Project Welding Cart
Welding is not overly easy but it is not incredibly hard. It just takes some practice. Some would say, me included, that welding is a art. After doing my floor pans and my LCAs I can safely say that I am no artist. So how does one practice welding? Well for me, it is by doing. I went on line and reviewed some videos, did a lot of reading, and started asking questions. Then I took a trip down to my local Home Depot and bought some materials (angle iron, square tubing, flat steel, flux wire .030/.035, tips) and my body shop for some sheet metal and headed home to jump into my project. I drew a small sketch of what I wanted my cart to some what look like and about how big I wanted it, similar to what I had seen in the stores and got started. Once I had everything together I ran over to Harbor Freight and bought two lawn mower wheels and a couple of bolts. Added them and two legs in the front and went through two cans of flat black paint that I had left over from another project to finish it off.
So I cut my pieces to length with a side grinder, used my corner magnets to make everything square and welded up to frames. One is longer than the other and will be the base. Then I used some more stock and pieced everything together. Slowly it started to look like a welding cart. I then had to think about what I wanted on the car for extras. I have to say I am pretty happy with the welds that I came up with on these pieces of the cart.
Hangers
This was the first thing I added to the cart. You just can't have to many hangers. I used some angle iron for these and they work great for putting anything on. My welding helmet and goggles look right at home there. Not to shabby.
Second Shelf
With my cart coming together nicely I thought I would add a second shelf. I used the square tubing for this and then finished it off with a piece of sheet metal. I am a lot happier with the welds on this sheet metal. They actually look like welds and are much better than any of the other sheet metal welds. I am still far content with these welds though. I need more practice!
Handle bar/Cord hanger
This was another square tubing project. I wanted a easy way to pull my cart around and also have a place to hang my cords (gun/ground). This worked out great. Another spot where I really liked my welds. I even filled the ends on the tubing with wire/weld so that they are rounded and won't cut any fingers or hands when handling the cart.
Side box
This was the last thing I added to the cart. I have a lot of extra sheet metal left over and I was frustrated with the welds that I had been doing on the sheet metal so I figured I could do some more. I pieced this together and although my welds did get better they are still not where I want them to be. I am sure I will do much more sheet metal welding in the future.
This was a great project and I learned a lot on it. I have a couple more projects on the list of things to do so I will get more welding practice in soon. With the black paint this cart really does look pretty good. I am happy with how the project turned out even though it is very far from perfect and there are a lot of ugly spots on it, especially where the sheet metal welds are concerned. The final product doesn't look to bad. It cost me about $100 to make it my self. No money saver here on the project. Harbor Freight sells some nice carts for $59.99 but I wouldn't have gotten a chance to learn anything now if I just bought it. Wonder how much that saved me?