Mobile welding table

[Andy1969]

Just finished the mobile welding table I致e been planning on building for a while. Still have to drill and tap the top so I can easily mount and dismount my vise.

 

[HCJtractor]

Very nice. I wondered why you mounted the top rails (angle iron) “upside down” but it dawned on me that it was probably to facilitate using clamps. I always have trouble clamping on the edge. Good idea!

 

[Andy1969]

Yes primarily for clamping options around the perimeter. I left the top plate outboard of the top rail by an inch. That plus the open end of the channel gives me good real estate for clamps. Plus it gave me more surface for the welded joints at the channel leg interface. I’ll let you know how it works once I start my next project. It will be nice to finally have a decent work surface instead of cobbling everything up every time I build something.

 

[flyerdan]

Looks good, I would recommend that you weld the nuts to the bottom of the table so the vice can come off with a few blasts of an impact gun if the room is needed. Also, I'd weld in some studs so an angle iron fence could bolt up to one of the edges to clamp to and get square from, that could be dropped if overhang required it.

 

[Andy1969]

I’m going to drill and tap the top itself so no nuts are needed because I do want to be able to remove the vise when needed easily. As for squaring up things, I made the top absolutely square. So I use it for a guide in that regard I think. I may make removable guides that would be aligned with dowel pins so I could take them on and off without having to re-square. Will have to live with it for a while to see what else might be useful.

 

[davedj1]

Another suggestion is to drill some random holes and tap them in the center (ish) of the table, you never know when you will need to hold something down while working on it.

 

[Andy1969]

That’s a great idea. I’m borrowing a magnetic drill press this weekend to drill and tap the the mounting holes for the vise. While I’m at it I’ll lay out some more like you suggest and do those while I have use of it. Will certainly come in handy. Thanks for the idea!

 

[metalbender]

Nice solid table. When I built mine a few years ago I had the top laser cut and slots similar to the Miller portable table also laser cut. Top is 3/8 thick. Sure is nice to have a square top to clamp to.

 

[Andy1969]

Yeah I got a super deal on 1/2 diamond plate so that痴 what the top is made out of (flipped over with the diamond side down). I致e attached this photo of the underside showing the structure I built to make the top as stiff and flat as I could. I agree have a flat and square surface to use as a datum to build things on will make future projects much nicer.

 

[BukitCase]

Depending on whether the mag drill you borrow (may or may NOT already have a 3-jaw chuck option) and how MANY holes you want, there are annular tap drill sizes too - I have 2" depth cutters that're tap drills for 1/2-13, 5/8-11 and 3/4-10; there are also others for 1/2, 9/16, 5/8, 11/16 and up in both coarse AND fine thread.

Here's the 5/8-13 annular tap drill,
Evolution CC17/32L 17/32-Inch Diameter x 2-Inch Depth of Cut Cyclone High Speed Steel Annular Cutter - Hole Saw Arbors - Amazon.com
it's actually 17/32" - IMO, your tolerance for drudgery may dictate whether it's worth $30 in order for each hole to take you about 30 SECONDS to drill or not (vs. maybe 6-10 TIMES that) - personally, I'm gettin' too old to think drilling big holes in steel is fun unless it's FAST - YMMV

BTW, nice table - they sure beat layin' crap out on the FLOOR :thumbsup: ...Steve