Thread: Welding/fixture table

Building a new welding and fixture table for my tiny garage, and even with judicious space maximisation it can really only be about 900x600. That said I dont want to spend huge amounts on it and so doing things so that it can be as flexible as possible.


I considered just picking up a Certiflat welding table in the earlier H&F sale this year, but after looking at them they seem a little flimsy for some of the other uses i was thinking of for this table.


A local steel store was basically giving away some lengths of 150x10 flat bar, and i picked up some 65x65x6mm RHS to go with my 50x50x3 that I have been using for the machine stands. Planning on using the 65x65 as a receiver for mounting tools on, in the same fashion as a trailer hitch, only vertical. Main tools will be a 6" offset vice, bench grinder, ring roller, lever shear and a handful of other tools that need a convenient receptacle.


Came up with this design for the table in a rather boring afternoon conference call yesterday:



Havent locked down the height yet, but probably something around 850mm overall.


The framework under the flat bar top uses 50x50x5 angle iron to support the flat bar and tie the legs together. The flat bar will be secured to the angle iron using M10 countersunk socket screws, and designed so that they are replaceable if needed. Im undecided about putting a pair of smaller braces across or under the middle, but may end up doing that to just reinforce against sagging.


Feet are standard hockey puck feet with M16 thread for securing, and I will probably also put an M16 jam bolt on each upright to add lateral pressure to the receivers. Bottom is centrally braced so i can fit the TIG pedal under easily.


Fixtures will be drilled on 3" (75mm) centres, which I think is a good balance between having enough points of contact for fabrication and strength in the plates.


Any suggestions?

I run a similar set up for my stuff as well, a very handy fitment. The one big criteria, I feel, is to have some weight in the frame, as using hand shears, or even a Vise, will have the bench moving on you. DAMHIKT. My NON welding bench is 1.2 X .6 and is too light, even though I've used 150 X 50 X 4 for the cross rails, and 50 X 50 X 4 for the uprights, with a 2mm top sheet, I've ended up fixing it to the concrete floor, to prevent moving.
Something that could help you, is to weld a 12mm bolt to the bottom of F clamps, removing the cast bottom jaw, this will allow you to have a good clamping arrangement with your hole placing, which I'd make 13.5, to allow for the inevitable weld berry that gets stuck in there. For the F Clamps I like to use 150mm ones, they are more solid that the other smaller ones, I get them from the cheap shop, no point in paying big bucks for something that's going to get weld spatter on them. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NP2wWQG1vlI will give you the idea.
To save a lot of work drilling the holes, I'd drill the holes down the centre of the flat and leave a 13mm gap between the flats, to allow for your clamping device, which would put you hole centres at about 82mm.
HTH
Kryn

Given that you are only using 10mm thick sections for the top I would recommend as much bracing underneath, especially lengthwise, as you can get away with to try and control warpage.
Also you may well find that a gap between the plates will be handy as it will allow G-clamps and similar to be used mid-table. The inter-plate slots on my Stronghand table are 40mm wide and that seems to be a useful gap size.
You don't mention what size holes you intend drilling but bear in mind that there is a lot of commercial clamping stuff on offer that fits 16mm holes.

Ah yes, should have said that the holes will be 16mm, to suit this kit i picked up very cheaply from H&F during their earlier sale:
https://www.machineryhouse.com.au/W08500

Then i can also machine up some spigots to fit the M14 clamping kit from the mill as well.

I think i will latticework some bracing underneath to try and protect against warpage, and if i need more weight I can always grout fill the legs and lower cross braces.

Originally Posted by takai

using the 65x65 as a receiver for mounting tools on

Good idea, but not sure about having 65mm squares cut out of the corners of your flat bars.

Originally Posted by nigelpearson

Good idea, but not sure about having 65mm squares cut out of the corners of your flat bars.

Feel free to suggest a better way. Ive been thinking about it for a while and cant come up with one.

Originally Posted by takai

Feel free to suggest a better way. Ive been thinking about it for a while and cant come up with one.

I welded mine on the outside on the end of the bench. If you drill a hole and weld a nut to it, it'll stop the inner from moving around, plus you can drop a piece of 50mm RHS into it to hold something vertical or very close to it, unless you're able to set it up square both ways.

While you are at it, I'd suggest adding round tube rails (say 1" diameter) between the legs to hang clamps on, you can never have enough clamps and that's a handy way to store them.
It will also help to stiffen the structure a little as a side effect.

Originally Posted by Gavin Newman

While you are at it, I'd suggest adding round tube rails (say 1" diameter) between the legs to hang clamps on, you can never have enough clamps and that's a handy way to store them.
It will also help to stiffen the structure a little as a side effect.

Good idea. Although might just use square 1" SHS.

I am hoping to leave knee room at the front free, and then possibly put some storage racking on the back for the hitch tooling.

Originally Posted by takai

Bottom is centrally braced so i can fit the TIG pedal under easily.

Depending on whether you intend to sit at the bench, how high you have the table top and how tall your pedal is, you may find that it works better if you have a shelf sitting on top of the lower cross brace and put the pedal on that. With the Stronghand table at 930mm off the floor I found it better that way - perhaps mock it all up 1st to see how it feels.

The shelf can be used for fixture storage as well but bear in mind that it will get showered with grinding dust and the like.

Originally Posted by Gavin Newman

Depending on whether you intend to sit at the bench, how high you have the table top and how tall your pedal is, you may find that it works better if you have a shelf sitting on top of the lower cross brace and put the pedal on that. With the Stronghand table at 930mm off the floor I found it better that way - perhaps mock it all up 1st to see how it feels.

The shelf can be used for fixture storage as well but bear in mind that it will get showered with grinding dust and the like.

Yeah, i am a low stool user for benches. So planning around 850mm high for the benchtop. But yeah a cantilevered pedal mount might be nice too.

Saw this too, which might be an option for one side of the table, and then do the same on the other side for clamps.

While you are thinking about clamp storage on the table, a length of SHS with a slot milled on one face makes an easy way to store vice-grips and the like, hanging them on their adjustment screw.

clamprail.jpg

I’d look at leaving some space between the flats to fit a regular clamp. Consider threading the holes M12 over a 16mm, it allows you to use strap clamps from your mill as well, make adapters the go M12 to 16mm unthreaded for your strong hand stuff if necessary, or just make M12 Ends for the clamps you have. Also means simple repetitive fixtures can be made to bolt straight to the table without clamps.
Leave some over hang around the edges, if you do nothing else, do this this, being able to put a clamp on the first 50mm or so around the edge is way less frustrating.
Bin the receiver hitch idea, it sucks. Been there done that. The Americans on Garage Journal go nutters for it, all it does is leave you frustrated that everything wobbles.
I’m currently in the process of setting all my removable tools up on flat plates that attach to the M12 Grid I have. If you have to get a tool out to do up a bolt on a receiver to stop it wobbling you may as well do up two or three and have it properly bolted over flopping around in a tube and having it held in place by a take up bolt (Which will gall just enough to make removal of your vice impossible the first you use a BFH on something that torques on the bolt the wrong way, again, a lesson learnt the hard way).

Hope that helps

Will be at least 50mm of overhang for clamping on the edges, so no worries there.

I still think the hitch receiver is a better idea than bolting to the table as it removes the stress from the table surface. I used to have one on an old workbench and with an M24 bolt it had no issues at all. Welded some round bar to the bolt to make it into a T handle so no issues for tightening either. Key is to have the hitch pin parallel to the direction of force, even if that means crossdrilling two hitch pin points. As for the BFH issue, all of my BFH stuff is done on the other workbench. This is more for holding stuff like round pipe etc.

For the fittings, my mill is M14 which i could tap everything to, but the Stronghand clamps i already have are something else entirely, and instead I just picked up the 16mm round drop in adapters from H&F. Plus 16mm bore lets you easily use woodworking stops and risers for backposition too. For the mill clamps im planning on making some M12 and M14 shoulder nuts that can be screwed in from the underside or preassembled and fed up from the bottom. The other advantage is that straight bore holes are easier to clean from welding nuggets compared to threads.

That last point is the single biggest downfall of a threaded grid. Fortunately the plates I bought came with grub screws to keep the holes, 8kg of them (didn’t look like there were that many on two 800ish x 800ish plates).

I like your idea of making shoulder nuts, that’s a winner.

I don’t worry too much about transferring load to the table top, mines 30mm thick