/photos/mycanoe...7625812147722/

[Ram48]

That is one hell-of-a cart
Nice work
I love it

[Rugar]

VERY nice Dave! Looks sharp!

[sschefer]

Nice work.. Looks better than anything I've seen.

[Doug Wright]

Beautiful,Nice design and great looks.
Congrats

[performance]

My eyes!!!My eyes!!!!
Great!!! That is worth producing and selling. What do you think it will cost? hmmm, it gives me some ideas...

[ingvey]

Great Job I have a Powerpro 256 and love it

[dave s]

My eyes!!!My eyes!!!!
Great!!! That is worth producing and selling. What do you think it will cost? hmmm, it gives me some ideas...

My cost on this project (I have some leftover diamond plate) and including a full tank of argon ($34) was around $150. I would hate to price out a new sheet of diamond plate! With the cost of good wheels, new tubing, and stitch welds instead of full length to save material costs, you would probably have to charge at least $300 plus. Would people pay that much? I'm looking for a sheer/brake for my shop which would have cut my fab time in half and reduced material costs further. I also want a Bridgeport mill and small lathe but my wife won't let me have her side of the garage!!!

[Ray]

Hey Mark if your serious give me a call sometime, I have a friend with a break and other stuff. Aluminum is lighter to ship.. Hmmm.
Dave is that ¼” diamond plate? Would it have to be that heavy? What do you think?

[everlastsupport]

Hey Dave,

Nice job and again I really like the filler tube idea a lot (I would have more ER70 in mine). I went to youtube and you were actually #1 there with just "TIG welding cart" I think it was.

For those that want to see more:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7beWY7w8R1E

Cutting the rubber tubing to fill the larger hole is a good idea too.

Nice work, keep us posted on the future projects.

[dave s]

Hey Mark if your serious give me a call sometime, I have a friend with a break and other stuff. Aluminum is lighter to ship.. Hmmm.
Dave is that ¼” diamond plate? Would it have to be that heavy? What do you think?

I'm not sure how you measure diamond plate, but the actual plate part not including the diamond is 3/16. That's what the scrapyard had and I think it was perfect. Any thicker would be tough to weld the lap joints, quite a gap to fill from the diamonds. Probably the next size thinner material would work also.

[performance]

Dave,
I just noticed that your cover is on backwards. You could have cooling issues if you don't reverse the direction of the louvers. I don't know if you had the cover off or not, but it does appear to be reversed.

[Ray]

Good eye Mark!

It is on backwards.

[everlastsupport]

Ray and Mark.

I'm sure Dave knows this if he read his "PM" on the forum from me. Hopefully it will pop up a window on the browser.

[Jason]

That cart is pretty cool. I like the idea to add tubing to hold filler rods. I ordered a cart with my PP256 so I wont need to make one but may have to use the idea of adding tubes to hold filler rods if it does not already have a place for them.

[wruehl]

WOW that is outstanding! What a throne for that welder...