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Thread: Welding/Fab Table
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12th Jan 2021, 08:34 PM #16Golden Member
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Am currently thinking that I would like an adjustable height table. This will enable me to get the most comfortable position both sitting and standing. May end up never adjusting it but....... 650mm lowest possy and 1100 highest (in case the local basketball team come around).
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12th Jan 2021, 08:53 PM #17
Nice bench, I'm looking at doing similar but a solid 10mm top in the next few weeks and have similar thing in mind with my G clamps, but will have my smaller gas/gasless mig I rairly use, stick welder and plasma cutter under it and maybe some drawers I just got off Peter (Bollie) under there as well.
My main mig with it's bottle is way to big to fit.
I'll also transfer my grinder and hammer holder from my other bench and add a 4-6 way power outlet on it.
My mate who is a truck driver picked me up some nice english made 200mm cast iron castor's with hard rubber tyres year's ago, 2x fixed and 2x castors, they where off a full sized skip bin and where in a bin to be thrown out. I'd hate to price them new, lol
My concrete where the bench is going near the roller door and the double carport is slightly sloping.
I'm planing on going with 4 adjustable feet which can be easily adjusted with a battery impact driver. And also have in mind a hitch receiver for a spare swiveling/tilting vice I have here.
Not sure what else to add as I've seen some beautiful benches over the years, and have been googling the past few days while the shed and under the attached house is getting a total rearrangement finally after 2 1/2 years, lol.Using Tapatalk
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12th Jan 2021, 08:58 PM #18Most Valued Member
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I find an adjustable height stool far more convenient than what I imagine an adjustable table would be.
For me at about 185cm tall, nipple height is still quite a comfortable height to weld at and standing that gives me about 500 above the 900 high table.
The only time I could see lower table being useful is if you were welding something higher than 500, and chances are that it would start out as lower pieces, and I’m pretty sure if it was me I’d be throwing it on the floor or grabbing a small step to reach the top with it on the table instead of manually raising and lowering the table it as you work around to weld it up.
Of course if you’re going to make it powered with hydraulics or linear actuator etc then ignore all that dribble and enjoy
Steve
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12th Jan 2021, 09:07 PM #19Golden Member
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12th Jan 2021, 09:23 PM #20
I guess I'm 35 years to late for my first project for a welding table as I'm just building one, lol.
I've just always used a piece of steel on saw horses, built off the floor or my main bench for smaller stuff.
Getting older and having back issues has made me see the need for one lately.
For someone that has a welding gun in my hand at the minimum 1 day a week I should have thought and built one many years ago.Using Tapatalk
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12th Jan 2021, 09:28 PM #21
Particular attention to Heavy work, Light work, and Optimum control levels.
Mine is about 950mm. But I can adjust the legs with a bit of effort if needed. Haven't needed/wanted to do it yet though...
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12th Jan 2021, 09:43 PM #22Golden Member
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Na that pic doesn't apply to me.........he has way more hair
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13th Jan 2021, 07:28 AM #23
I would think carefully about storing machines or cylinders under a welding table. In my experience, that area will get a lot of grinding dust and welding grit and so forth showered down on it from the work surface above. Not the best environment for electrical stuff.
It may be better to make up a trolley on wheels for welder storage perhaps. In my case the MIG is on it's own wheels (250A Kemppi job) but the TIG is on a mobile trolley that holds the power source, the gas cylinder and tubes of filler rods. Both have G size bottles. The stick welder sits on a shelf when not in the ute.
Once you have a welding table you'll find that you acquire more and more clamps so you'll need all the under table space for them anyway..,.
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13th Jan 2021, 09:23 AM #24
Thanks, my G size lives on the back of my Transmig so no bottles under there, the smaller mig, plasma and G clamps all have lived under my main bench close to the top for years with no hassles.
If I leave them there in my smaller shop they will definitely get showered with sparks from grinding etc.
I have plenty of G clamps here as I've collected them up over the years, so won't be needing anymore.
I was thinking about doing a grid of holes on half the plate, but then it makes it useless for anything else, and crap can drop through it.Using Tapatalk
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20th Jan 2021, 08:27 PM #25
As a boofhead amateur who occasionally welds ambitiously big projects at my home, I am constantly in admiration for the wisdom that Mr Collins brings to this forum because he is happy to scale down needs expectations for us inexperienced, largely unskilled mugs. A multiplicity of thanks to you, Sir!
Grahame's comment above is very reassuring. Having just bought myself a Christmas present of a TIG welder that I am yet to fully unpack and start using, I have been contemplating scaling up my welding facilities by getting a welding table but have been a bit wary of what should be the minimum size. Grahame's comment, based on experience, is very welcomed to this metal scratcher. Indeed, as described below, it is not too hard to prop up the rest of the project on adjustable height stands or sawhorses with shims or whatever to support the piece.
Over the years, I have welded some very successful longish RHS gate frames on common old saw horses and have achieved getting all of the pieces in the same plane by using a digital angle gauge such as one of these...
https://www.tradetools.com/renegade-...CABEgJXifD_BwE
I bought mine several years ago and it is a Wixey brand which, I think, was the original manufacturer of these things but nowadays there are dozens of knock-offs on the market.
These are very useful for a multitude of accurate set up tasks such as on saw bench blades. However, with a magnetic base, they are also super useful for setting up RHS or SHS materials in the same plane for welding. It takes a while, using shims to get the levels right but it works.
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20th Jan 2021, 09:28 PM #26Golden Member
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Yes there are a number of very knowledgeable people here who are willing to help.
I have finalised my design and am about to order some hideously expensive metal. It has a 16mm top with 16mm holes supported by Fireball Tool style adjusters to enable 100% flatness. It is also height adjustable via a scissor jack in a central position. around 2000 x 1000. Overkill, yes. Extravagant, yes. This will be a welding, fab and everything table. I really enjoyed drawing it up. I also drew plans for my storage cabinet and metal brake and am just about to design a 3 phase large belt grinder along the lines of the Fireball Tool one.
Table2.jpgAttachment 390465
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20th Jan 2022, 02:19 PM #27Member
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- May 2021
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- Sunshine Coast QLD
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- 62
4mm Top
Does anyone have any experience with the H&F “Fixture Point” table?
https://www.machineryhouse.com.au/W07706
Is it “flat”? Does it stay flat when clamping?
Obviously, I’d prefer an 8mm or 16mm top, but can’t really justify spending $3000+, for the amount I do.
Mainly smaller TIG jobs. Often Aluminium (Which rules out my oft used magnetic clamps)
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31st Jan 2022, 11:52 AM #28New Member
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- Jan 2022
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- Dortmund
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Hey
What is the cheapest table for just personal use? I'm looking for something that is good enough, but not expensive as I will use it only for myself. Thanks
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31st Jan 2022, 01:53 PM #29
For most of my welding projects, I have just used sawhorses, occasionally with a lump of old plywood between them, and used a digital angle gauge to ensure that everything is in the same plane by shimming the pieces to be welded. I have successfully made some fairly big gates and garden cabinets and other smaller items doing it this way but it does take a lot of time to set up the pieces to be square and coplanar.
Probably like you, though, my welding needs are not of a commercial quantity nor volume that justifies buying a flash welding table. So last week, I paid $10 on Gumtree for this....
IMG_0140.jpg
Yup! It is just an old, very well used, Triton Work Centre that is really meant for woodworking. I have had one for many years and have used it a lot, albeit because of cheap Chinese manufacturing these days, you would not bother getting a Triton these days. You would instead get a proper saw table. The Tritons were always a compromise, but were good for their time in the 1980's - 1990's especially, and hundreds of thousands were sold, with a user cult following that led to the formation of very active Triton user clubs all over Australia. I still use mine every now and then. It does a good job, albeit it is noisy to use because the saw is just whatever screaming circular saw you choose to fit to it.
Whilst the table top on the Tritons is just of thin pressed steel construction, reinforced with some square tube ribs, nonetheless they are relatively flat. As the generation of old dudes who bought these things back in the 80’s and 90’s is now disappearing, I have long reasoned that there must be a plethora of these things looking for a home at throwaway prices. The silly thing, though, is that because of their cult status, people often don’t want to part with them at a price at which they are really viable to buy. So even now, you will see plenty of adverts on Gumtree and eBay where old dudes are trying to sell these things for $300+. As a famous Aussie movie character used to say, “Tell’em they are dreaming’!”
In fact, Men's Sheds are often offered these things but knock back the offers because the Men’s Sheds often have far better machines available.
Anyway, I reasoned that using an old Triton table top would have to be better than using the sawhorses that I currently use to support welding projects.
The real test of whether my idea to use a Triton Work Centre as a welding table is a goodie will be how it will handle the intense heat from the welding operation. Because I weld lightweight frames mostly, I usually hold the cross members together using four metal mitre clamps to help keep things square and above the surface. So that the actual welding is not done on the table surface itself, which is different to what you would do with a thick standard welding table top. One complication with using the Tritons for this purpose is that the reinforcing ribs underneath are secured to the table surface, not with spot welds as any sensible, sane engineer might expect but with……………wait for it ……………… glue! What boofhead came up with that idea???? I should fix all of those cross members with, maybe screws, but chances are that I won’t have the patience to do that and I may just go ahead and weld and see what happens. After all, at worst, I will be discarding a $10 item if the table top distorts under the heat of the welding process.
The accuracy of the flatness of the surface on my $10 Triton table top varies across the surface. On one side it very straight, as the following pic shows….
IMG_0143.jpg
...but it gets a bit concave by up to about 2 mm in the middle of the near side. I can manage that with some shimming of the welding workpieces but it the longer term, I shall probably replace the thin table top with the smaller equivalent of what this bloke has made, using pieces of 75 x 25 RHS spaced to allow clamps to fit anywhere on the table....
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YWOM0IApasY
Again, following the advice of Grahame Collins, elsewhere in this thread, that a welding table for us weekend warriors does not need to be humongous, I shall just use the Triton Workcentre frame to support the RHS table top. The Tritons did have pretty robust frames. They are also demountable insofar as the legs separate from the main body and fold up.
Anyway, I have yet to use my "new' welding table but hold great hope for its utility, even if I shall eventually have to build a surface made of RHS on top of it.
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31st Jan 2022, 04:02 PM #30
Hi daniello87
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See Charlivilles comment.
If budget is a problem you will get along just tine with a pair of trestles with a flat plate slung on top for now.
Once you work out what the majority of your welding tasks are then build or buy a specific to your needs. Everyone is different. can't advise on where or how much as you are in Germany and we are mainly Ozzies
Here is a cheap table probably available over where you are. $80 -100 Au .Don't know baout your neck of the woods .probably all changed because of the Wuhan virus.
PortableTable.pdf
Grahame
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