New Welding/Shop Table Ideas

[Scooby074]

Dont put the recept in the top. Metal shavings are bad

i wired mine under the edge of the top so its close by but out of harms way

]Leave a lip around the top for clamps

Casters are ok. Just get good ones with brakes or add table brakes to yours. THe inertia of a heavy table will help.

Mines probably 5x6 of 3/8 plate. Plus the legs are heavy wall. I also store all my short steel on the table so im guessing it weighs at least 900 lbs.

I welded several 2" receiver tube around the perimeter to make for modular attachments. My large vise, bender, anvil are all mounted to 2" tube. I can move them around or remove them for storage as needed.

sorry I dont have any good pics on my comp. This is the best i have.

 

[Starman354]

I got two roll around welding tables and one 5foot x10 foot 1/2
plate.table it stays put .Nice to have more than one.

 

[jayste]

I got two roll around welding tables and one 5foot x10 foot 1/2
plate.table it stays put .Nice to have more than one.

Starman, nice BIG shop. Tables look very funtional. I'd like to have similar vices and anvils. I'm assuming that's a cannon you've got there. Tell us about it.

Jay

 

[Starman354]

Starman, nice BIG shop. Tables look very funtional. I'd like to have similar vices and anvils. I'm assuming that's a cannon you've got there. Tell us about it.

Jay

Jay its a 20 pounder that was in my shop for engraving of all
its proper markings ,its new and I make it look old for the owner.
Have been re-engraving some big guns ,one the guy had a
armed gaurd to watch over his while I worked on it
it was worth 2 million. No room for any mistakes , takes a lot of
nerves and years of practice I make it look EZ but its trickey.
The photos are of the exploding bullet ,the guy had made ,It's
a rich guys hobby as you can see .

 

[MRCONCDID]

Well I didn't get as far as I wanted to but here are some pics so far



the first its all tacted and square
the other if finished welded and set up right
next sand it down and add the swing out seat and wire mesh for the shelf then paint it, I will not paint the top

 

[Scooby074]

Well I didn't get as far as I wanted to but here are some pics so far
View attachment 144231

View attachment 144232
the first its all tacted and square
the other if finished welded and set up right
next sand it down and add the swing out seat and wire mesh for the shelf then paint it, I will not paint the top

looks good so far. Are you going to put casters on it?

Yeah dont paint the top of a welding table for obvious reasons. A sanding disk on a grinder will fix it up nice.

 

[Gary Fowler]

One thing no one has mentioned is putting some inverted into a V shape angle on each of the long sides of the table. We do all our fabrication tables this way. handy to hold pipe or angle in for marking or welding. Also gives a good place to clamp your welding ground so the whole table is grounded if you need to. Stitch weld the angle along the top of the vee to the top and bottom edge of the table top. If you want to heavy load it like with a cannon, put some diagonal braces under the angle down to the legs. Depending on the size of your work pieces use 2x2 up to 6x6" angle 1/4 to 3/8" thick. 6x6 angle will hold a 12" or larger pipe safely. We weld 2" pipe under neath to put in some 1.5" pipe standards like trucker use if the pipe gets too large to safely set in the angles so it makes a larger V. You can also build a V shaped piece that can wedge into this pipe to help hold the material steady in the angle or build a fold over pipe vise out of plate and some long thread bolts

 

[MRCONCDID]

could you take a pic of where your angle is in relation to the table I am really lost on your suggestion.
something I want to add to the table is a set of rollers something I can set a piece of tube between them weld as I roll/spin it for a continious bead.
Thanks for all the input:

 

[david sharpley]

If you dont want splater stickin to your table spray it with PAM it is allso a good drilling lube and makes carbide blades cut aly like butter

 

[kimberly187]

You can also build a V shaped piece that can wedge into this pipe to help hold the material steady in the angle or build a fold over pipe vise out of plate and some long thread bolts

 

[AKwelder]

we have many tables at work, every time there is a project or such we ship one to the job site. of these tables some are great and others are junk. A couple have so much stuff there is no room to work. but here are a couple neat items on them

-all have cross bars close to the floor so they be jacked up and moved with a pallet jack, or fork lift. and tied down for trailers for moving
-on the feet there are screws that allow you to level the table and get rid of any wobble
- an angle iron gutter around the perimeter that drains into a bucket for tables that we work on oily parts with
-a swing out grate type cutting table (swings under table when not in use
- tapped holes for adding clamps and such
- a angle iron edge that lets you set in pipe or round items
- two pieces of steel set 90 degrees apart for setting fab
-on thick plate we have metal dog holes for holding down work
- 2 inch receiver pockets for accesories
-outlets and lights attached by pipe tapped into the top
- a quick disconnect for the welder bolted to the table (tweco?)
- a reinforced bottom to stop warping from heat and welding, sounds silly but 1/2 inch plate will warp after heat and cooling several times
- a lower shelf off a leg that supports the vise ( it is nice to keep as much as possible off the top for fab work
- the lower shelf under the table made from expanded steel, this stops the build up of dust and dirt.
- if wheels are mounted use removable wheels, jack up the table and bolt or slide in place
- one table has a trailer axle and tongue, just jack up and mount tires, and away you go, but no lights

I have a small table, rolls through a door. made from 30 by 48 of 3/8 plate that has threaded legs and breaks down to be put in the truck


good luck

 

[glh]

we have many tables at work, every time there is a project or such we ship one to the job site. of these tables some are great and others are junk. A couple have so much stuff there is no room to work. but here are a couple neat items on them

-all have cross bars close to the floor so they be jacked up and moved with a pallet jack, or fork lift. and tied down for trailers for moving
-on the feet there are screws that allow you to level the table and get rid of any wobble
- an angle iron gutter around the perimeter that drains into a bucket for tables that we work on oily parts with
-a swing out grate type cutting table (swings under table when not in use
- tapped holes for adding clamps and such
- a angle iron edge that lets you set in pipe or round items
- two pieces of steel set 90 degrees apart for setting fab
-on thick plate we have metal dog holes for holding down work
- 2 inch receiver pockets for accesories
-outlets and lights attached by pipe tapped into the top
- a quick disconnect for the welder bolted to the table (tweco?)
- a reinforced bottom to stop warping from heat and welding, sounds silly but 1/2 inch plate will warp after heat and cooling several times
- a lower shelf off a leg that supports the vise ( it is nice to keep as much as possible off the top for fab work
- the lower shelf under the table made from expanded steel, this stops the build up of dust and dirt.
- if wheels are mounted use removable wheels, jack up the table and bolt or slide in place
- one table has a trailer axle and tongue, just jack up and mount tires, and away you go, but no lights

I have a small table, rolls through a door. made from 30 by 48 of 3/8 plate that has threaded legs and breaks down to be put in the truck


good luck

i like the idea of a swing out grate type cutting table
but if you had 2 inch receiver pockets for accesories i think i would just
make my grated cutting table to go into two receiver pockets.
one on ether side of the table and take my time and make it level with the top of the table with 0 movement to extend the table if needed (kinda like a table saw would have)
i also dont think i would be using my welding table to work on anything that would spill enough oil out of it that i need a gutter to drain it into a bucket
ether way you will need to really clean the table good before welding or cutting anything. im thinking if you didnt that would be a big hot fire or at least a lot of smoke when burns the oil
but thats just my way of thinking
i helped a friend of mine make a small welding table (about 36x42 i think )and so it would be able to move easy we made so the tires were just touching the ground alittle ways past the legs on one side and on the other side we welded 2 short pipes one on both legs so he could slid another pipe into them and lift witch it would rock back on to the tires to roll the wheels were off of a dolly it seemed to work good as long as both tires had enough air. if only one had enough air it would just go around in circles. lol
i think he changed the tires to a hard tire after trying to show it off and not being able to move it coz of flat tire after bragging about it so much lol
gary...

 

[Runner]

MRCONCDID

Your table is looking great. I was interested in this thread because I am currently building a welding table myself. For my top, I'm using a 51" x 60" piece of 3/8" checkerplate steel that was left in my barn by the previous owner. I will mount it with the checkerplate side down and the smooth side up.

I decided early on to mount it on some type of casters, but have been wrestling with several issues. I originally wanted some type of casters with brakes, but they seem to be super expensive and I'm not sure that just locking casters would prevent movement of the table.

Also, I had a nice set of 4" cast iron casters "in stock" so I decided to go with those, although they don't have brakes. Therefore, I have been kicking around a thousand ideas for some type brake system to hold the table in place.

I think I have settled on the idea of mounting a couple of scissors jacks under the table so that when I get it where I want it, just crank the handle until they make contact with the floor. I'm not really worried about leveling, just want to keep it from moving. Not really sure how well this will work, but if it doesn't, I'll just unbolt them and try something else. The scissors jacks were $10 apiece from HF.

I'm still in my material gathering stage and will probably begin assembly within the next week. I'm using 2x2 tubes for the legs and 1 1/2x1 1/2 tubes for the horizontal pieces. It will have two shelves, one about 8 inches below the top for tools and another 6 inches off the floor for bigger stuff. The top will have 4" overhang on all sides.

Here is the top being carried to my work area for some clean-up work.

 

[dcyrilc]

MRCONCDID

Your table is looking great. I was interested in this thread because I am currently building a welding table myself. For my top, I'm using a 51" x 60" piece of 3/8" checkerplate steel that was left in my barn by the previous owner. I will mount it with the checkerplate side down and the smooth side up.

I decided early on to mount it on some type of casters, but have been wrestling with several issues. I originally wanted some type of casters with brakes, but they seem to be super expensive and I'm not sure that just locking casters would prevent movement of the table.

Also, I had a nice set of 4" cast iron casters "in stock" so I decided to go with those, although they don't have brakes. Therefore, I have been kicking around a thousand ideas for some type brake system to hold the table in place.

I think I have settled on the idea of mounting a couple of scissors jacks under the table so that when I get it where I want it, just crank the handle until they make contact with the floor. I'm not really worried about leveling, just want to keep it from moving. Not really sure how well this will work, but if it doesn't, I'll just unbolt them and try something else. The scissors jacks were $10 apiece from HF.

I'm still in my material gathering stage and will probably begin assembly within the next week. I'm using 2x2 tubes for the legs and 1 1/2x1 1/2 tubes for the horizontal pieces. It will have two shelves, one about 8 inches below the top for tools and another 6 inches off the floor for bigger stuff. The top will have 4" overhang on all sides.

Here is the top being carried to my work area for some clean-up work.

I wonder if there is a way you could use air to raise the table with the casters when you want to move the table, and release the air to set it back on the legs after moving?

 

[Runner]

"I wonder if there is a way you could use air to raise the table with the casters when you want to move the table, and release the air to set it back on the legs after moving?"

Might work.

I saw one where a guy mounted trailer tongue jacks on all four corners, mainly for leveling. However, if you used jacks with wheels it would allow for movement when they're cranked down.

 

[Scooby074]

Floor locks will work. Mcmaster has them. They can be found cheaper though

Floor Truck Locks - Floor Locks - Caster City

Bolts threaded into pipe, welded to the frame will work as levelers, good to install when building, but i hardly use mine.

 

[fcamillieri]

I've had a 36"x60" table for a long time that worked well. The top is 3/4" thick and it has 4"sq legs. A few years ago I scored a 30"x60" cast iron surface plate for under $100. We put it on our CNC miller and machined the top and sides. We also put a grid of 1/2" reamed holes and 3/8-16 tapped holes in it. Works great for welding up square assemblies. The only problem is the holes need to be cleaned out before you use them. It would have been better if we could have through drilled them. BTW it sat on the CNC and was so heavy it didn't need to be clamped down while it was being machined.

 

[MRCONCDID]

sissor jacks or large threded bolts with welded nuts to the legs would work fine to leveling just keep them far enuff back you dont bump them with your feet I have a 1 foot set back from the edge od the table to the post/legs.

Space and tring to keep organized were 2 important reasons for my table. the expaned metal shelf now hold saws,grinders,vise, clamps and drills. I wanted easy reach to them while working on something. I do alot of auto/tractor repair and some fabracation so calling it a weld table is kinda wrong. I wanted a table and vise that wouldn't move when i was swing a 10 pound hammer or a 3ft pry bar. and was strong enough to place a 400lbs axle on with out fear of it falling down.
I must adimt I havent painted it yet i started working on it just as i got all the tools on the shelf. It has been a pleasure to be able to work standing up rather than bending over using the floor for welding and layout jobs.

This spring I will adding onto my shop and it will be the center piece of the fab area hopefully I will be doubling the size of it YEAH!