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like many new fabricators you picked up a welder and wondered what project can i build first to
learn and practice my new tool on for me it was designing and building my own welding cart
which i used to store my big welder gear and keep my garage space in order so that
everything i needed was within reach hi i'm ron this agenda and in this video
i'll guide you through on how i design and build my welding card for my mig welder
this was my previous setup a cheap hybrid cart that came with the welder when i first bought
it off craigslist after owning it for some time i found out what i didn't like about it
the main one being that the tank was too tall and heavy causing it to lean
it works but sometimes depending on what side the tank leaned it would kink the hose that connected
the tank to the big welder the other issue was trying to go mobile at times it would be difficult
to maneuver because the whole frame would flex making it feel pretty flimsy a quick fix would
have been just to get a smaller tank but because i was gonna run dual mig tig in the near future
this cart wasn't gonna work anyways i spent a few weeks researching different welding cards
i could buy but none were quite right frustrated and motivated i decided to build one myself
i've had some previous fab work from the last project i did which was a roof rack
from my forerunner but this was my first cart ever to see what others had done i hopped onto
youtube university pinterest and instagram together ideas i started by sketching a few
ideas in 3d i created a layout sketch and modeled the frame in solidworks i ended up with something
like this a tubular frame with three racks the top being for the main mig welder the second maybe for
storage or like a pull out tray and the third for like an optional machine such as a tick welder
having the option to do a secondary machine man i had to make sure the cart would be wide
enough to add a second tank and because i have limited space in my garage i went the route of
designing the cart vertical versus horizontal with the design locked in i finalized all the
measurements and created a cut list for all the materials i would need for this project
for the metal i went to my local metal yard and had the 20 foot sticks cut down
for ease of transport because i've already created a digital blueprint of the cart i was able to plan
ahead print out the drawing plans which included a detailed cut list with measurements and quantity
along with how everything is assembled i'll leave a link in the description if you guys want
to follow along or build your own now let's cut having a plan laid out took out all the guesswork
i measured and marked and then used my metal bandsaw to cut the tubes
i had a chopstick laying around but i actually wanted to use my metal bandsaw
because i didn't want sparks flying all over the place it's slower but i wasn't in a rush
after i got all my pieces cut i deburred it with the flat disc on my grinder
i started out with the base rack because i wanted a good foundation for the remaining
rocks to build off of i spent a great amount of time getting this all squared away
now let's do some welding
and then welded the bracing in for where the tank would sit then added in the cross supports
once i finished that with the bottom rack i moved up to the mid and upper
racks
once i got all the racks done now was to add the side braces to connect all three of them together
so pretty much how i got this guy jacked up was i actually used a spare piece here spare two laying
around i actually clamped it down here right in the middle and then so this top rack had something
to rest against to get to the desired angle i got my little digital angle here and adjusted it to
95 degrees because i wanted a little bit of ramp pretty much stick this guy here like this
and then if i needed to adjust it i just take my rubber mallet
here and i just hit this piece here and then this would slide down
just enough to where i got it perfect and then i just made sure everything was aligned
and then i pretty much clamped everything on there and now i'm ready to weld
now let's add some wheels for the fronts i actually chose to go with a polyurethane
throttle swivel type wheel because i wanted something smooth and quiet and easy to move around
and i wanted a heavy duty i could have welded them on but chose to make
mounting plates to fasten too just in case i needed to swap them out if they went bad
i then pre-assemble them and make sure the mounting hardware would clear the frame and welds
once stacked in place i removed the casters and finished up the welds
now i moved to the back wheels because the bags were a little bit larger
i had to offset the axle mounting point to make sure the cart was level with the ground
to make the car structurally sound and to support a second tank in the near future
end up using a piece of solid rod to serve as an axle to connect to the wheels
to fasten them down i tapped each end then added some spacers or collars to offset
the wheels from revving the frame then capped everything off with a low profile nylon lock nut
now it's time to go for a test ride i felt like a kid again it was like running
up to one of those grocery carts while holding the rails coasting down the aisle
it was pretty cool securing the tank was the next task on the list and probably the most
important one i wanted to keep it simple but functional i designed a swing on arm
mechanism i got this idea when i was looking for a rear spare tire carrier for my toyota 4runner
it's pretty simple i use the weld on hinge to allow the arm to rotate
and use the latch clamp to lock it into place i allowed a little bit of gap here because i was
going to insert one of those plastic inserts to cap it off and keep it nice and flush
this allowed me to quickly swap out the tank if needed
i actually end up redoing this part because i found out that the 150 cf tank i had
also comes in a seven inch diameter tank and a 7.5 inch diameter tank therefore i made it wide
enough to accommodate both sizes to make it easier to move the cart around the garage ended up making
a front handle out of some round tube that i had laying around i teamed that up with some square
tubing and i think it worked out pretty good um i was actually going to go with just square tubing
completely but i think having the round tubing is just a little bit easier on the hands i guess
i'm sensitive like that i just plain as far as killer management i never really had a good way of
you know organizing my mig welding cable along with my ground cable it i was just kind of wrapped
around you know my welder itself or somewhere around the tank so i figured i'd come up with
a way to keep it all nice and organized and taut i end up eating some flat bar and some round tubing
and then i just kind of placed it on the side of the frame and offseted it and then
looped the cable around to figure out my distance that i need to offset
the brackets from one another and then i tacked it into place and seemed to work out pretty good
um when i looped it around two i actually just used one of the two poles to kind of
hold my mid gun and the flat bar just used to clamp on my grounding cable
to make it somewhat show worthy and to protect it from the elements i ended up using some self
etching primer and some machine gray rust-oleum spray paint that i picked up from home depot
and here's kind of a quick preview on how this gray turned out
i'm always misplaced my wear gloves i think it's because i never really had a dedicated
place for them so i came up with the idea of removing an old clip off an old clipboard
and then i just figured i'd rivet it onto the frame it actually worked out better than i thought
originally i was going to make some custom brackets to hold my welding helmet
but i ended up just using the ones off my old wheeling cart and it worked out pretty good
in a nutshell that's my welding cart setup it's easy to move around and it's stable
i now have a card that can be easily modified to add a second machine
i've been using it around the garage and i've got to say this thing is super stout
most importantly i don't have to worry about the tank ever tipping over
especially with my kids in the garage running around
i hope by sharing my story here it might encourage some of you to start your own diy project
when i first started i was nervous but excited it took some time but i learned so much in the
process and i can say it was totally worth it i've created a playlist of all my favorite metal
working videos check it out in the description if you want to build a cart like this or want
to support the channel i've added a link in the description to the pdf plans you can make the same
one or modify it to fit your needs finishing this project has inspired me to start a few more if you
want to follow along and see the behind the scenes stuff um check me out on instagram at rata.sogendo
if you guys have any questions just leave me a comment and i'll do my best to try to answer it
if you guys like this video hit the thumbs up and subscribe for more stuff like this
i'll see you guys in the next one later
you