For this week’s project, the team is building Aaron his very own mobile welding cart. This cart is a necessity for any fabricator with limited garage space or for those who like to weld in different areas of the shop. To start, Iggy cut some 2” square tubing on the band saw, and Aaron tacks it up. The frame ends up being 31" long, 14" wide, and 35" tall. After welding the frame together, we headed to the Torchmate X to cut out the top. We needed a table with the FlexCut 125 in order to incorporate the plasma marking functionality for the grid pattern. Also a quick note, the top was cut on ½” MS, but you definitely don’t need to go that thick. This happened to be the thickness available to us in the shop. CART TOP CUT PARAMETERS Table: Torchmate X Plasma Cutter: FlexCut 125 Material: ½” MS Cutting Speed: 45 ipm on the outer perimeter, 25 ipm for holes, 250 ipm for the marking Amperage: 125 amps for the cut, 10 amps for the marking The brackets for the wheels were designed to add a little wider base to the cart. Gussets were also added for support. Iggy took the chance to customize them for Aaron. WHEEL BRACKETS CUT PARAMETERS Table: Torchmate 4400 Plasma Cutter: FlexCut 80 Material: 3/16” MS Cutting Speed: 50 ipm Amperage: 40 amps GUSSETS CUT PARAMETERS Table: Torchmate 4400 Plasma Cutter: FlexCut 80 Material: 3/8” MS Cutting Speed: 35 ipm Amperage: 80 amps With the wheels mounted, Aaron and Iggy could figure out how much space there was below the base and above the ground. Aaron is going to be working on primarily a flat surface, so they could mount the base to the plasma cutter pretty low to the ground, saving them room towards the top. PLASMA CUTTER SHELF CUT PARAMETERS Table: Torchmate 4400 Plasma Cutter: FlexCut 80 Material: 3/16” MS Cutting Speed: 50 ipm Amperage: 40 amps The base was designed to rest on the square tubing, while leaving room for the corners and a space for the tank shelf. BASE PLATE CUT PARAMETERS Table: Torchmate 4400 Plasma Cutter: FlexCut 80 Material: 1/8” MS Cutting Speed: 90 ipm Amperage: 40 amps The tank shelf was designed to hang off the center of the frame, and obviously needed to be able to hold a lot of weight, so two holes were built-in so Iggy could plug weld them solid to the frame. Two thin rectangles were also cut and welded along the curved edge of the tank shelf to create a wall and keep the tank from sliding off the shelf. TANK SHELF CUT PARAMETERS Table: Torchmate 4400 Plasma Cutter: FlexCut 80 Material: 3/16” MS Cutting Speed: 50 ipm Amperage: 40 amps TANK SHELF WALL CUT PARAMETERS Table: Torchmate 4400 Plasma Cutter: FlexCut 80 Material: 14 ga Cutting Speed: 160 ipm Amperage: 40 To save on space, Aaron and Iggy designed the cart so that the welder rested above the plasma cutter. Iggy cut out some rectangles out of 1/8”, broke them twice, and welded them into a makeshift C channel. One leg is welded to the square tubing of the base, and the other leg is welded to the shelf for the plasma cutter. The shelf for the welder is then welded on top of the C channel and to the frame of the cart. C CHANNEL RECTANGLES CUT PARAMETERS Table: Torchmate 4400 Plasma Cutter: FlexCut 80 Material: 1/8” MS Cutting Speed: 90 ipm Amperage: 40 amps WELDER SHELF CUT PARAMETERS Table: Torchmate 4400 Plasma Cutter: FlexCut 80 Material: 3/16” MS Cutting Speed: 50 ipm Amperage: 40 amps The last things to cut were the grinder/helmet holders. It’s a pretty simple design, just a twice-broken fork with two prongs. Aaron walked around and picked the locations that felt natural to him to have some grinder and helmet holders. GRINDER/WELDER HOLDERS CUT PARAMETERS Table: Torchmate 4400 Plasma Cutter: FlexCut 80 Material: 1/8” MS Cutting Speed: 90 ipm Amperage: 40 amps Also, towards the end of the project, Aaron decided he wanted a rack for all of his clamps, so we welded in some square tubing in between the frame posts. A 4" long piece of 1.5" diameter piping was also tacked on to the top to hold Aaron’s welding torch. We didn’t talk much about it in the video, but it’s very important to make sure your tank is insulated. We installed a rubber pad to the tank shelf, added heat shrink tubing to the chain holding in the tank, and put a sleeve on the tank itself. Overall, it turned out to be a great design … Aaron loves it already in his shop! The cart ended up being a little heavy, not surprising given the thickness of the top, but Aaron could still move it around no problem. We recommend using a thinner material on top if you’re concerned about weight. Also, if your work space has any sort of incline, you’re going to want to install wheels with locks. Once this thing gets rolling, there’s no stopping it! Let us know what you think! Tim, the Video Guy
