Project: Portable Planer Stand

[Matt Meiser]

Some will remember that I traded my 15" planer to a 12" planer and some cash to gain some space in my shop for other activities, one of which was doing some welding. Today I started a stand for the new planer.

For the time being, the planer had been sitting on one of those furniture dollies from Harbor Freight which actually was a nice size, but a little low to the ground. It also fit perfectly in a spot between some of my other tools. I kept the lenght of the cart and went from there. Since I had some 2" tube and some 1-1/2" angle, I used that. The castors were $4 each at Harbor Freight. I've used a number of these castors now and am very happy with them.

Still to complete is a plywood or MDF shelf for the bottom (between the legs) and painting. I think I'll paint the cart black since I already have plenty of black paint but I think I'll pick up something close to Dewalt yellow for the shelf to give it some color.

[Corey Hallagan]

Nice job Matt, looks great!

Corey

[Jim Becker]

You're certainly getting your money's worth out of that welder, Matt!! Nice job on the planer stand.

[Art Mulder]

Matt,

No locks on the casters? :confused:

[Joe Mioux]

Matt, that stand looks great!

[John Schreiber]

So what kind of wood is that? Looks too thin to give you much strength. The joints look strange too - excessive glue?

Just kidding. I always wanted to learn to weld. Maybe once I get this woodworking thing worked out.

[Matt Meiser]

Matt,

No locks on the casters? :confused:

No, I'll probably bend up some rod to fit under the castors for some wheel chocks. One locking castor would have cost more than I paid for all 4 of these.

[Matt Meiser]

I got home a little early today since I got up early to drive to a client site and was able to get some paint on the stand. I also made the shelf. I decied on edge banded melamine since I had a cutoff that was a perfect size. Only remaining item is some plastic caps for the ends of the open tubes on the bottom Have to find a source for those though.

[John Ricci]

Matt, nice work and thanks for a bit of inspiration. Now I have an idea what to do with my Delta lunchbox. BTW, what welder do you have?

J.R.

[Matt Meiser]

Matt, nice work and thanks for a bit of inspiration. Now I have an idea what to do with my Delta lunchbox. BTW, what welder do you have?

J.R.

I have a Hobart Handler 180 mig welder. My brother just got a HH140 which runs on 110 and he likes it as well.

[Joe Mioux]

I have a Hobart Handler 180 mig welder. My brother just got a HH140 which runs on 110 and he likes it as well.


Hi Matt, Do you ever wish you had a bit more powerful welder? I have looked at Millers in that amp range and just never could figure out if it would be the one I wanted are be under powered.

What is the recycle time on yours or doesn't that part matter much?

Joe

[Matt Meiser]

Mine has been plenty powerful enough for everything I've done so far which has been 1/4" or less, had access to both sides of the weld, or the complete penetration hasn't been that important (for example welding a piece of 3/8" plate to the top of a piece of 14ga tubing.) If I need to do really thick stuff, my dad has an arc welder I could use. I don't find that I'm welding that long to even come close to the duty cycle of mine. I metal work a lot like I wood work, that is I cut pieces for a subassembly, fit them up, weld (glue) them, then move on to the next subassembly. For example on this cart, I first cut and fit the four pieces for the top then welded them which was a total of about 18" of weld. Then I cut and prepped the legs and welded another 12" of weld and so on with at least a few minutes and usually more cooling time between.

Even when I was building a race car several years ago, I can't recall doing a ton of welding all at once. Probably the most I did was fully welding areas of the chassis that were spot-welding from the factory. Even then I was running at low power (sheet metal) and probably only welding 5-10" before having to move, prep, etc. That was with my dad's mig which is not as good quality of a machine as mine.

My brother will mainly be doing bicycle-related and decorative stuff (he's got an Industrial Design degree and designs bikes and bike parts for a living) so he will usually be doing 1/8" and thinner. He went to a local welding supply that carried Miller and Hobart--which are both owned by the same company and share some parts--and based on his use they told him the Hobart was a better value for him.