welding skills, I designed and built this cart for a small MIG welder. Most of the
materials were lying about so it cost little. The added benefit of using available
stuff helps persuade the wife that all this junk has a use. It is stronger than one
that you might pay $50-70 for as the welded joints make for a much more rigid
structure than one bolted together. There are dimensioned plans with a parts list
at the link below, but you should feel free to use whatever materials you have at
hand.
rusty steel utility shelves. This light guage
and the lacy structure make for many blow
thorough opportunities.
notching away the side flanges I bent a new 1" flange the open end to close
the ends. I just clamped a couple of MDF blocks at the bend line and whaled
away with a hammer. Then I used a dolly to even up the flange. In the photo
to the right the flange of the shorter piece has been stitch welded to the
longer one to make a "T". I used 1/16th 7014 rod at 60 amps for most of the
welding.
needed 19" for my welder, so the cut was 20" with flange allowance. I
eye balled the angle and stitched it to the vertical support 2" from the
end. As the ends of the shelves were pretty lacy I had a lot of blow thru
here. This will help to lighten the cart.
support office cubical walls. IMO, this is a better application. I
notched the tube on the cut off saw so it would be
perpendicular to the top shelf. The bottom was cut off and
notched to mate with the bottom shelf. I tried stick on the tube,
but due to the light guage I couldn't control the heat to avoid
blow thru. In the end, I brazed them to the shelves.
shelf so I drilled them out for the half inch axle rod. I had to
buy the rod, but the wheels were from a dead lawn mower.
The 2" steel casters (also purchased) were welded to their
support.
cart around. Here's a photo of the donor lawn chair.
In the other photo you can see its severed limbs of
16ga. tube. i used a 3" section of the tube to make
a sleeve to join the two halves. I took a quarter inch
out of its circumferance to get it to fit in the handles.
As there was little rust inside the tubes I brazed the
joint in the halves after tacking them to the top shelf.
The bronze is easier to sand down to a smooth
finish than 70,000 psi rod.
leftover off cut, I sanded everything
lightly and rolled on a coat of tractor
enamel (Fuerguson gray). The tank is a
standard 40 cuft.
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