Wooden welding cart I made

[Jswain]

Needed something to get the welder off the floor and out of the way, so I hit up my scrap wood/metal pile and have been picking at it over the last couple days. Not 100% done yet going to pick up some casters for it then maybe some paint and a shelf in the middle. Cost me $0 so far so I'm fairly happy with it.

***EDIT now in 2021*** I have finally updated this with a new welding cart made from....steel! Also the welder was switched out for the 180, added a c25 bottle & a little 50amp plasma cutter underneath. The bottle is a little crammed in the back I should have allowed for another inch of room but it keeps it from moving around and space is a premium so super happy with how it turned out. Can't complain about the original either as it did last me almost 8 years.

Link to the new welding cart:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/2QVt61TLAaUbvABt5

 

[Beachside Hank]

It serves, and serves well. Many shop fixtures can successfully use wood as the primary material if that is the resource you have at hand.

 

[AlexNGreen]

Finally another wood welding cart. I made one years ago and everybody gave me a hard time about it. Looks good and well thought through.

 

[mike13u]

Looks good.

 

[JoeFin]

I'm going to say it looks great also

However the guy who posted the other day in the General Forum about his garage partially burning down after he had been doing some welding might have a few words of wisdom for you

 

[NASTYZEN]

Interesting... You have a welder, grinder, skils , and you made your welding station out of wood??
Looks good though, and flamable..

 

[shoot summ]

My woodworker side says it looks great.

The metalworker side says that part of the right of passage of owning a welder is building your own cart(out of a material that welds).

 

[rsanter]

Well, people will mount metal working equipment on a wood bench, so why not a welder on a wood cart

Bob

 

[1/2 Cup]

I would be very happy with it as well, well done.

 

[sberry]

This is great. Its a good chance to prototype and wait till materials and ideas come for free again.

 

[Jswain]

Thanks guys and the primary choice would have been metal but I just moved across the country and bought a second house to be closer to work along with my first garage so the free materials sealed the deal to get the welder off the floor. It also serves as quite a bit of storage for all my **** I generally only use while welding and since I was only able to bring 1/2 of my toolboxes(the top two halves of the craftsman two tiers) it has added a little more space for me to better organize all my other tools. I am very careful while welding so hopefully it will be alright if I keep the gun as far as possible, and also keep a fire extinguisher near by!! This is the second cart I have built I made a cheap POS out of metal the first day I bought the welder about 4 years ago and it wasn't worth the hassle(or the space in the Uhaul) to bring it with us for the move haha. Thanks for viewing!!

 

[Jswain]

Oh, and if you look closely there was a little bit of welding done on the cart, the cord hangers and the angle grinder mount

 

[91bronc300]

As long as your welding table isn't wood, it's great!

Now go buy a Gerstner & Sons nameplate and stick it on there.

 

[mike13u]

I agree that his welding skills would get better if he would have used metal.
But I have to tell you, after years of just metal in my shop, the best thing that has happened to my craftsmanship, my general fabrication skills, and my shop itself has been learning to work with wood also.
As long as he isn't welding ON that cart I don't see any danger. Good for him for saving a few bucks and a few lbs. too

 

[raddksn]

I don't weld over top of my welder it's mostly of to the side out if the way of sparks and such. That being said good job way to use what you have on hand!

 

[raddksn]

I agree that his welding skills would get better if he would have used metal.
But I have to tell you, after years of just metal in my shop, the best thing that has happened to my craftsmanship, my general fabrication skills, and my shop itself has been learning to work with wood also.
As long as he isn't welding ON that cart I don't see any danger. Good for him for saving a few bucks and a few lbs. too

Good answer

 

[Jswain]

Yeah I generally weld on a metal bench/concrete floor/underneath my truck so I think it will work fine. Once I get the wiring/insulating done in my garage hopefully this summer then I will be building a dedicated 4x4 welding table(out of steel) and some wooden work benches/cabinets for tool storage and a general work area.

 

[Jswain]

Here's a couple shots with the wheels on it, I went with locking swivels on the from and rigid wheels on the back. Using the handle on the welder to move it around it rolls very nicely and feels stable even moving it quickly around corners.

I also included a couple pics of a Record 8" vice I saved from the dumpster at work, the jaw holes were stripped on the fixed side and one had a chunk missing from the top so I drilled/tapped all 4 bolt holes all the way through, and welded the missing chunk back in. Obviously took it all apart and flap wheeled the paint and surface rust off it, painted it black and greased everything up now awaiting a home on a bench in my garage in the spring.

Aaaand another creation of mine I scored a General/Milwaukee 6" belt driven bench grinder(with two good grinding wheels at that, just needed to be dressed) with no electric motor. I also picked up an old Rockwell table saw with a nice 1/2hp motor that works flawless but the trunnions/arbor for the table saw weren't meant to be used for anything serious so I ripped it all apart, mounted the grinder overtop of the slot the blade would normally come through and hung the motor underneath so for the cost of a belt and a wire wheel I have a stout bench grinding station.

I have a lot of tools back in PEI (5000km away) including a freestanding grinder so instead of buying duplicates I try to work with what I can until I can fly home and drive a Uhaul back out with the remainder of our stuff. And I apologize in advance for the pics I have a new BB Z10 and although I love the phone the camera seriously *****.

 

[Craptain]

Good on ya for making good with what you have. The vise looks great considering your description of the damage.

 

[Lhorn]

The frame of my cart is angle iron but the shelves are wood. welding sparks done get close enough to matter. I've never felt there was any risk. With reasonable precaution, I don't see anything wrong with it.

 

[bad_idea]

It takes more to set wood on fire than people seem to think. I know I will get flamed for that comment (pun intended). Cart looks good. Now start scouring the trash piles on pick up day and find some material!

 

[chris fresh]

My first one was wood also,made out of scrap.It held my blue point mb120 i bought from the pawnshop for 60 bucks and a rental bottle.Every guy friend i had at the time broke balls about the wood,but that thing got me in the game and did two things for me, made me money, and two, cost me nothing to make.

 

[JoeFin]

OK - we don't call it the "Smoke and Fire Show" for nothing - here is a proper cart under my NASA Welder.

Its kind of BIG as it has a 40 gal reservoir for the Water Cooled Tig tourch with all the Thermal Protection equipment but what can I say - When I need to weld Thick Aluminum this is my Go To machine

Oh ya - Here is a shot that shows the NASA Property tag

Thought I had pictures of my Lincoln 175 Stick/Tig Welder with it's Stainless Steel welding cart with a plasma cutter and LN-25 mig on top in my photobucket account too - maybe I'll upload them later

Notice the nice leather welding hood on top of the welder in the first picture. - I love that hood. It is so good at keeping Cheeries from rolling down my shirt - some thing the wooden carts wishes they had too

Fact is (and I really do like your wooden cart) you don't know where that slag is going to go, how long it can lay dormant, smoldering, waiting for you to walk away. Nor does it care how much money you intend/plan to make with your welder, nor the good intentions you have to replace it with a proper metal cart - it well just burn your sh$t down without caring 1 bit

 

[BD1]

Nice ! You gotta make things out of whatever today. As long as it works no difference. I hope you don't have termites.

 

[Jswain]

Pretty much finished now, edited the first post with new pics!

 

[Jswain]

Back from the dead! Almost 8 years later and finally made a new cart out of steel lol

Link:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/2QVt61TLAaUbvABt5

Also updated original post