You Guessed it More Steel, A Table

Stuart Ablett

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Tokyo Japan
This welding table will be rather straight forward, following my Triple Stack Welding Cart the next thing to build is the welding table for my new metalworking area of my shop.

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It is all tacked together and ready for some welding.

It is upside down in the picture, you can see I set a caster on the bottom of one leg on the left side. The casters are 10cm tall and with the 9mm thick plate that I'll weld to the bottom of the leg along with a foot that will go down to lift the casters off the ground, the bottom rail of the table with a platform on it should be about the right height to be a good footrest while seated on a stool and welding on the table.

The five square tubes will be what support the table top, and I'll be able to insert fixtures into the open tubes, things like my vice, or my my roller. I was not sure which would work best, right, left or center, so I decided to put in five possible locations for fixtures to be inserted.

The top will be 6mm thick, that is the thickest plate I could find, as it is I had to buy a larger piece than I needed, and the home center I bought it from could not cut it. I bought the larger piece and then I bought the plasma torch to cut it to size. The piece if have is about 180cm by 90cm (3'x6'), I'm going to make the table top 135cm x 65cm (53"x25.5") that is about the largest table I could fit in there and still have the ability to move it around when I need to.

Lots of welding to do on this yet, and then I have to figure a way to attach the top to the table, I don't really want to weld it, I'm thinking something like bolts might be better?

Any idea on that front would be welcome!

I'm also toying with the idea of buying a second piece of plate and doubling up the two pieces to make a 12mm thick top, I read on this thread > HERE < on Welding Web, that is may not be such a crazy idea. I would think that for longevity a doubled up 6mm thick plate would last longer than just a single 6mm plate. That being said, the table top will have lots of support, so maybe I'm going overkill here?

Cheers!
 
A very patient person who tried to teach me to weld many years ago, finally said I should add welding to a list of things I could not do. So take my comments with that background.

Strength of materials class, last century, made a big point... if you have two layers of whatever, it will be twice as strong as one layer. But if you have one layer twice as thick, it will be 8 times as strong (thickness to the third power).

My workbench top consists of two layers of sheet goods, 3/4 thick, laminated together - I clamped it with temporary screws while the glue cured, but would now do it in a vacuum bag.

If you want the strength of a half inch of steel, you somehow need to make the two 1/4 inch thick layers act as a single sheet. Not knowing welding, can you tack them together over multiple points (like a series of spot welds?) . Or maybe a benchtop that is twice as strong as a 1/4 inch piece of steel is enough, and only need to be tacked or bolted at the edges.
 
If you are going to be using your table as a reference surface for assembly you might want it a bit thicker. I would be afraid that it would quickly warp if you tacked anything to it or welded anything close to it. Strange that you can't find thicker steel. I always think of Japan as a nation with significant industrial capability. Apparently not a lot of fab shops or welding shops around? Maybe I'm spoiled because there are several steel suppliers within an hours drive. My welding table is just a HF hydraulic lift table with a slab of 1/2" plate on it. I think it cost about $80 cut to size. It's so heavy I haven't seen the need to fasten it down...yet.
 
I personally would just use one layer and use the rest for another project. Of course it depends on how much you'll beat on the surface. I've only got a 1/4" plate on my table and it's held up well without any warping, even when I have hammered on it. You mostly want a large flat conductive surface to work on. The things that will warp it is heavy hammering on it or heat. Tacking down pieces for jigs usually won't generate enough heat to cause warping at that thickness.
 
My welding table is just a HF hydraulic lift table with a slab of 1/2" plate on it. I think it cost about $80 cut to size. It's so heavy I haven't seen the need to fasten it down...yet.

And here I was wishing for a welding table, but apparently, I've recently acquired one! A HF Hydraulic lift table.... Now off to get a slab of steel plate.:thumb:
 
Weld tabs on the underside so the tabs fit on the inside of the front and back (no movement). Then when the top gets damaged/used up, turn it over, cut off the tabs, weld them on the old topside and flip. Clear as mud?
 
Weld tabs on the underside so the tabs fit on the inside of the front and back (no movement). Then when the top gets damaged/used up, turn it over, cut off the tabs, weld them on the old topside and flip. Clear as mud?

That is a great idea Jonathan, thanks!

OK this is what I've come up with for an idea for the feet, I saw something similar, I cannot remember where, but I liked it, so I made my own version....


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I'll first make a plywood template on my CNC wood carving machine and use that with the plasma torch to cut these out.


I think it would work well, I'd cut down the ends of the the leveling feet bolts. and weld a nut on them, then I just put a socket on my impact driver to raise and lower the table so it will be on or off the casters.


Here is the table all welded up....
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I still have to cut down the large plate for the top, that is the next big thing to do, then I'll use the off cuts to make the foot cantilevers.


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The smaller piece of plate I was using as a welding table before.


So any thoughts on the foot cantilevers?


Cheers!
 
Like Charlie, a skilled and patient person finally gave up and declared that I "weld like a pigeon". I used to hard-face dozer blades in the field but, that hardly requires much skill. Your table looks great and should serve you well.
 
Like Brent, I posted a thread that didn't get much response and that table/lift design was in it. Like that idea and it is definitely heavy duty. Could do it with one jack if you pinned the legs, released the jack and moved the jack to the other end.
 
Like Brent, I posted a thread that didn't get much response and that table/lift design was in it. Like that idea and it is definitely heavy duty. Could do it with one jack if you pinned the legs, released the jack and moved the jack to the other end.

:thumb:

I knew I saw it somewhere around here. Just couldn't find it. I really like that idea, as it looks heavy duty and really simplifies the whole thing.
 
OK, I'm getting ready to cut down my plate to size for my bench.....

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I'll pull it out of the alcove a bit to get better access but the cutting shall begin!

..............

And the top is now cut!

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... there was much rejoicing!

I proceeded to cut out a template for making the foot cantilevers. I used some 6mm thick plywood.

The first one was a bit rough, I admit......
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But they got mostly better as I used the plasma torch more.....

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I cut our a total of nine, but the first one was too rough.

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So those pieces are basically done.

The plywood template on first inspection looks like it did well enough....

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...but when you flip the template over....


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Yeah, that is not very good.

Now most of this is my fault, not handling the torch skillfully, and as the template took minutes to make and I knew it was going to be a throw away piece, I think it worked well enough.

Cheers!
 
Except for the paint, the table is done!


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I did weld the top on with two short welds on each tube under the table top, not a lot, but enough to keep it from rattling.


It ended up being fairly flat, for what it is.
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The worst dip I could find in the table is 10 thou, certainly not flat, but I think flat enough for this table.


I also got the feet done.


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Here is one welded up next to the cardboard mockup I made.


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I ended up putting the feet on the corners so to speak, I think it worked out well.


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There it is.


I need to next build the removable vice mount and a removable grate that will be used for the plasma torch. I also want to make a pull out drawer that will set under the plasma cutting grind to catch most of the spray that comes off the cool cutting tool.


Thanks for all the feedback.


Cheers!
 
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