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====== Kayak Cart from a Treadmill ====== I recovered a treadmill that thrown out alongside I40 and decided to bring it home. I wanted to build a cart to hold my 2 kayak that would roll up underneath my porch and be ease to pull back out again and this looked like a great source of tube steel. {{ :kayak_cart_1.png?200 |}} I started by cutting it up with an angle grinder and finding the pieces I wanted to use. {{ :kayak_cart_2a.png?200 |}} Having never welded anything before, I started with a 220V 50amp stick welder I borrowed from my neighbor. I quickly found that it couldn't be set it low enough to keep from burning right through the thin metal. So I convinced myself that I could afford to buy a small MIG welder. I bought a Hobart Handler 140 from Tractor Supply. Its a 115V welder and can work on much thinner material. {{ :kayak_cart_2b.png?200 |}} The handle and pull bar attached to the front (left of picture below) were also found along side I40. As was the pipe I have at the top separating the 2 vertical posts. I re-purposed the treadmill arm pads and rubber tread-guides to cushion the kayaks against the hard metal. {{ :kayak_cart_3.png?200 |}} I bought the wheels off Craigslist, 7 wheels for $14, luckily 4 of them held air. {{ :kayak_cart_4.png?200 |}} Other than the wheels and a few nuts and bolts for the axles (which I had left over from my deck build), I found all the parts this this. It needs a coat of paint and some caps for the ends of the tubes, but those can wait for warmer weather.
