Welding cart fabrication

cathead

CATWERKS LTD
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Feb 7, 2013
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As some of you may have seen, I scrapped out an old Miller CP-200 arc welder. The case looked like
a good candidate for my new welding cart project so have been working on making a home for my new
Everlast 80 Plasma cutter and Everlast 210EX. The main wheels are from an old electric wheel chair that
came from the scrap yard. The big wheels will be great outside when the weather is nice.
I made some brass bushings for the axle shaft but the wheels rotate together since
the 20mm diameter wheel hubs are keyed. Also, the axles were bolted to the cart in case this wheel setup
turns out to be unacceptable. Anyhow, the main wheels skid when making a turn so will have to see
if this is acceptable or not. I didn't want to remove the keys as the wheels are bolted on the end of the
axle shaft and if one would turn loose, the cart could tip. I'm including a photo of the cart build so far
and a shot of the axle and wheels. P1020602.JPG
I will put the plasma cutter on the bottom and the TIG on top. I need to make a shelf for the argon in the back. Then I will paint the
whole cart blue in memory of the old CP-200. P1020604.JPG
It would be nice to have the wheels turn independently somehow. If I have to I can make a smaller axle shaft and make up some sort of
bearing inside the wheel. Maybe I will have to cut the axle in half and make more brackets and bushings.:dunno:


Edit:

One nice feature is that the blue top part pivots open after removing two cap screws making the installation or removal of the
plasma cutter on the bottom tray quite simple.
 
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Apparently in my dreams I figured out an easy way to make the wheels turn independently. I removed the shaft,
and cut it in half in the middle in the lathe, Then I centered and drilled a 7/16 inch by 1.5 inches deep into the hole and ran in
some 1/2 x 13 threads. I used a 1/2 x 4 inch grade 5 bolt for this project. I centered the end of the bolt head and
with support machined the end down to a half inch, maybe a little less and rounded the end somewhat.
After that I drilled the other half of the axle about 3.5 inches deep and reamed the hole to 1/2 inch. After that, all that was
left to do was to reassemble the axle assembly so I can get on with the rest of the project. Now the two
wheels can rotate independently. There won't be much wear on this and I left the hole a little deep for a glob of grease. I'm happy
with the result.
P1020607.JPG
It looks almost the same as the other photo but if you look carefully you can see where the axle is resectioned in the middle.
 
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Cutting the axle was the first thing I thought of when you mentioned the wheel skidding.

Great minds...and our's too, apparently... :D
 
Here's a couple photo of the cart pretty much complete. P1020608.JPGP1020613.JPG
The paint was dry so I had to set this up and roll it around a little. I need to confine the units a bit maybe with some wood blocks and
add a little rack of some sort for cables. I'm going to try stick welding first as it is a simple setup.
 
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