Repurpose 'new' grocery cart into cart for mig welder.

- New grocery cart, intended to get groceries from the drive way to house easier. Good idea just proved more of a hassle than worth though. 1 having to go to house to get, then loading, then dragging thru gravel driveway, then because of porches either lifting up steps (once)- or usually walking in and out back door to retrieve groceries from parked cart. It folds flat but still takes up a bit of room when stored. I think she used it for a couple of weeks and it got stuck in the shed.

Well sometime later after getting my mig welder I started designing a cart for it. I wanted to build one but just kept putting off. But needing to use welder one day out in the drive I need something to secure bottle. Pulled out the cart, loaded everything into it rolled out to drive. Carried the welder out and sat on top. Hey that works. After completing welding task I revisited building needed cart

However as the grocery cart worked I looked to see what it would take to utilize. With welder on top it fits the area I want to park it. The welders feet pretty snugly capture top hoops of cart, balance is good for tilting over onto wheels. Size is good, will hold both the bottles, spool gun case. So started welding on it to make non collapsing



Spent an hour tack welding everywhere one piece of bar or tube touched another. Significantly stiffened. Tacked on empty wire spool for cords and hoses. Bent a couple of hoops to contain the bottles at mid point. Dropped the bottles in but decided I needed a tray for stuff. The bottles stick up a bit too high so made 2 drop pockets in bottom . Kinda see in the picture. Simply bent hoops out of 1/8" round. tack to bottom, cut out bars inside circle and tacked to another hoop. Cut a bunch of short pieces of bar, tacked to hang lower hoop. Made the 3 sided tray shelf that basically sets there.



The Argon bottle doesn't get changed often so its under the welder to allow both bottles and weight over main wheels. Cut out a section of one side to slide spool gun case inside. To secure the welder tacked on a couple of old 1/4 turn turnbuckle clamps, one in front and one in back.

It works well and have been using for several years. Fun project. Pretty self contained and easy to use. Still doesn't like the gravel due to smallness of wheels but I imagine sooner than later they will get changed. Mostly because the axle is not dealing well with the weight, have to be carefully dropping off steps etc. However at that point I will likely build cart. Though a nicer one with more functions/storage is planned it will be hard to duplicate or surpass the mobility of this 'temporary pile.

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