RyanT
Veteran
Hey guys, just finally finished my first welding project and thought I'd share it with you. I own a small lighting rental business with a friend of mine and we plan to replace the wooden shelving in our truck soon with something that will hold up a bit better over time.
We both didn't have much experience in welding, but we had a MIG welder and took an intro class a couple years back. We knew our first attempt would be purely a learning project, so we decided to build something else before tackling the shelving. My girlfriend is an art director and I'm not entirely sure what gave me the crazy idea, but I decided we would make her a cart.
I drew up a little something in sketch up, then went and picked up around 80' of 1' steel square tubing and some various sized angle iron.
Ended up getting a lot done in that first day. The basic shape was taking place already. Our welds were pretty rough at first, but we noticed they were getting better and better. Plus we found later that a grinder is a fantastic tool.
Getting some milk crates to slide in and out was an exciting moment...
Then built a simple drawer. Ended up recutting the rubber matting inside.
Great time to remind you I have very little clue what I'm doing. Very difficult to weld the steel grate on because the metal was so thin and I was trying to weld it to something so thick. I think the thing I needed was a spot welder, but I eventually figured something out. I also welded 1/4"x1/4" angle iron around the edges to prevent the grate from slicing something open as it was sharp, even after grinding it down.
Then it was time to make it look a little better. I looked into powder coating, but I couldn't really justify the expense. Ended up just painting it, we'll see how long it lasts. Also added a removable bar in the front to keep the crates and the drawer in place while traveling.
Put a little cherry finish on the top piece of wood and the drawer to pull it all together. Then wrapped the two handles with black rescue tape to give them a softer touch.
Also found some 8" pneumatic casters. Two smart wheels on the back per usual. Also got some s-hooks to fully utilize the grate on the front. The wood on top and on the backside is resting on top of some 1/4" x 1/4" angle iron welded to the inside of the steeling tubing. Then the wood is screwed down to the flat part of the angle iron.
Learned a lot from this project, mostly measure at least six times, cut once. You can see I have a bit of wasted space on the rear of the milk crates as my design was a little off to start. I would also say the one major flaw is the cart has no brakes! I was having a hard time justifying spending as much time on this project as I have, and the engineering of the brakes was just a little too much. She's a smart girl though and I figure after a couple jobs with wheel chalks she'll figure out something clever.
Anyways, working with metal is pretty fun. Spent about 300 on this, which is a killer deal considering carts similar to this can go in the 1000-1500 range. Looking forward to the next project!
We both didn't have much experience in welding, but we had a MIG welder and took an intro class a couple years back. We knew our first attempt would be purely a learning project, so we decided to build something else before tackling the shelving. My girlfriend is an art director and I'm not entirely sure what gave me the crazy idea, but I decided we would make her a cart.
I drew up a little something in sketch up, then went and picked up around 80' of 1' steel square tubing and some various sized angle iron.
Ended up getting a lot done in that first day. The basic shape was taking place already. Our welds were pretty rough at first, but we noticed they were getting better and better. Plus we found later that a grinder is a fantastic tool.
Getting some milk crates to slide in and out was an exciting moment...
Then built a simple drawer. Ended up recutting the rubber matting inside.
Great time to remind you I have very little clue what I'm doing. Very difficult to weld the steel grate on because the metal was so thin and I was trying to weld it to something so thick. I think the thing I needed was a spot welder, but I eventually figured something out. I also welded 1/4"x1/4" angle iron around the edges to prevent the grate from slicing something open as it was sharp, even after grinding it down.
Then it was time to make it look a little better. I looked into powder coating, but I couldn't really justify the expense. Ended up just painting it, we'll see how long it lasts. Also added a removable bar in the front to keep the crates and the drawer in place while traveling.
Put a little cherry finish on the top piece of wood and the drawer to pull it all together. Then wrapped the two handles with black rescue tape to give them a softer touch.
Also found some 8" pneumatic casters. Two smart wheels on the back per usual. Also got some s-hooks to fully utilize the grate on the front. The wood on top and on the backside is resting on top of some 1/4" x 1/4" angle iron welded to the inside of the steeling tubing. Then the wood is screwed down to the flat part of the angle iron.
Learned a lot from this project, mostly measure at least six times, cut once. You can see I have a bit of wasted space on the rear of the milk crates as my design was a little off to start. I would also say the one major flaw is the cart has no brakes! I was having a hard time justifying spending as much time on this project as I have, and the engineering of the brakes was just a little too much. She's a smart girl though and I figure after a couple jobs with wheel chalks she'll figure out something clever.
Anyways, working with metal is pretty fun. Spent about 300 on this, which is a killer deal considering carts similar to this can go in the 1000-1500 range. Looking forward to the next project!
