Mostly Finished With Tool Chest Welding Cart

Many years ago I pulled wrenches on heavy equipment and trucks. I had to roll my tool cabinet out of the shop and onto the asphalt to get to some of the equipment. Rolling heavy tool cabinets with those stock wheels onto irregular surfaces was difficult. One of the older guys (this was when I was still a pup) helped me to install some old steel wheel casters from a dumpster under my box. That thing rolled so nice on uneven surfaces.
You are going to be carrying a lot of weight and top heavy to boot. If you plan to roll your box out of the garage and off of that smooth floor surface, you may want to think about replacing the casters with steel wheels.
 
Papa Charlie said:
Many years ago I pulled wrenches on heavy equipment and trucks. I had to roll my tool cabinet out of the shop and onto the asphalt to get to some of the equipment. Rolling heavy tool cabinets with those stock wheels onto irregular surfaces was difficult. One of the older guys (this was when I was still a pup) helped me to install some old steel wheel casters from a dumpster under my box. That thing rolled so nice on uneven surfaces.
You are going to be carrying a lot of weight and top heavy to boot. If you plan to roll your box out of the garage and off of that smooth floor surface, you may want to think about replacing the casters with steel wheels.
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Agreed.

Why don't welding carts have large diameter wheels/casters?

My Lincoln cart gets hung up on pebbles that are encountered on the garage slab.
 
As I said in the first post, I started this project because I didn't want to pay ZTFab's sky-high $310 price.
 
My pneumatic go-cart wheels work pretty well when pumped up. The cart rolls in the driveway well. My "design" considerations were to keep the cart fairly mobile together with the welding bench. Truthfully I haven't moved it outside much since the Tig process is so clean. My grinding and sanding sure is dirty!

i am going to adopt some of you'all's cord hanger ideas.
 
Since creating the green cart, I have made a red one, and there are improvements. I don't think I've posted about it here. Apologies if I have.

1. I made one set of casters farther apart than the others. In addition to making it harder for the center of mass to go past all the wheels, it discourages the cart from rocking, and rocking leads to tipping. Trapezoidal things hate to rock. I'm going to go back and add this feature to the green cart.

2. I made the bottle restraint lower at around 20" off the deck. The restraint on the first cart is fine for tall tanks, but it's too high for small ones. In retrospect, 18" would have been better. A low restraint will work with tall tanks.

3. Instead of using long, needlessly strong, distortion-inducing welds to fill in corners and make everything pretty, I filled some of the corners in with JB Weld Steelstik putty.

4. To make attachment points for the bottle chains, I just welded whole chain links to the bottle restraint. I didn't drill any holes.

5. I shortened the wheelbase so the cart would turn in a smaller space.

6. One of the machines is a plasma cutter, so I made a support to hold the "toilet paper" filter at about eye level. No more leaving it on the floor.

I got a piece of 3/4" plywood, and I'm going to cut it to fit the top of the box and paint it. The sheet metal top is okay for light machines, but fat American machines really need something stiffer.

These carts are absolutely fantastic. A joy to use. I do a little machining here and there, but fabricating has changed my life more than anything.

08 13 22 harbor freight red tool chest welding cart no tanks small.jpg
 
Chips O'Toole said:
Since creating the green cart, I have made a red one, and there are improvements. I don't think I've posted about it here. Apologies if I have.

1. I made one set of casters farther apart than the others. In addition to making it harder for the center of mass to go past all the wheels, it discourages the cart from rocking, and rocking leads to tipping. Trapezoidal things hate to rock. I'm going to go back and add this feature to the green cart.

2. I made the bottle restraint lower at around 20" off the deck. The restraint on the first cart is fine for tall tanks, but it's too high for small ones. In retrospect, 18" would have been better. A low restraint will work with tall tanks.

3. Instead of using long, needlessly strong, distortion-inducing welds to fill in corners and make everything pretty, I filled some of the corners in with JB Weld Steelstik putty.

4. To make attachment points for the bottle chains, I just welded whole chain links to the bottle restraint. I didn't drill any holes.

5. I shortened the wheelbase so the cart would turn in a smaller space.

6. One of the machines is a plasma cutter, so I made a support to hold the "toilet paper" filter at about eye level. No more leaving it on the floor.

I got a piece of 3/4" plywood, and I'm going to cut it to fit the top of the box and paint it. The sheet metal top is okay for light machines, but fat American machines really need something stiffer.

These carts are absolutely fantastic. A joy to use. I do a little machining here and there, but fabricating has changed my life more than anything.

View attachment 429566
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Love this. I had thought about it some time ago, but hadn't done anything about it. This just confirms the idea and love the upgrades that you have made. I have always assembled small tool bags and boxes for specific tasks, Electronic/Soldering/Etc, Plumbing, Etc. But for welding/fab work you need a lot more, brushes, hammers, clamps, consumables, etc, etc, etc. I hate looking for tools.

One thing I would add to mine is a rack for 3-5 4.5" grinders with different discs onto the back. Don't care for cordless so the hanging rack would include proper storage for the cords. Another rack is for long bar clamps.

One of my jobs, many years ago, was a mechanic for Waste Management. The first time I ran my tool box out to a truck in the yard on asphalt, the box tipped over. One of the long time mechanics built me a frame that the box fit into and replaced the casters with dumpster steel wheel casters. That box moved so easy and stable no matter where I had to move it. All my other boxes I have replaced the casters with the larger diameter (6") steel casters. Will never go back to plastic.

Thanks very much for sharing.
 
I bought a Northern Tool $180 welding table, and it's incredible for the money. I ran 1/8" by 1" flat bar across the legs, and now I hang...I think SIX...angle grinders there.

Incidentally, a 6" grinder with a Walter cutoff disk will outrun a band saw.

Papa Charlie said:
Love this. I had thought about it some time ago, but hadn't done anything about it. This just confirms the idea and love the upgrades that you have made. I have always assembled small tool bags and boxes for specific tasks, Electronic/Soldering/Etc, Plumbing, Etc. But for welding/fab work you need a lot more, brushes, hammers, clamps, consumables, etc, etc, etc. I hate looking for tools.

One thing I would add to mine is a rack for 3-5 4.5" grinders with different discs onto the back. Don't care for cordless so the hanging rack would include proper storage for the cords. Another rack is for long bar clamps.
Click to expand...
 
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