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I just picked up a new Longevity Tig/Stick welder and needed a new welding cart. Rather than buy a super-awesome ready to go cart on eBay or craigslist, I decided it would be a good "get to know your welder" project to reintroduce me to Tig welding (which I haven't done since college 15 years ago). So I went down to the local steel yard, and picked up around 80 pounds of remnants (at $0.69 a pound). We're talking tube/round/pipe/sheet/plate, lot's of different diameters and thicknesses with two goals in mind: Learn the welder and build a cart. For anyone who doesn't know me, I'm really good at finding a $100 solution to a $20 problem. And most the time I'm able to nudge that number much close to $400 required for every $20 that is necessarily spent.So I settled on the tank replacement part of the project as the part nobody has addressed before (to my knowledge.) Most folks take their cylinder off the cart, and then load it onto a hand-truck, off load the cylinder onto a truck, take the cylinder down to a yard, load the cylinder from the truck onto a dolly, then replace/refill it, then reverse the process. I figured my contribution to my waste of money would be build a dolly that was integrated to, yet removable from the welding cart.My idea is that the welding cart doesn't need a cylinder platform. It'll have a spot for the cylinder cart to dock to the welding cart. It'll have two locking-swivel casters near the handle and two straight casters that will only be used when the cylinder-cart is off site for refill. But when the cylinder cart is on the welding cart, it'll lift those two straight casters right off the ground and put the weight on the cylinder dolly wheels.So, on my way home yesterday afternoon, I dropped by the hardware store and picked up the cheapest hand-cart they had. I cut out the welds that connected the wheel welds to the cart, and put everything on two linear slides I made out of 3/8" O.D. rod and 3/8" I.D. tube, connected laterally to a piece of rectangular tube that has some threaded rod I welded into it. The result is that I have a hand-cart that can move the wheels several inches down from where they are supposed to be. In two weekends when I have the chance to weld again, I'll get to work on the cart. Please turn your audio down if you're going to watch that video -- I haven't taken a wire brush to it yet. Or my trusty laser-guided realignment sledgehammer.Absent a good deal of grinding, paint, and bacon-grease, the crappy cylinder cart is ready to roll. Any suggestions before I start on the welding cart in a few weeks? |
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