I did a couple of welding projects lately that I thought you guys might like to see. I built a welding table because I needed one badly, and I repaired an intake manifold for my buddy.
I started with a basic 4'x8' "frame". It's made out of 0.120" wall 2"x4" tubing, and the legs are 0.120" wall 3"x3" tubing.
Sample of MIG welds:
I like to have some adjustability in height, as well as the ability to make it level. This is what I came up with a few years ago and I've put it on every table I've built since.
I turned a few 3/4" nuts on the lathe, such that there's a shoulder to them, as shown below. The turned portion of the nut measures 1" in diameter.
I also faced a few bolts on the lathe.
Next step was to grab a circular piece of steel and drill a 1" hole in it. This allows the shoulder of the nut to "catch" the edge of the hole and carry the weight of the table. A small bead secures the nut to the plate.
I don't have any other pics of the process. I added some extra bracing to the middle of the table so the table top wouldn't sag under heavy weight. I also built a lower perimeter frame that serves two purposes: 1) it will hold a shelf and 2) it would allow me to move the table around with a pallet jack. The table top is a 1/2" thick.
A lot of people make the table frame smaller than the sheet and leave an unsupported border of roughly 6-8" so that they can clamp stuff to the table. What I've noticed is that most of the banging ends up on the edge of the table, and unless your table top is 2" thick, you end up bending it. I make my table frames the same size as the sheet and use larger "F-style" clamps.
Thanks for looking!
I started with a basic 4'x8' "frame". It's made out of 0.120" wall 2"x4" tubing, and the legs are 0.120" wall 3"x3" tubing.
Sample of MIG welds:
I like to have some adjustability in height, as well as the ability to make it level. This is what I came up with a few years ago and I've put it on every table I've built since.
I turned a few 3/4" nuts on the lathe, such that there's a shoulder to them, as shown below. The turned portion of the nut measures 1" in diameter.
I also faced a few bolts on the lathe.
Next step was to grab a circular piece of steel and drill a 1" hole in it. This allows the shoulder of the nut to "catch" the edge of the hole and carry the weight of the table. A small bead secures the nut to the plate.
I don't have any other pics of the process. I added some extra bracing to the middle of the table so the table top wouldn't sag under heavy weight. I also built a lower perimeter frame that serves two purposes: 1) it will hold a shelf and 2) it would allow me to move the table around with a pallet jack. The table top is a 1/2" thick.
A lot of people make the table frame smaller than the sheet and leave an unsupported border of roughly 6-8" so that they can clamp stuff to the table. What I've noticed is that most of the banging ends up on the edge of the table, and unless your table top is 2" thick, you end up bending it. I make my table frames the same size as the sheet and use larger "F-style" clamps.
Thanks for looking!
