Plasma table top

[Whiskeymike]

Making an extension to my welding table for plasma cutting. Should a plasma table top be expanded metal or vertical slats? If expanded, what gauge and hole size should it be? I'd prefer it to be relatively light as it's not a permanent fixture and I'll set it up and put it away as needed, but would like to handle 4x4 cut area, 4x8 total size with the additional room of the welding table.

Is there a decent way to clamp to either? (want to clamp a template to material to cut around so I don't have access to the edges always.)

 

[Macrosloth]

Slats... They can be easily replaced.

 

[kazlx]

Vertical slats. The plasma will cut right through expanded metal and the same shape you cut out of your piece would be cut out of the expanded metal. To save weight, you can make the slats shorter, like maybe 1" strips of 14g. Space them a couple inches apart. If you make the frame out of angle iron with maybe a support bar or two down the middle and leave the bottom empty, you can fit clamps in or clamp the material with the frame going through jaws of like an 11R clamp. Easy enough. Look up CNC plasma table designs. They work the same way, just scale it down.

 

[sb7979]

http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=282901

 

[Heavy Metal Doctor]

neither.....I either hang the impending cut area off the edge of the welding table

(see avatar pic<--), or block it up on chunks of tubing so that the cut never crosses the supporting surface -- this way the arc never blasts back / sideways when encountering the extra material....Also easier on the clamping issue since it can be clamped down the same as any other welding work.