I don’t know about the rest of you, but personally I have three important machines in my garage:
- MIG Welder
- TIG Welder
- Plasma Torch
There is no way I want to keep 3 different carts to carry the machines, when one will do. The problem is, I’ve scoured the Internet and there are NO – as in ZERO – carts designed to actually handle 3 different machines in one space. Grrr!!!
Luckily, I know a guy… So I tapped Manuel, one of our engineers, and we’ve been working on a 3 level design that is capable of holding two full size (260 cu ft) tanks at the back so we can carry both 75/25 and Argon, plus three medium/large machines.
The goal is to build something strong, modern looking, extensible and relatively easy to assemble. We got the entire build down to just three plates and two sections of tubing! And in order to ensure it was going to be strong we also used 3/16″ plate for the “shelves”, each with flanges on the sides, and 2″x4″ tubes for the uprights that connect everything. It looked good on paper! So we built a prototype.
Turns out our cart was a MONSTER! It weighs 235 pounds, and is just dimensionally massive.
Now it has to be pretty wide because of the dual tanks. I mean the front could be narrower, but the back has to fit the tanks, so might as well keep the space up front. But we caught a number of minor issues with the prototype.
- The casters are inset a little too much. We’re widening them for the second try.
- The cart is really, really wide. So we’re trimming 3 inches off to get it to the minimum necessary.
- It’s strong as a tank! But it’s very heavy, so we’re going to try a 10ga variant to see if it still has the strength needed.
Once we get the chassis sorted, I want to work on accessories that can bolt on the side to hang things like the cables and guns and stuff. But any other suggestions are welcome and encouraged!!!
John P.
Texas Metal Works
Founder
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Quick update on the development of the tri-level welding cart.
- We trimmed down the length and width of the cart. It will still handle fairly big welding machines, but hoping to lighten it up a bit and shrink the footprint.
- The second prototype also uses 10ga instead of 3/16″ steel. Again, should still be very strong, but losing a little weight.
- Moved the casters out to the farthest edge of the bottom plate to give the most stability possible.
- Adding some break-off tabs to be used during bending (no pics) to make it 10x easier to index and bend the shelves.
We’re going to build this second prototype version and hoping this kit will be good to go! Looking forward to using this in my garage at home for all my machines.
I’m also kind of wondering if anyone will come up with other uses for this cart. I’m guessing there are other things which might be good to mount on a cart like this, but drawing a blank. So if you have any ideas please share.
John P.
Texas Metal Works
Founder
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