Welding Stand

[aland]

This will be the first project with my little welder, kind of a corny project but something I can use right now.

I picked this piece of 3" tube, with a 8"x8"x3/8" plate on each end.



I got this from SIMS surplus at $0.65/lb. It weighs about 30 lbs, but they felt sorry for me and gave it to me for 20 lbs. LOL

Then I got this piece of 5/8" plate, it's 11.5" x 12". It may weigh about 20 lbs also, I'm not exactly sure.



I'm just going to stick weld it using 7018. A bit late for stick welding so will do that tomorrow, I need to do that outside.

I will use this mostly for practice, but can use it for a small welding stand.

I'll add a couple pics after I weld it tomorrow.

Alan

[aland]

Well, I am a bit embarrassed to say I took a wire wheel to this stand and since there was only 4" difference in the plate, I just used it as-is.

I need a better place to weld, and have some ideas, but this will work in the meantime.

I ran some beads with 6013, 6011 and 7018.

6013 was easier for me than the 6011, and my friend kept telling me, "Just let me know when you're using 6011 so I can keep clear...".

7018 was the most solid looking bead to me. I didn't take any pics...

We also tried some hf start tig and welded up 2 pieces of mild steel that he was using for a t-nut on a South Bend lathe. I would have milled it from solid, but it worked to weld it.

Alan

[aland]

Still practicing with stick, and will be doing more tig practicing ASAP.

Went over to the local metal yard and went binster diving through the cut-off bin...

Have about 45 lbs. I got for $30. Most all of this is cold finish, except for the angle which is hot rolled. AFAICT there is no cold rolled angle, only tube and flat.

Hard to see but I got a few small pieces of plate in the back that are cold finish.



Alan

PS - I should add that I've been pondering the small welding table which I had started this thread for, but have since changed my mind. There are 2 things I really need, a welding cart and a welding table. Seems to me that the Certiflat 2'x3' ProTable for $200 will be a good investment, and I can make a stand for it. I just don't think I can even get close by spending $100-$150 and it would require quite a bit of work which wouldn't get me as decent of a table. As such I have decided that I will buy the Certiflat welding table and build a welding cart. I have most of what I need for the cart, I just need to get a couple solid wheels to use on the rear, I have a couple casters I can use for the front. I'll be making a single bottle cart, 12" x 28" on the bottom, and 12" x 18" for the top shelf which will hold the welder.

[oleblu72]

Boy Alan I have a big ole heavy vice that would work well on your first piece you bought ( pipe with plates on both ends) might have to make the base a little larger. I have to make a weld cart also, I was going to revamp my cart I use for my plasma torch for the torch and the 255 but once I started reading in the 255 manual it said that the 255 needed about 18" on each side for cooling so this axed that so its back to the drawing board.

Mark