The worlds most expensive Garbage Cart/Trailer

Brent Dowell

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So, Around 6 years ago or so I got a little lawn tractor, and one if it's jobs is to take the garbage down to the road everyweek. I was busy at the time and thought, I'll just whip up a quick little temporary cart and will get around to making a nicer one someday. It's low to the ground, so it makes it easy to put even a very heavily loaded garbage can on it.

That poor little temporary cart has finally gotten to the point where it's just not quite doing the job anymore. Old 2x4s and crusty OSB base....

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Well, All this talk about welders finally got me off my hind end. My current welder is a little no-name cheapo my brother in law gave me many years ago. I've never gotten it to work quite right and have never really been able to draw a bead with it. It looks like it want's to support gas, but did not have the standard fittings, and it had a pretty low duty cycle I'm sure.

Well, Time to upgrade. I took Stu's advice and went ahead and got a 220 volt MIG unit. I had already bought a bottle of welding gas (argon/CO2) a while ago, but never really used it because it never worked on that other welder. I got the Lincoln 180HD at Home Depot. I have to say, I'm quite pleased with how it worked. Quiet, I used it for quite a bit today and never had to wait on it to cool down.

I admit, The TIG that Bryan got was tempting, but this is, as Stu puts it, pretty much just point and shoot. Could not be happier.

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I had also picked up a little electric bandsaw from HF A while ago. Didn't really use it till today, but I have to say it worked great. Made slicing up the metal a quick and easy chore. A metal cutting chop saw would probably give me better results, but this thing throws no sparks and cuts smooth as butter. With careful use, all I needed was just a touch of grinding to get even my miter joints ready to weld.

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So here's just a bunch of in process pictures.

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And here we are, with the frame pretty much complete. Tomorrow I'll do a little clean up on it, some spray painting, and cut a piece of (replaceable) plywood to use as the base.

I might think about putting some kind of little low railing around it, but will see how it works first.

Oh, That front cross member is 1.5" square tube, the rest of the frame is 1.5" angle iron. It's the result of a bit of a miscalculation on how much angle iron I purchased, but if anyone asks, its because I was looking for a little more strength at the front.

If I didn't figure in the cost of the welder, The cost of the cart isn't all that bad...

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Nice work..

Made a lawn cart years ago with my buzz box Still works but I'd hate to show it.
Pretty bad.. Interesting thing is at the time the steel cost was 8.00 bucks.
:) :)
 
Looks great, the welder and the cart!

Make sure you put some holes in the cart bed to drain rain..... wait a minute, maybe you don't need that.... :D

Can that little welder weld aluminium? I bet with a different hose liner and some argon gas it could, just an option.
 
Looks great, the welder and the cart!

Make sure you put some holes in the cart bed to drain rain..... wait a minute, maybe you don't need that.... :D

Can that little welder weld aluminium? I bet with a different hose liner and some argon gas it could, just an option.


The manual seems to talk about welding aluminum, but it looks like you'd have to have a spool gun accessory at the end? Will do some more research.


All in all, I'm very pleased. Actually managed to do some welds that looked like real beads! Was very pleased about how fast this whole thing went together.
 
Well done Brent on both welder and cart.
I have had my eye on that specific welder for some time now. Until today with Bryan showing us his Tig.

Had to go to help out at the lions oyster dinner and only just got back but just before going i got into watching videos of Bryans welder and funny enough they had a few videos showing building a trailer. I watched to part 3 before i had to leave. Aint it uncanny that at that time u busy buying a welder and welding one together.

I am totally drawn now. I hear what Stu says but for me the logic of tig just fits my intuitive thought of how welding should be. Originates from soldering and brazing where one melts material into the joint.
I think i am going to first get some hands on somewhere before i pull the trigger.

You know i watched a couple of videos of the everlast tig welders and man those that Stu mentioned even though they a lot more money they neat machines.

One is a plasma cutter as well.

Man we need a welding forum here not just the cooking. :)

Oh how come u not thinking of cladding the ply base with some roof style zinc plated flashing. ?
Now u can think of welding parts onto Bob.
Hey how is BoB doing. You aint been showing us him at work. You been slacking or just not posting ;) :]

sent from s4
 
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I am totally drawn now. I hear what Stu says but for me the logic of tig just fits my intuitive thought of how welding should be. Originates from soldering and brazing where one melts material into the joint.
I think i am going to first get some hands on somewhere before i pull the trigger.

Definitely go give it a try first. Think of Mig as just automating the feeding of the filler material. I was so frustrated before. This was so much better. There were a few times where I could tell I was really getting it right. Working the wire into the puddle. Everything was really going just right. Of course I had a few other moments where it wasn't so good, but The welds should be good enough for a little garbage trailer...

Oh how come u not thinking of cladding the ply base with some roof style zinc plated flashing. ?
Now u can think of welding parts onto Bob.
Hey how is BoB doing. You aint been showing us him at work. You been slacking or just not posting ;) :]
sent from s4

The untreated OSB lasted 6 years out here. I think if I use some decent exterior grade plywood with some exterior paint, I'll be able to beat that by quite a bit!

I did use my old welder to weld some brackets on bob for some rear view mirrors.

I have a project in mind though in that regard that I might be working on soon.

Used bob just the other day to do some driveway maintenance, and to clear some brush. I probably use him a couple of times a month for 'stuff'...
 
TIG is great, but for basic steel it is S-L-O-W. The MIG welder is the way to go for steel from very thin to about 1/4" with a 220V unit. It is fast, set up is fast, clean up is fast and it makes good solid welds fairly easily. TIG is a LOT more set up, and welding time, yes is does more, but if most of your welding is going to be basic steel, then a MIG is the way to go. Spool guns are cheap now, and with that and a bottle of Argon gas you can easily weld aluminum with a good MIG.

Buy a good MIG first, YMMV :D
 
They need to add a bacon sent to the mig wire, if setup right it sounds like bacon sizzling, might make the whole experience even better.

Nice job on the cart, been thinking about building one for this next spring myself. So sounds like you need to build a new welder cart. might want to consider storage for the aluminum spool gun and a plasma cutter too. :D
 
Nice idea about the bacon scent Darren, but then I'd be hungry all the time and I'd never get any work done :D

Look at this deal >> Hobart Handler 190 With Spool Runner 100 <<

Says it does steel from 25ga to 5/16" and with the included spool gun aluminium from 16ga to 3/16". You would just need to add the gas bottles and go, this would do 98% of all the welding that most hobbyist would ever do, and you can do stainless with a MIG as well, you have to get yet another bottle of gas, a trimix and another roll of wire, but you can weld stainless steel too.

Get one of these Rob, get your feet wet, weld up a bunch of stuff quickly and easily, then if you REALLY want to TIG weld and don't need to do aluminium, get a cheap DC only TIG.

Just saying, if I could buy these machines at these prices without paying half again in shipping and having no warranty at all, I'd do so. Being in Japan, I went a different route, I had to, but you don't have to.

Just my two yen's worth :D

If you can get your hands on a good MIG and have someone show you how, you will be very happy with how easy it is to run a good bead, a good weld. The TIG will take you a lot more time to get anywhere near as good a weld. I'm not saying don't get a TIG welder, I'm saying get a MIG welder first.

Cheers!

YMMV!
 
Thanks Stu. This whole debate has helped clear thoughts very well. You very right about the speed aspect of Tig. It was one of the aspects i did observe in the various videos, also the need to keep a really steady hand has me concerned.
I like the comments/ reviews this Hobarts got. You sure manage to fish em out.
There are specific comments on this unit that address one concern i have encountered mentioned in many reviews of welders I have read over time. The aspect of wire feeder. On this one the reviews specificly mention how well it works.
I think you right, Mig makes sense for beginners.

sent from s4
 
brent if your going to use ply for your trailer get treated ply, and there are two grades of it around here, cd and bc the bc is much better ply.. and as for this welding disease, i have done a fair amount of it but never paid a lot of attention to the names.. started with gas like rob melting metal together with heat be it a forge process or a gas torch, then what i call stick welding with a ac and some dc ,, then was able to do some wire welding with the gas didnt like flux core wire at all.. so what is the difference between this tig and mig stuff? it was just called wire welding to me. and the wire came out with self propulsion which you could adjust the speed some,, and like darren says if you got ti right it sizzels.
 
Haven't looked into tig in years but unless it has changed you melt the two pieces of metal together adding filler rod as needed. (think brazing) mig spool of wire aim and shoot. As for my 2 cents worth if you don't have the time to get some schooling on tig than don't get one. Mig is way easier to self teach. unless you have a real good idea of whats supposed to be happening with a tig.
 
From what I understand, there is MIG welding, and there is flux cored wire welding.

The flux core wire doesn't need any gas, but it's a little dirtier and required a little more clean up work.

For MIG welding, you use solid wire, and reverse the polarity and you also use a shielding gas. Either plain C02 or an Argon/C02 blend.

I know yesterday I had a much easier time seeing the weld and working it with the solid core and the gas than I ever did with the flux cored wire.

The whole thing went together from concept to completion in just a matter of hours.
 
There are a couple of issues with mig.
It real easy to get nice looking welds that don't have any penetration...
It takes very little wind to take the shielding gas away.. a good place for the flux core version.

A good stick is hard to beat.....for a first welder. Even a AC only buzz box..

Garry
 
Probably depends on what types of projects you are working on.

For the kind of stuff I'm doing, clean metal, small fabrication projects in the shop, Sheet metal, I think the stick welder would be overkill.

Now welding up heavier duty frames, fixing machinery, I'd think stick would be the way to go.

There are a couple of issues with mig.
It real easy to get nice looking welds that don't have any penetration...
It takes very little wind to take the shielding gas away.. a good place for the flux core version.

A good stick is hard to beat.....for a first welder. Even a AC only buzz box..

Garry
 
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