My Welding Condo (cart)

This is the start of my welding cart, It will have three shelves. The bottom for storage, or maybe a drawer. the middle will hold my Mitec plasma cutter and a future W300 water cooler and the top will hold me 250ex tig and I-Mig 200, there is room for two bottles of any size I may need. I will be adding holders for my cables, peddle and filler rod.
Pic # 1 is the basic frame layout
Pic # 2, 3, 4, are different views of the frame and main upright shelf tabs and attachment plates for the wheels and casters.

Nice project Ram48! What process are you using to weld it up?


I need to make an adapter of some sorts for my Tig machine. I just bought the Tig runner system, it only has room for one bottle. Not that I use the helium bottle that much, but it would be nice to keep it with the Tig machine.

Right now I am just using the Mig and I am at what I like to call my melt and pray stage of development.most welds are not pretty but hold and every once in a while I lay down a decent bead, and they are slowly becoming more common. I need a lot more helmet time. but once I get this project finished. I need to start playing with the Tig. I have not even fired it up yet.

The Mig will come fast. Tig will be harder to pickup, but much more rewarding!

Looking good, don't worry about pretty, just crank up the heat and learn to control it. It's all about helmet time, after awhile it becomes old hat, pretty comes later. You will find the 250Ex a great machine when you have the water cooler hooked to it. I can see you are well on your way to becoming a builder of neat things. Your last project looks real good.

Here are some pictures of my progress on the welding cart.

Pics #1 & #2 setting the horizontal shelf bracket between the uprights

#3 & #4 close up of two of my better welds please critique, I want to learn

#5 & #6 Bottom shelf being fit up for welding.

#7 Braces added to bottom shelf

#8 Cart skeleton is ready for final welding.

This has been a good learning experience for me please let me know the good and bad you see in the cart. I will be adding the shelves, hangers for the cables and a way to secure the tanks. Any ideas on those things would be great
Ray

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Originally Posted by Ram48

#3 & #4 close up of two of my better welds please critique, I want to learn

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Ray I take it that you are right handed?
You're putting too much metal / weld on. You either need to move faster, or turn down your wire speed a little. If your travel speed is acceptable or even a little slow for you, turn your voltage up. In other words the weld looks too cold.

Here is a vertical up Mig weld I did, doesn't it look hotter than your?

Shield
It is 14 Ga tube and it was a fillet weld Settings were 18v, 215 IPM with .030 wire and 75 / 25 mix.
Thanks for the input.

Move faster, making your weld profile flatter, look at shield arc's weld he has ripples, and a flatter weld, that's the kinda thing/look you should try for.

Here are the completed shots of the cart project. Well except for the tig rod holders. thanks everyone for the welding tips and thoughts on the cart.
it was a fun project and I learned a bit along the way. (I went from really suck at this to just bad at it) I will practice and keep at it and I hope it will come.
The top and middle shelves are corian and the bottom shelf is mdf board. the plate that the tanks sit on is 1/4 steel plate. All are painted Hammertone black.

That is an excellent job Ram! One of the best carts I've seen. You're off and running now.
Won't be long until you have to get bigger bottles, you'll get tired of having to fill them so often.

Nice cart Ram!

Looks great, amazing how much engineering and thought has to go in to something like that, only those that have done that, will know that.

This morning I went to the shop and looked at the cart, The wheels looked small to me and as I went to move it the two rear ones had taken a set to the floor and had a flat spot when rolled, they are semi solid so I guess thats what happens to them I went and picked up 8 inch solid rubber read wheels and 4 inch poly casters the first set was 6 and 3 inches the original set of wheels are on the flor next to the new ones.
Next I need to come up with a better way to secure the tanks. this works ok But I can do better. :D
It rolls a lot better now and the looks have improved too I think.

Its not like the Aluminum show cart, That thing is by far the nicest I have seen.
I added tig rod holders and a fire extinguisher and capped the sq tube frame.
I had fun and learned a lot. Wish the welds were a bit better but As you all say it will take practice, practice and more practice.
Ray

looks dam fine to me, the only thing I could see missing was a water cooler for the Tig. but you have room for it. Nice build Ram,

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Originally Posted by geezer

looks dam fine to me, the only thing I could see missing was a water cooler for the Tig. but you have room for it. Nice build Ram,

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That is exactly what the space next to the Plasma is for Geezer I thought ahead for once and determined the measurements for a cooler Before I designed the cart.

Nice work!