Building my angle iron frame.

[Iron John]

If your neighbor or your dad can help you select the correct setting for that MIG welder, you will find it extremely easy to learn to weld with it. Get some extra steel and build a couple of whatevers to practice welding. Then, tack your frame together and then, finish it up.

 

[GregMartin]

My dad has an arc welder that I have used a bit but i am not that great at welding neatly. I hear that it is a lot easyer to weld with a mig welder (wire welder). My neighbor has one that i could use its just i would have to learn how to use a wire fed welder.

I have a little gas-less MIG it's OK for sheet metal but I much prefer the Arc welder for anything that needs penetration.

A number of posts here have recommended fairly light gauge SHS to keep the weight down. The down side is that it is quite easy to blow holes in lighter gauge metal with the current turned up. And if you turn the current down to much the rod will want to stick. I built my gokart out of 25mm x 25mm x 2.5mm which is probably metric-ified 13 gauge thickness. With the 6.5HP clone this gokart has heaps of down low toque and is good for about 40mph. The kids had it out on the weekend and it was flying. Anyway my point is that in my particular case the heavier gauge steel did not seem to affect performance and it is a bit easier to weld especially if you are new to welding.

 

[Swabbster]

i built my frame from 20 feet, but used some angle iron for the steering support, so id buy 40, because you may mess up a few prices, my go kart i built i used 1x1 10 gauge (1/8") and it is not too heavy, princess auto sells 13-5-6 tires for 30 bucks, but you can get them on sale for 10 bucks, there a decent size, and you can find replacement tires real easy, id recommend a live rear axle, winter is coming!, and trust me 1 wheel drive is **** in the snow, you can also buy 145/70-6 knobby tires from princess auto and they fit the rims and give a ton of extra traction, you can get about 6 inches of ground clearence minus the brake a sprocket, they will sit a little low, if you want to use the 13-5-6 tires tell me and i will show how to lock them to an axle, my go kart was a real good size, a 5 foot person could ride it or a 6 foot tall person could ride it no problem, im about 5,10 or 5,11, fits me well, i can mesure it up if you want to build one kinda like mine,

 

[JCB003]

Mig welding is not that hard, stick takes a little more skill. A little practice and you can weld up a frame with a mig gun in no time. Mine took under 2 hrs to complete. I used 2 20' lengths of 1x1 tube mixed 11ga and 14ga and had may be 10' left over but my frame is real small. Draw it out and see what you come up with. Unless you want the satisfaction of doing it yourself check Craigslist, you might find a frame for less than the cost of materials without all the work.

 

[Iron John]

One of the skills you should practice is the art of intelligently estimating.

I would guess that your frame sits within a footpring that is 6 feet long and three feet wide. That adds up to 18 feet. So, one 20 foot stick will handle the perimeter of your frame with an allowance for waste.

Your steering column is probably no more than two feet high. Additional crossmember? Let's assume 3 at three feet each. Plus, maybe six feet for the seat frame. So, without bumpers or a roll bar, that's another 19 feet.

So, your starting point is two 20 foot sticks of tubing.

 

[qtband]

... I used 2 20' lengths of 1x1 tube mixed 11ga and 14ga .....

This is similar to what I did. Use the heavier stuff for the main frame and lighter stuff for steering column, seat frames etc. Just seems logical.