My Welding Cart

Having finished up my welding table, the next step was to have something to actually put my welder on rather than having it sit on the floor. So, I built the following which is based on a plan from "Welding Complete" from Creative Publishing International (available from Amazon here). However, I needed to modify the original plan to make it a bit wider so my plasma cutter would have a place to stay.

Here is the drawing- which omits the wheels which were just purchased from the local home center:

I won't bother going through all the build since it was basically the same as the welding table, but one thing I forgot to get a picture of was the correct way to align the upright components for welding, which is like this:

Use a carpenter's square to ensure the uprights are at a perfect 90 degrees before welding! I missed this crucial step with one of the legs on my welding table and it will be ever so slightly out of square forever now. Welding is definitely a measure THREE times, cut once, measure TWO MORE TIMES then weld type of process.

Here is the whole frame before painting. The hooks are to hang cables off of, but I am a bit worried I will be catching my knees on them.

Finally, a good thick coat of tractor green paint covers a multitude of sins! Actually, we have a pool pump in the same garage as the welding gear and occasionally small amounts of chlorine gas seep out and rust steel instantly, so I really need to paint everything to preserve it. I also put the rubber matting on the help protect the finish and provide some extra electrical insulation.

Here is the whole team! Note that the welding cart is extra wide so the plasma cutter can go beside it.

Next up... Bringing some order to my chaotic garage and workshop, which is hardly a project worth blogging about! I will be welding up some shelves and cabinets as part of the process and I will post that later. I also promise to get back to the Arduino soon. I have another Ethernet shield I haven't yet got assembled and I really want to look at networking two Arduinos together and having them do something halfway useful!