I'll just put it together now and paint it next week when I have time...

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That project I built 3 years ago is looking a bit rough, I need to replace it.

This looks incredible! You did a great job

There are some exceptionally good hobbyist grade welders available for dirt cheap.

Well duh. Of course it. This is DIY sub....

Getting your supplier to do it on the shear like you did is a better way, for sure.

Just pointing angle grinder is all you need for the score and bend method. May actually save time in so far as it saves fit-up, but the cutting is a bit of a pain. Though on 1/8 it should be fairly quick

This is incredibly important, but so easy for hobbyists to overlook. I had been buying metal at hardware stores and online for a while (I wasn't using much thankfully). I wanted to build a nicer welding table and needed thicker metal than I could find at usual sources. I tracked down an metal supplier locally. They cut some of the pieces to size for me and then helped load the plate into my truck. I went to pay and was bracing myself for the total. It was about 1/5 of what I was expecting. I was amazed at how much I had been overpaying. They get all my business now.

Ding ding ding

... that's how it starts

Cutting all that by hand doesn't really cut down on time and effort.

This is really great! I signed up for a welding class and will see if I can use this as my project, thanks for sharing the idea!

Wife did not want it painted. Wanted "rustic". We will see how it does through the winter. Will paint it next year if need be.

Thanks! It was a fun learning experience.

For sure. Doing it this way let me do most of the work in my basement shop and then bring everything up for final assembly.

If you really are making more, the inside of the hexagon could share walls, basically would reduce your material use by three pieces. Looks good!

That was a fun sequence of pictures. Well done!

I feel your pain!

I have the same cart. I'm pretty sure it's significantly cheaper than the material for a DIY one.

I figured I was way overdoing it by welding the entire seam, but it was as much about getting the practice (first real welding project) as anything.

Why wouldn’t something in your stomach enter your bloodstream ?

You know , like caffeine and alcohol and protein and everything else that’s in your stomach ?

Either way , be very careful welding galvanized steel .

The fumes will fuck you up.

You just need a big rolling pin, use a 4x8 sheet of plywood as your rolling surface and you've got hexagonal pizza sized cookies before you know it.

This post has me seriously considering dipping my toe into welding, like I need more hobbies..

Great work!

All we ever had here was yellow jackets and spiders.

My dad also made a forge for relatively cheap. From there collecting scrap metal that people throw away or that you salvage from broken things becomes a hobby in and of it’s self.

I learned my lesson with expired caulk several years ago

Nice work.

FYI for the future though, 3 - 1" long welds along each of those seams would have been more than enough. If you wanted to make them all look uniform just grind the welds down and apply a small bead of black or grey polyurethane caulk down the seam.

It's awesome! I love it. Great work.