I was thinking the tip jelly, tank and tip wrench, gloves and welding accessories might go in the drawer.
I have 173cuft. .... Yes it's big, but it means less 70 mile round trips to gas supplier....For me it make it cheaper because of fuel and time... Make whatever tank holder on cart in such a way that it can accomodate any size cylinder...What are you guys using for tank size? The gas shop wanted to sell me the smallest one they had.
... Steve
I don't own a tractor and even a real work shop for that matter. This cart will be rolled into the basement for the winter, then out to the car garage for the summer when snow seaon is done. So it needs to be small enough to be rolled in and out, seasonally.My only tank smaller than 300cf is the 150 on my custom built cart (post#4 this thread) - and the ONLY reason for that is it's the largest 7" diameter bottle offered, and keeps my cart a bit narrower AND lighter than it woulda been.
Check the pics, you'll see holders for torch, MIG pliers, and nozzle gel (with room for a battery drill beside it) - The pics are decent rez, you can zoom in quite a bit for more details.
By building my own I tic'd about a DOZEN more boxes than ANYTHING I could buy readymade. The upper frame acts as a "roll cage" to protect the gauges, it has a lifting eye that's adjustable in 2 axes so it can be lifted LEVEL regardless of how full the bottle is, the top crossbar lets me tilt it back to be its own hand truck (in that position it runs on 13" no-flat tires) - there's a padded angle iron support for the welder (the wire door side was carefully designed to allow access WITHOUT removing the welder) -
There's a built in hitch for towing with either golf cart or riding mower - in that mode the smaller (5" dual locking casters) get retracted and locked UP with barrel bolts so they don't drag on uneven ground - the bottle gets locked in place with a band of 14 ga. steel (ends have coupler nuts to cinch the bottle in place) - there's a top holddown for the welder so it doesn't slide out when cart is tipped for "hand truck" mode -
Only downside is time; probably took me about a month of messing around, but I grin every time I use it
Works for me, if ANY of my "brain farts" help somebody that's what we're here for... Steve ... Steve
The everlast welder is about 30lbs so the tank will be the hefty part.Arly, now that you finished the sentence I apparently interrupted (my bad) it's obvious that you have just as individual a situation as I did - the GOOD news is, today's welders typically weigh less than HALF what the old ones did - my 250 amp copper wound beast weighs just under 200 pounds, my new little Everlast weighs about 18 pounds. I used to pack a lunch box that weighed that much...
My point is, as light as the welder itself is, it's not the problem; I'm always quoting Star Trek - "Space - the final frontier". So for me, the next question would be "daylight basement, or steep crappy stairs, or ??!?"
If it's cheap crappy steep stairs, I DEF retract the 300 cf tank plan
Forgot to mention; my LWS charges about 2/3 as much to fill 150's as they do for 300's, helps keep the cost of running C25 a little closer to running CO2, that way I only need to keep Acetylene, Oxy, C25 and Argon...
Same, here. My gas supplier is 12 miles and 20 minutes from here, and I pass them regularly enough in my weekly travels, that I don't feel any need to mount a larger bottle to the cart. If my closest supplier were 60 miles away, I'd probably still buy the 125 cu.ft. size, but keep two on hand to rotate at my convenience.