[Chips O'Toole]

I had a neat experience with a welding cart this week, and I thought I'd share it. Eastwood buries me in email ads, and they sent one for a two-tier cart. That got me looking around the web for other carts, because I wanted to put my plasma and welder on the same cart, and I wasn't sure Eastwood was the way to go. My existing cart was the one that comes with the Lincoln Powermig 180C, and while it's a nice cart, it's very small, and tall bottles bump against the rear of the welder.

I found out there is a dubious Chinese cart sold under a zillion different names, and it's what you will probably find if you look for a two-tier cart. I didn't like it. The capacity was low. I found a Cornwell cart that looked good and had a good price, but you have to chase a guy in a Cornwell truck to get one. Forget that.

I ordered the Eastwood cart, and I put it together. It's very sturdy. It has nice steel hoops to hold gas bottles, and it will hold 350 pounds of machinery and gas. It has hooks for cords. It has two little trays for consumables. It has tubes for TIG rods.

The cart was great, but one part was defective. I had to shim it with washers. I called Eastwood to complain, and they couldn't replace the part, so they're sending me a free cart. They don't want the old one back. Hell, I can fix it. I just didn't want to, since it was guaranteed.

Now I'm going to have two carts. I think I'll put grinders on the second one.

Anyway, the cart is very satisfactory. Not a work of art, but it's strong and practical. I would not hesitate to recommend it. The site calls it the "Eastwood Professional Welding Cart." It's $129. They were offering free shipping a few days back, but that's over with.

[electrode]

Lucky you. Better buy a lottery ticket. Score!

[Chips O'Toole]

It's pretty crazy.

[Chips O'Toole]

Today I learned something that will be of use to other AlphaTIG owners. The AlphaTIG will fit on the bottom shelf of this cart. You have to loosen the top shelf, put the welder on the cart, and tighten the shelf down, and you have to push the welder back so far the rear part of the handle is behind the steel strap that hols the rear of the shelf up, but it does fit. You can get it in there with 1/4" to spare on top.

My other welder is a Lincoln MIG, and it has a door that opens and stands straight up. You can't use it on the bottom shelf of the cart because of the door. Now that the AlphaTIG is on the bottom shelf, the Lincoln can stay up top where there is room for the door to swing.

[exnailpounder]

I bought a Horrible Fright mig welding cart for my plasma cutter and it works great. Maybe use your extra cart for that. I like Eastwood's products but, like you said, they mail-bomb you bad. They never have anything new so they have to have sales all the time to knock people off the fence and spend. I am kicking around getting their big tubing bender and their soda blaster.

[Chips O'Toole]

The plasma cutter is the reason I haven't sold the extra cart. I don't have room in my current shop for two carts, but I'm moving soon, and the plasma cutter needs wheels!

[WildWestWelder]

Thanks! You just gave me an idea for another welding project. I need something to put tools on, TIG rod storage etc.