Propane Cart from Handtruck

[Chips O'Tool]

Propane is taking over as a cutting gas, but when I looked for an oxy-propane cart, I found nearly nothing available. Carts for acetylene generally won't work. I decided to make my own cart.

I bought a cheap handtruck. I had a big piece of plate lying around, so I cut the handtruck's platform off and replaced it with the larger plate. I bent some strips of 1" x 1/8" bar and welded them to the cart at appropriate heights. I put some tabs on the new platform to keep tanks from scooting around. I made attachment points for chains, and I attached them to the brackets. Then I painted the parts that had been stripped, using truck bed coating.

It's hard to see in the photo, but there is a bracket on the propane tank. There is no chain in the photo.

I didn't like the pneumatic wheels, because pneumatics are always flat when you need to use them. I bought two solid wheels at Harbor Freight. They needed some additional offset, so I made two steel spacers on the lathe.

The cart works fine, and the cost was well under a hundred bucks.