metal gauge for welding cart?

[MJ_]

Hello,

For father's day, I purchased a Hobart 140 welder. Unfortunately, I made my purchase a couple days outside of the "free cart" window and I am considering making my own. (I did approach Hobart about this, explained that I had just bought the welder, fab table and a helmet... they said 'tough cookies')

After looking at a lot of previous posts for ideas, I think I may opt to fabricate mine out of square tubing. I am wondering if anyone has an opinion on what metal gauge would be sufficient for the cart's frame. My local metal supplier has square tubing in many thicknesses, but I have been considering a 1.5 inch square tubing in 11ga/0.120 but perhaps 0.180 would be better?

If you've made one of these, I would appreciate your input.
thanks,
MJ_

 

[skwirl]

That welder does not weigh that much. Using .120 wall will be fine.

 

[lilredex]

Mine was made from one inch square tubing and bed rails, etc, and other junk that was on hand. Most any material will work, not much stress on that type of construction.

 

[Jazz1]

Shopping cart gauge, it can easily support 500 lbs

 

[LeeG]

I built mine using 1" 16ga square steel tubing, and skinned it with 20ga steel. Holds my Miller 211 just fine.

 

[bdbecker]

I suspect that if you use 11ga tube, it will be thicker than what is used on the factory made cart.

EDIT:
I just looked it up. If it's this cart, it's exactly the same as the one I got with my Millermatic 135. Don't feel bad about missing out on the deal, it's not really that great of a cart. I plan on building something to replace it soon.

https://www.hobartwelders.com/acces...obart-small-running-gear-cylinder-rack-194776

 

[kazlx]

Build whatever you want. It would be hard to make something that won't hold up your welder.

 

[MJ_]

I suspect that if you use 11ga tube, it will be thicker than what is used on the factory made cart.

EDIT:
I just looked it up. If it's this cart, it's exactly the same as the one I got with my Millermatic 135. Don't feel bad about missing out on the deal, it's not really that great of a cart. I plan on building something to replace it soon.

https://www.hobartwelders.com/acces...obart-small-running-gear-cylinder-rack-194776

Yes, that is the one. Hard to imagine paying the MSRP for it. I thought for that money, I could build something better.

 

[MJ_]

Mine was made from one inch square tubing and bed rails, etc, and other junk that was on hand. Most any material will work, not much stress on that type of construction.

Always like to see materials get recycled. Very cool cart.

 

[racingtadpole]

040 wall is plenty thick enough, anything beyond 16G is just wasting material

 

[MJ_]

Thanks everyone for the advice. This gives me a good start.

 

[MP&C]

With limited floor space in my shop, I went multi-story welder cart. This one holds MIG, TIG, Spot welder and timer control, and Dent puller... :

I recently sold my Dinosaur Mig, after owning since '91 I thought it was time for a new one..

Sold it on CL, time now to consolidate. My shop space is limited, and I need to incorporate the new Miller 211, the Hypertherm Tig, and the Snap On dent puller, and two bottles:

Starting with the base, some 1-1/2 square tubing makes up the frame. This stuff was free, and as with most free stuff, it isn't, as Kyle spent quite a bit of time media blasting rusty square tubing that has been sitting outdoors for a number of years.

The Tig will go on the bottom, and it has some mounting holes on the bottom side...

So some 3/4 square stock was used to make some rails for the Tig, along with some holes to tie in the front end..

adding the front casters.....

A cross brace was added under the center line of the 2 bottles...

12 gauge will be used to form a tray under the bottles...

Support bracket added for Mig welder:

the rear axle was made from a piece of angle and two 3/4-10 bolts..

Rear bottle tray made from some 12 gauge, and welded on using about 3/8 diameter plug welds..

Top shelf added along with some gussets made of 12 gauge..

Bottle relief and pull handle added....

these studs are added to make use of the bottle bracket that came off the old welder. My brother in law had borrowed it at one time, and it came back with the fancy bracket. He retired the ratchet strap I had around the two bottles. This worked pretty well, so rather than reinvent the wheel.... Reminds me, I have some other things needing finishing I should lend him...

Then a bracket for the clip is added to hold the Mig torch..

Holders for the various cables....

.....and a test fit before we throw some paint on it...

Looks like I have some room left, may have to add one more....

Now to disassemble and paint it... It was a toss up between some bright red (HD color) which was acrylic lacquer, or a bright yellow (H/K Lemon Yellow basecoat). As I didn't have any lacquer thinner in stock for the red, yellow it is...followed by clearcoat. Note ring holders for Tig filler rod tubes..

This should help to brighten up the shop!

 

[Bodj Built]

13G or lighter is plenty. I built both of mine. One holds my TIG and plasma cutter and one 300 argon bottle. The other holds my 220v and 110v MIG welders and one argon/co2 bottle. Locking casters are welded right on all 4 corners. Makes it easy to maneuver around and make sure it doesn't roll away if you're on a bit of a slope.

https://scontent-lax3-1.**.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-0/p206x206/48368176_10156493982651501_6694676639374114816_n.jpg?_nc_cat=107&_nc_oc=AQkW1bMZXkX07V_J6Wb1I8Vd3YsC1fQ8aIwZ3lyeCdCvN5OqGUS8BVhdyLIA2jfsBwM&_nc_ht=scontent-lax3-1.**&oh=a4730ea46be3edf047ef5af377b551f9&oe=5DB0EACB

 

[dr_clyde]

I've made many carts. I am currently making a new batch, as I recently sold my old cart with one of my welders, and have aquired a few new tools that need carts.

I have a basic design that I modify for whatever I am needing to cart around. It is very simple in Solidworks to add or subtract height or width to accommodate different machines.

The entire thing is made from 14ga sheet metal and square tubing.

You can use thinner, but I like 14ga from an ease of working standpoint. It forms up nice and stiff, and welds easily with the MIG. The 14ga tubing is a standard stock size, and is cheap.

I do a basic frame from tubing to hold up the shelves and act as a handle. The shelves are all laser cut and formed on a press brake.

Here you can see how the shelves are notched and formed to capture the tubing and stay rigid.

Here is the basic design tacked up for a test fit. I still need to cut the new filler rod holder, this is my old one and I need to make some changes to it.

My lead holders are modular and adjustable, you can easily move them side to side or back and forth to accomodate different size leads or locations.

Cylinder retention is accomplished with this cool clamp bolted to the back shelf.

Now I need to weld it out and get it powder coated. I have 3 more carts to make, I need one for my MM255, my plasma cutters, and my Walter Surfox, which will be all stainless with a tray on the the top to keep the acid contained when I passivate small parts.

My old cart was the "all in one" style. It housed the Dynasty 200DX, Coolmate 3 water cooler, Lincoln Invertec V300 PRO, LN-7 Feeder, Hypertherm Powermax 900 plasma, filler metals, consumables, leads, and a lot of misc. junk.

It was a real space saver, and it was really dense with storage. I had a lot of stuff on it. However, it was impossible to move around the shop easily, and I discovered I much preferred to have the machines separate from each other. It allows two guys to use them on other ends of the shop, makes them far more portable, and allows me to tailor each cart to the needs of each machine. When I sold the Lincoln, I gave the guy the cart with it.

That forced me to design and make some new carts.

 

[brewchief]

Just a FWI the basic Harbor freight cart is around 40$, it's far from super fancy but it works and is pretty cheap. If it will meet your needs it may be cheaper than building one.

Sent from my SM-G965U using Tapatalk

 

[sberry]

I an not sure what ga the chair is. BBQ grills are also a great source of tube just right for this. You don't need to run to the steel yard for every piece. Its expensive, its slow, requires a lot of finish.
I use a lot of appliance steel, sheet. Its pre finished, scuff and paint.

 

[jimgood]

MJ, is this your first welder? If you use thin tubing, make sure you practice. It's easier to blow through thinner tubing. The .120 wall stuff will be more forgiving, albeit heavier and more expensive.

 

[MJ_]

This is my first welder and any cart that I make will be my first project with a welder.
I was leaning toward using a 16ga square tubing due to the number of people who chimed in to advise this thickness. But, I've been thinking that a thicker material would afford me the luxury of a few mistakes. As you said, it would cost more, but I could call this the cost of learning.

 

[racingtadpole]

Tight fitting joints, some practice on the offcuts and 023 wire will see you right. 16G is no more difficult to weld than 1/8 once you have the machine dialed in and your groove on.

 

[sberry]

5 minutes fab. I eventually moved the plasma and the Hobart to the top of the Synchro and eliminated 2 carts. I put the SP on the old plas cart. It was the shopping welder for a long time. One thing about this type if fab is that you don't get "invested" in it,,, both time/money and emotion and not scared to change when the time comes.
Some of the guys been in the same shops a long time and are well rooted, making custom makes some more sense but when starting go for simple and easy,,, free or cheap is even better. I would have a hard time not looing at HF engine stand or tool box as a start if I was doing this again and needed to buy materials.
When I wanted to change or it became more obvious it was a 5 minute deal and didn't need to toss something I worked hard on. I did that a lot earlier in my career, I got a lot of stuff is beautifully fabricated but now obsolete.

 

[Bodj Built]

My TIG welding cart was my first TIG project. Trial by fire. You'll be thankful you went thinner than going thicker. Yes, thicker is more forgiving, but if you ever need to put the cart in the bed of a truck to help a buddy weld somewhere off site, you're going to hate life.

 

[MJ_]

I do understand your point.
I help a metal fabricator on the weekends and I get to unload an older Lincoln LN25 flux-cored welder that is fastened to a cart made from liberal amounts of solid square rod. I could never lift that thing by myself and certainly have a hard time doing it with help.

 

[ez-duzit]

My welder/plasma cutter cart. Frame is mostly 2" & 1-1/4" square tube.





https://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=424979

 

[MJ_]

Very nice... I like the use of the tool cabinet and the cable hangers too.

 

[ez-duzit]

M--thanks.

The tool chest is a Kennedy with ball bearing slides. Cable hangars I made from a piece of aluminum pipe, 3/8" rod and 1/4"x1-1/4" flat bar I had on hand; installed using the threaded inserts provided by Kennedy for attaching the handle, which I used on the front of the cart.

 

[BukitCase]

ez-duzit, Hypertherm recommends a LOT more "breathing room" than that, so I scrapped a "multi-unit" cart idea; I'm guessing they're a bit overprotective, you've had no overheat problems? ... Steve

 

[tarbellb]

Doc has lots of good info.

I wouldnt go any thicker than 16g (.060), and lean towards 18 or even 20 depending on design and availability.

 

[MJ_]

dr_clyde's cart build is very nice. I can appreciate the use of sheet metal and this makes me wish I had access to a break. Nice and simple solution overall. I'm pretty sure my own cart is going to look apologetic compared to the other photos shared in this thread.

 

[dr_clyde]

For some reason, guys like to over complicate things that they are designing.

I work with some industrial designers and I’ve learned that less is often more. What can you remove from a design and have it still be functional?

Form needs to follow function, and a good design tends to look plain and simple, while being devilish in the details.

A good example of this is stiffening and gussets. Formed sheet metal can be just as strong or stronger than a tube with a sheet shelf welded on.

 

[lis2323]

10 or 11 gauge would be fine. This one I built for a Syncrowave









And this one for an XMT




Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[sberry]

A good example of this is stiffening and gussets. Formed sheet metal can be just as strong or stronger than a tube with a sheet shelf welded on.

Along that same thought and not to be contradictory. A Bud stopped over for something a while back, he happened to show me a hitch add on he had to a new PU. He was rightfully proud of it. The guy that did it knew exactly, it wasn't his first time and he chose a structural piece a size thicker than a lot of us would have used. In doing so he eliminated a whole bunch of additional pieces, didn't need to add the gussets and bracing, saved a lot of work, did the whole job as I recall with 4 pieces.
I saw a work bench here, it was nice enough but I count about 30 pieces that didn't do anything, 16 gussets on the top frame alone. The workmanship was great but the design had a lot of stuff added took days.

 

[ez-duzit]

ez-duzit, Hypertherm recommends a LOT more "breathing room" than that...you've had no overheat problems? ... Steve

Just finished the cart this past week and still have to plumb the air compressor before I can run the plasma cutter. But I expect no problems. You can fit your hand between the machines.

 

[BukitCase]

Here's what the manual for my PM45 says -

"Locate the Powermax45 near an appropriate 200–240 volt power receptacle for CSA or CE 1-phase power supplies,
a 400 volt receptacle for 3-phase CE power supplies, or a 480 volt receptacle for 3-phase CSA power supplies. The
Powermax45 has a 3 m (10-foot) power cord. Allow at least 0.25 m (10 inches) of space around the power supply for
proper ventilation."

(emphasis added by me)

IF your model's the same type case as mine (and you care) there are louvers on only one side, plus front/rear grills - so there's always the option of placing the plaz so that side's louver's are toward the outside... Steve

 

[ez-duzit]

...Allow at least 0.25 m (10 inches) of space around the power supply for
proper ventilation."...

Depending on duty cycle, etc, it may be possible to overheat one.

 

[dr_clyde]

I can’t imagine overheating that little plasma cutter. It’s not going to be running for hours at a time.

 

[jeepinerdeep]

I believe it has already been said, but I find 14 ga very nice to work with in tubing and sheet for almost all light duty needs.

 

[BD1]

That 11 gauge is fine as others stated. IF you wants some additional ideas, checkout the WELDINGWEB . Lots of great members.
https://weldingweb.com/showthread.php?593361-The-Welding-Cart-Thread-Post-Em-Up!!

 

[slodat]

I made this out of 14ga tubing several years ago. First project with my then new to me TIG welder. I did it to start the process of learning. It went well.