I was going to mount my new welder to a trailer but decided that building a skid to put in the truck or a trailer or just drag it around would be a better idea, and much cheaper in material.

I had some time this morning to hit the steel yard so I picked up two stick of 2x2 14ga sguare tubing to start on the skid, I have this nice big welding table to lay everything out on and get to work, but thanks to my mechanic I had to lay it out and square it all up and tack it together on the floor.



Made do with what I had and got to work. Started with the frame then went back in and added the cross bars to bolt the welder to then one more in the middle. Mounted the welder and marked the holes and where I wanted the vertical bar. Then decided to add another vertical bar and the horizontal one to hold the oxy/acetylene tanks to.












Hopefully tomorrow I can finish up most of it. To hold the base of the tank, I thought I had a perfect size pipe that I could cut six inches off and the tanks could set in the base but the pipe id is 8 inches and the tanks od are about 8.25. So I will have to split the pipe and spread it out some.

The only thing I am still trying to figure out is what I want to do to hold the top of the tanks, anyone got some ideas? also I am going to build basically a ski for both long sides of the frame so I can drag it around if I need to. Also it will give me about a four inch gap from the bottom of the frame to the skid so I can get it with a forklift. Would you use pipe or square tube to build a ski?

More to come tomorrow hopefully.

Walter

I still have the heavy plastic one mounted from the day I bought mine LOL

We still have the wood one on our hobart for the rental yard it came on too. But I wanted to have the cutting torch on as well and still need to figure something out for some lead reels and what to do there. Buying them are crazy expensive so I might end up building them too.

Walter

I need one like that to hold a Miller Bobcat welder, welding cable reels, gas bottle holder + hose reel. Would also need to be forklift accessible from both directions with captive slots. If you decide to make a second one let me know.

This will be able to be picked up with a forklift from all sides. Off the bottom of the frame I will make a 4inch gap and there will be a ski basically on the bottom so I can drag it around. Kind of hard to explain but I will post of some more pictures as I go. So far the only thing I have bought it two sticks of tubing Cost about 100 bucks. Most of the other material I have laying on my scrap pile.

The only thing I am having a problem with is the lead reels. To buy a decent two or three reel setup is 350 to 500 dollars. So I am thinking about making my own. Once I get it all done I will see what all I got in it and see when I would have some time to build another one.

Walter

Walter, on my trailer, I just used a couple of steel wheel rims for the cable, works great without a tight radius bend. May not be "fancy" enough for the rig you're building LOL

Yeah I thought about something like that but it sure would be nice to just turn a handle a pull it all back in, instead of having to wind it around every time.

Walter

Walter you need to come see my rig. Or text me tomorrow and I'll send you some pics. I used a piece of 2 3/8" standing vertical behind the tanks. Cut a piece of 2 7/8" 2" long, drill a hole and weld a nut or tap the hole. Get a bolt and weld a tee handle to it or keep a wrench handy. Then I made a tear drop out of 11 ga plate. Where the blunted point welds to the 2 7/8" in the center of the teardrop cut out a circle that fits over the threaded portion of the tank. Stand the tank, slid the tear drop over it, tighten ths bolt that presses onto the 2 3/8" pipe, add the regulator.

If you're gonna make skis use round pipe, thin tubing will wear through quick. I wouldn't recommend dragging it much. But on pavement it will have less friction than square or rectangle tubing.

Don't make a wind up! You'll eventually hate it. A 15" wheel with the center cut out or some big pipe laying flat on the deck will let you coil your leads into it and when you need them out just take off walking. I built reels, but ir took a ton of time.

Thanks Jason. I won't be dragging it much as it will either be on a trailer or truck. But if I just need to move it around the shop or something and one of the forklifts aren't there it would make it pretty nice. I was thinking the same on using pipe instead of the square tube the the skis. Should have got some when I was at the steel yard. I got some in the scrap pile but it is all 6 inch plus... I'll shoot you a txt tomorrow for some pics. I think I got a pretty simple design laid out for the the tank holders will just see what comes of it tomorrow.

Walter

Lol. I misread the title. I was thinking ok your are going to build a skid for skid steer this should be interesting. And it's only Tuesday.

Looks great

I owe you $100 for a torch and here you are paying retail for tubing!?

It was a last minute deal. Had the chance to work on it today so I hit the steel yard. Luckily it was only two sticks so they didn't kill me too bad. The way things were going I didn't know when I would get around to working on it but made some time.

Walter

Jason, please post a picture of your tank mount. I have a dedicated trailer for my welder, but haven't figured out a good way to set up the tanks. Thanks!

Got the plate and start of the first tank holder started. The pipe is about right inch id. Too small so I had to split it and weld it in.

One tank holder down.

Here's what I was trying to explain. The 1 1/2" angle iron the tanks sit in eliminates me having to bear hug them and lift them more than 1 1/2".

Two semi-circles cut out of a piece of plate to capture the top of the tanks. They're butted up to the bacl of the welder so it will heat them up and I can get all of the acetylene out.

Looks good Jason. I'm trying to use what I got laying around. Here is the top support for the oxy tank.

Oxygen tanks are laying in two strips of angle iron making a track to slide them in and out. The hoses run under the deck and come back together at the rollups. Those are getting replaced with hose reels.

Got both tank holders done now to figure out what to do with my leads and build some skis.

Jason if you would shoot a picture of what you did with your leads that would be awesome.

Walter

Unscrew the handle from the inside and screw it in the outside.

Once the lead is off plug in a pigtail from the welder to the spool. These tool quite a bit of time, I don't know if you want to go through all that. Like I told you yesterday, one of the fasted and useful methods is a wheel with the center cut out so you can coil the leads into it. Your call.

Cut some tubing and notched it then bent for the ski. I was going to use pipe but had just enough tube left so I decided to use it instead of going to the steel yard.



One down one to go.




Got them both bent and all welded out.



All that is left is to decided what to do about the lifting point. This is what I have.



Not sure if I want to keep this and gusset it. Or change it. Not sure how much I trust it being picked up by that.


Still to do is add four tie down point on the corners the tank cables so they don't fall out and decide what I want for reels then paint.

Walter