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  • Broken Welding Carts and METRINCH Parts

    From Bob La Londe@21:1/5 to All on Wed Jul 31 16:48:05 2024
    I have two of the cheapo $50 Harbor Freight welding carts. They are NOT
    built to the same standards as their tool boxes. They do work mostly.
    I have a full size AHP TIG 200 on one with a tall (210CF?) argon
    bottle. The other came from my dad's shop with the Weldmark 187 (Hobart/Miller) MIG machine and a middle size C25 bottle. The wheels
    broke on mine.

    https://www.yumabassman.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/HF-Wheels.jpg

    I guess when they said it has a 100lb limit they meant it.

    I didn't have to unload it to fix it though. I just happened to have a
    couple wheels I saved off of something on the shelf that were the exact
    same size. One of my Vevor toe jacks lifted it up so I could replace
    the wheels without unloading the cart. Done.

    The cart that came from my dad's shop had loose casters. By loose I
    mean most of the bolts fell out, and the casters were hanging on by a
    thread. Literally.

    Okay, after fixing the one welding cart I decided to deal with the loose casters on the other one.

    I have some parts trays I bought years ago with hardware assortments in
    them. My thought was they were cheaper than the same/similar parts
    trays/racks empty. I figured even if I threw the hardware away the bins
    were worth it, and that was my plan. Rather than throw it all away
    though I doubled up the hardware from two tray racks into one. This left
    me with usable parts racks, and all the hardware. Sometimes I even use
    some of the hardware.

    Today I grabbed some 1/4-20 bolts, and some 1/4-20 nylocks out of the
    trays to replace the hardware on those welding cart casters. The nylock
    nuts take a nice standard 7/16 socket, but the bolt heads are 10mm. No.
    Not a sloppy inch measurement that a 10mm works on. The heads are a nice
    fit in a 10mm wrench.

    Here are some of the parts bins. I have 6 of these racks all together.
    They are every bit as durable as the Durham/Klein boxes they resemble,
    and they were a fraction of the price including the metrinch hardware.

    https://www.yumabassman.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/20240731_153655.jpg

    I have Durham boxes too. I am sure Durham made the Klein boxes. I also
    have one rack of Klein boxes. These "Olympia" boxes were probably made
    in China.

    Anyway, both welding carts are good to go again.


    --
    Bob La Londe
    CNC Molds N Stuff

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  • From Snag@21:1/5 to Bob La Londe on Wed Jul 31 19:02:20 2024
    On 7/31/2024 6:48 PM, Bob La Londe wrote:
    I have two of the cheapo $50 Harbor Freight welding carts.  They are NOT built to the same standards as their tool boxes.  They do work mostly. I have a full size AHP TIG 200 on one with a tall (210CF?)  argon bottle.
    The other came from my dad's shop with the Weldmark  187 (Hobart/Miller)
    MIG machine and a middle size C25 bottle.  The wheels broke on mine.

    https://www.yumabassman.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/HF-Wheels.jpg

    I guess when they said it has a 100lb limit they meant it.

    I didn't have to unload it to fix it though.  I just happened to have a couple wheels I saved off of something on the shelf that were the exact
    same size.  One of my Vevor toe jacks lifted it up so I could replace
    the wheels without unloading the cart. Done.

    The cart that came from my dad's shop had loose casters.  By loose I
    mean most of the bolts fell out, and the casters were hanging on by a thread.  Literally.

    Okay, after fixing the one welding cart I decided to deal with the loose casters on the other one.

    I have some parts trays I bought years ago with hardware assortments in
    them. My thought was they were cheaper than the same/similar parts trays/racks empty. I figured even if I threw the hardware away the bins
    were worth it, and that was my plan. Rather than throw it all away
    though I doubled up the hardware from two tray racks into one. This left
    me with usable parts racks, and all the hardware. Sometimes I even use
    some of the hardware.

    Today I grabbed some 1/4-20 bolts, and some 1/4-20 nylocks out of the
    trays to replace the hardware on those welding cart casters. The nylock
    nuts take a nice standard 7/16 socket, but the bolt heads are 10mm. No.
    Not a sloppy inch measurement that a 10mm works on. The heads are a nice
    fit in a 10mm wrench.

    Here are some of the parts bins. I have 6 of these racks all together.
    They are every bit as durable as the Durham/Klein boxes they resemble,
    and they were a fraction of the price including the metrinch hardware.

    https://www.yumabassman.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/20240731_153655.jpg

    I have Durham boxes too. I am sure Durham made the Klein boxes. I also
    have one rack of Klein boxes. These "Olympia" boxes were probably made
    in China.

    Anyway, both welding carts are good to go again.



    I have a few of those metrinch bolts on my '86 GMC pickup motor .
    3/8-16 threads and IIRC 15 MM heads . I exercise my cuss word vocabulary
    often when working on it .
    --
    Snag
    Illegitimi non carborundum

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  • From BobEngelhardt@21:1/5 to Bob La Londe on Thu Aug 1 09:03:57 2024
    On 7/31/2024 7:48 PM, Bob La Londe wrote:
    [...]
    Here are some of the parts bins. I have 6 of these racks all together.
    They are every bit as durable as the Durham/Klein boxes they resemble,
    and they were a fraction of the price including the metrinch hardware.

    https://www.yumabassman.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/20240731_153655.jpg
    [...]

    https://olympiatools.com/collections/storage/products/4-drawers-2500-hardwares-organizer

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  • From Bob La Londe@21:1/5 to BobEngelhardt on Thu Aug 1 11:19:36 2024
    On 8/1/2024 6:03 AM, BobEngelhardt wrote:
    On 7/31/2024 7:48 PM, Bob La Londe wrote:
    [...]
    Here are some of the parts bins. I have 6 of these racks all together.
    They are every bit as durable as the Durham/Klein boxes they resemble,
    and they were a fraction of the price including the metrinch hardware.

    https://www.yumabassman.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/20240731_153655.jpg >> [...]


    https://olympiatools.com/collections/storage/products/4-drawers-2500-hardwares-organizer

    Wow! Not counting any value of the hardware those are more expensive
    than a rack of Durham boxes.

    Mine were purchased many many years ago. There used to be a warehouse
    store called Max Club. Kinda like CostCo or Sam's Club. They had a lot
    of Olympia stuff in their aisles. I bought a bench grinder and a
    screwdriver tip driver set there that both turned out to be very good.
    I carried the tip driver set in my service truck for years, and I still
    have the bench grinder and still use it. I didn't buy the Olympia boxes
    there. Max Club went out of business and I saw Olympia stuff appear
    places like Heartland America and Sportmen's Guide. My dad actually
    pointed out the Olympia boxes to me as I already had Durham boxes and
    Klein boxes. The Olympia boxes are about half way between the large and
    the small Klein/Durham boxes for size. I seem to recall the Olympia
    rack and trays complete were about $70 ($68 something comes to mind)
    from one of those online/catalog sales companies. The Klein and Durham
    boxes were not much cheaper than they are today. It was a deal. I
    suspect after losing Max Club as an outlet Olympia was looking to dump
    excess inventory to raise revenue any place they could. Now I wish I
    had bought more of then, although to be fair I kind of under utilize
    them. Some have small bearings. Some have tube fittings. Some have
    cable connectors and fittings. Half of them still have the hardware
    that came in them.



    --
    Bob La Londe
    CNC Molds N Stuff


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