the battery tray on my new/used welder was missing when i got it. i went to miller looking for a new one, but they can suck an rotten egg if they think i am going to spend $197 for one.
so i am making one. 3 foot of 1 1/2 inch angle iron, and a 14 5/8 inch piece of flat stock. it is welded up, now letting it cool off so i can grind the welds flush, drill and tap mounting holes, and paint.



total invested so far: $8 for the angle iron, 1/4 gallon of gas for the welder, 1 6011 rod, 30 minutes setup time and 10 minutes weld time. flat stock was pulled out of the cut off pile, and paint is a can off the shelf. .

 

Hey, I will let you come build a tray for the battery in my Ex!


You gonna post a pic when its all done?

 

nope!!!

 

i had to use one regular 1/4 20 bolt and washer because i could only find 3 stainless ones.
only fatality was after i took the battery out of the gas welder and decided to use the leftover angle iron to hold the battery side to side.
took it inside and fired up the lincoln 215 powermig.
i still am not used to using this machine and all its idiosyncrasies, and proceded to shoot the red hot mig wire trough my finger because dumb *** was not wearing the welding gloves that were sitting in my lap.
i ended up cutting 1 1/4 inch of the housing out that was bent up to make the larger battery fit because someone put a $55 group 86 car battery in it instead of a $110 group 85 welder battery .
all in all i am happy with the results, the battery is now secure and it is a much cleaner setup than the paper thin aluminum metal you can see in the first 3 pics that he had holding it in.

 

I like the attention to detail on the radius'd corners---nice touch.

Something about a DIY piece that exceeds the needs, is about $185 less than an off-the-shelf part that's probably barely adequate at best.

Cool project!

 

the radius corners were an unintended result of bending the steel.
i took the cut off of the angle iron and traced an inverted 90 on the inside where i wanted to male the corner and used the plasma cutter to cut the wedge out.
then clamped the angle in the 50 lb vice and used a 5 lb lump hammer to cold roll the metal to make the corner.

yesterday was a beautiful low humidity cool low pain day so i was able to move pretty freely without too much discomfort.
today on the other hand was a miserable hot humid sticky day, and i was in so much pain i was barely able to get in and out of the truck for work.

even when parts are readily available, i like to make them myself because i tend to overbuild, so i know it will outlast anything i will ever be able to buy.

 

That's the next tool on my list, an engine driven welder. I've seen a couple diesel Millers, gotta love the low fuel consumption. The Trailblazer I used to run was a bit thirsty, though, especially when burning through 5/32" rod.

 

one day i will find a diesel powered welder with a 10K generator capacity like the bobcat has.
the 20 HP onan is a good engine, just thirsty as you pointed out.
the bluestar has a 16HP single cylinder tecumseh in it. it actually welds better than the bobcat,
but it only has a 2,000 watt 110 volt generator capacity. and i use these machines more for the genset than for the welder.
with my parents being in their mid 80's and dad being on oxygen feed 24-7 after the stroke last year,
i need to have a dependable generator ready to go in case of a power failure,
seeing as they only have a 3 hour bottled oxygen supply on hand and only get delivery once a week.
as it is now i have a small unit with a 6 gallon boat tank hooked to it over there just to run the O2 generator,
which worked out good since there was a car that took down a pole sunday night and power was out for 6 hours.

i have a 5k gas unit i am going over and converting to natural gas that is almost ready to go.
all i need to do is finish the electric start and transfer switch, then it is getting installed so there will be one less thing i have to worry about over there.

 

Cool project Tom. Always good to be able to make what you need. If I remember right they quit making the bobcats. All the mechanics at work liked them for there generator cause they didn't have to ideal up when using them as a generator. Correct me if I'm wrong on that.

 

you can use a bobcat as a genset at idle, but it will only make minimal power like for running a grinder or something small. for the full 10k power output, you need to run wide open and use 1 GPH of fuel.
but that is still better than the old 1956 10K onan i have, that uses just about 2 GPH.

 

Yeah they mostly just ran a couple light off of it. So that makes sense.