Miller Multimatic 220 Welding cart / station

[eriksalo]

I bought a new Miller Multimatic 220 to replace my venerable, 50 year old "MigaSPOT" MIG welder. The MigaSPOT served me well for a long time.

I decided to get a new MIG welder and was thinking of Harbor freight or Everlast. However, my cousin, a professional welder, strongly recommended the Multimatic 220. It was triple my imagined budget but he argued it would replace both my ancient MIG and TIG machines.

Here's the build 10 years ago for my MIG cart. It has worked great:

https://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=67950

Here's the build 7 years ago for my Lincoln TIG cart. It has also worked well but I don't use it much:

https://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=131902

I was going to use my existing MIG cart but decided to make a new station that would hold everything. The most useful thing is the "slide out" 14" cold saw, much more convenient than dragging out the old saw when I want to use it. I used heavy duty drawer slides.

I fit the Multimatic, a plasma cutter, a cold saw and two bottles in the main area. I also used the large Harbor Freight welding cart cabinet and it's immediately full of stuff.

For bits and bobs on the outside (those take all the time), I have an area for large vice grip clamps and an area for small vice grip clamps. An area for four TIG wire tubes, a place to put pens, a place for a MIG pliers and a place for a "setup" jigs 90 and 45 degrees for the cold saw. I made cable hangars out of 2" angle and had just enough room left over to stick my magnetic torch and grinder holders and other magnets near the bottles.

I bought two new Bosch cordless angle grinders for the project. They are super convenient but don't have the power of the corded units. The also blow through batteries. I find I use them well for the fine grit flap disk and for a grinding wheel with I don't have a bunch to do. For heavy duty grinding, I grab one of the corded units.

The top is a 2'x4' "Certiflat" top. That's really my only failure, the top is a bit too high to be useful. I'm pretty tall but it's still too high to be convenient. Overall I'm happy with the project. To do it over again, I would use a 1/4" plate for the top and make it a tad larger. It was tight fitting everything into the space.

 

[eriksalo]

Here's the beginning. I bought a 2'x4' "Certiflat" table as the top.

I put the table together and then made a base out of 2"x2" square tubing. The rest is 1.5"x1.5" square.

You can see the main structure and how I fit the harbor freight large welding cart cabinet and the welder into the frame

 

[eriksalo]

Here's the fitting of the saw, it was hard to get everything in. I bought some TIG rod holder tubes and also an aluminum CNC cut holder for the tubes on eBay.

 

[eriksalo]

I got all of the big stuff in and then spent most of my time adding all of the little stuff.

Everything from Pen holders to clamp holders and cable management.

When I got it all done (well, when there was no more room left) I tore it all down and painted it blue.

 

[eriksalo]

Note the slide out tray that catches any debris that makes it through the top.

 

[koditten]

Many "likes"!

Thanks for posting!

 

[pi_guy]

I bought my first Miller in 1978 have bought several since I have never been disappointed with them.
good luck

 

[sberry]

I like the craftsmanship but am inclined to make 2 units. The welder and the fab station. Something else is,,, nothing is gospel. It's easy to get vested in paint. I do a lot of stuff twice. The other day my helper said,,, we are going to do this again aren't we? He said,,, let's stop and fix it right now,,, ha.
Nice features.

 

[MoonRise]

Interesting and nice.

But I also like to keep the welder cart/station separate from the fab cart/table/station. Yes the two function together a lot of the time, but with all the grit and gunk from the fabrication tasks I REALLY want to keep that away as much as possible from the welding machine(s).

Welder, storage, some supplies, clamps, pens (nice touch BTW ), gas cylinder(s), filler rods and wire spools, place to loop/store the welder leads, those sorts of things.

Work and fab table/cart, more clamps (can never have too many clamps, eh? ), saw, grinders, etc, those sorts of things go on the fab/work cart/table/station.

Do the fab tasks, roll the welding station up, do the welding, roll it away somewhat and do some grinding, roll the welder(s) back within reach and do some more welding, etc.

But whatever works for you.

 

[eriksalo]

I generally fabricate on one of my other workbenches. I have a 3/4 thick steel table that's 3 feet deep and 10 feet long, that's my main metal working surface. It isn't perfectly flat but is pretty good.

I have a lot going on in my shop so I like to have all of the welding stuff in one place. That way I can take it out when I need it, put it away when I'm done.

 

[sberry]

You also are not using abrasive saw so that is a plus for this station. Nicer than any I have for sure.

 

[quadrcr87]

Great job on the cart. I really like the certiflat top and that pull out catch tray. I am glad you shared some build photos on this one. Your last 2 carts were awesome as well with alot of features.

 

[stonesg]

The Forum that keeps on giving:

What a great idea to have the table/cart combined.

I'm very taxed for space so the idea to add a small table on top of my welding cart is fantastic.

I'm getting tired of doing small projects on the floor.

Thanks for this!

TG

 

[APEowner]

Slick!