Welding Tips and Tricks

Built a welding cart in the ZT Fab style with a 12 gauge sheet 2'x4', left over 18 gauge 1" square tubing from a store display, and various lengths of 2", 3", and 4" .125 flat bar. I wanted the cart to hold two or more welders and two tanks. I found a barely used Lincoln 210mp on craigslist and had a lot of fun practicing mig. I used a plasma cutter to cut up the sheet metal parts. I was so caught up on trying to make a good mig weld, I forgot about how much parts can and will warp. Really warped the sheet metal base when I fully welded (nonstop!) outside corner joints. I ended up trying to correct the 1/2" bow by clamping the base upside down to my downdraft table then fully welding the inside corner joints. Now the base only kicks up about a 1/4" overall. I had fun bending the 4" x 1/8" flat stock with a small sledge-hammer and a wood vise. I bolted down 210mp via the factory holes inside the cabinet and made a little hook out angle iron to catch the lip of the Everlast 160STH. The cart turned out bigger than I hoped but it's nice to have the control panel buttons a little higher than my last cart. Just want to say thank you to all the members, most posts are educational and often entertaining at the same time.

Nice cart -lot of work but always worth it in the end. Had me going for a bit about why all the holes in the 1in tubes and then I went back and read your post and all was explained.

homeboy wrote:Nice cart -lot of work but always worth it in the end. Had me going for a bit about why all the holes in the 1in tubes and then I went back and read your post and all was explained.

Yeah in retrospect, I should have just bought new steel.

PhillerTime wrote:

homeboy wrote:Nice cart -lot of work but always worth it in the end. Had me going for a bit about why all the holes in the 1in tubes and then I went back and read your post and all was explained.

Yeah in retrospect, I should have just bought new steel.

Nothing wrong with re-purposing stuff. I do it all the time as do many others here. Looks like a lot of work went into that cart but it won't fall apart, that's for sure. Good job.

electrode wrote:

PhillerTime wrote:

homeboy wrote:Nice cart -lot of work but always worth it in the end. Had me going for a bit about why all the holes in the 1in tubes and then I went back and read your post and all was explained.

Yeah in retrospect, I should have just bought new steel.

Nothing wrong with re-purposing stuff. I do it all the time as do many others here. Looks like a lot of work went into that cart but it won't fall apart, that's for sure. Good job.

Thanks for the kind words!

Actually I have quite a few projects with misc. holes and slots from reclaimed angle iron bed frames from the metal recycle pile at the landfill. If anyone asks what they're for just say -well isn't it obvious and change the subject.

homeboy wrote:Actually I have quite a few projects with misc. holes and slots from reclaimed angle iron bed frames from the metal recycle pile at the landfill. If anyone asks what they're for just say -well isn't it obvious and change the subject.

Really lol! I'm going to use that one.