From Junk to Weld Cart
My one buddy, Matt, is always telling me about the three R’s. Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle. There is nothing I like more than to turn old, unusable junk, into working, functional and helpful things. That's where the idea came from for the weld cart. I recently upgraded from a hobby oxy-cetylene set to a medium duty oxy-propane set. I have a 60 cu ft oxygen bottle and a 30 lbs propane bottle. There is nothing more aggravating than trying to drag those around the garage to where I needed them. I had to come up with a solution.
I had recently received some unwanted junk from my coworker Jason. He was doing some cleanup around his house and was looking to get rid of a busted dryer and a push lawn mower. I told him I would be glad to take it off his hands. At that point in time, I had no idea what to do with this stuff, but I knew it would be useful sooner or later.
I started with the dryer and totally stripped it down. The outside shell provided some nice flat sheet metal. The wiring harness was stripped out and I came up with some decent gauge wire that was rolled up and saved for later electrical projects. All of the switches and sensors were saved as well. Until I started the weld cart project the mower just sat beside the garage.
I knew what a weld cart looked like from seeing a couple around. All they are is a glorified hand cart with a tray on top. With the picture in my head, I began to scheme. The push handle from the mower would do quite well as the handle for the cart along with the wheels. I had an old table frame that had some angle iron, flat stock, and round bar on it that I could use as supports and framing for the base. The sheet metal I had saved from the dryer could be used for the trays. Yep, this is definitely going to work!
I sat the bottles side by side and took a measurement. From that I cut angle iron to make a base. I cut three pieces, two for the sides and one for the back. The angle iron was cut so that it fit together to form a 3 sided box. Once everything was cut I took the angle grinder with a wire wheel to the metal. All the metal from the table frame was rusted and had old paint on it and this needed to be removed before welding. Once the base frame was welded together, I welded round bar at the bottom to help support the heavy weight of the cylinders.
With the base together, I wanted to get the handle and wheels put on. In the corners of the base I drilled holes for the wheels to attach to. I realized that the wheel bolts had enough thread that I could run them through the handle and the angle iron base. That worked out really nice because I thought I would have to weld the handle to the base. I welded flat bar from the front of the base to the handle. Without this added support, when you would pull back on the handle, it would just hinge where the handle and wheels were attached.
Next I took some tubing from the rusty table frame and dished out the ends with the angle grinder so they would fit snugly against the tubing of the handle. This made it easy to weld since there were no large gaps and had a secure fit. This was needed for the oxygen and propane bottle to rest against when they are strapped to the cart. Without this piece they would just fall out the back of the cart.
There was a piece of sheet metal from the rear of the dryer that would work perfectly for a tray. I cut it out and folded it into a box shape This would serve as the tray for the tools and also where I would wrap the hose for the torch. I welded the tray to the upper part of the handle and also welded some flat bar just like the base to give it added support.
The last thing to do was primer all of the bare metal. I used self etching primer because it chemically bonds to the bare metal, making for a very good primed surface. I then took Rust-Oleum’s gloss black paint and gave it a couple coats. It turned out great and I'm very happy with it. It's easier to move the oxy-propane tanks around the garage now, which is really nice. I was able to reuse old dysfunctional junk and turn them into a functional weld cart. There is nothing that could be more satisfying.
Don't forget the 3 R’s Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle.
