William Payne
Well-known member
Have had this thread on other forums I frequent. Has been a while since I have been on here. May as well share it here as well.
Stupidly overkill welding table project
- Thread starter William Payne
- Start date
Awesome welding table 
But your title for this thread is wrong though! There's no such thing as stupidly over built welding table! Looks right to me
Nice job! The only thing wrong is I would of went with the blue paint
But your title for this thread is wrong though! There's no such thing as stupidly over built welding table! Looks right to me
Nice job! The only thing wrong is I would of went with the blue paint
OP
William Payne
Well-known member
I deliberately chose gray as a protest towards people painting everything in shops blue these days. Bring back the days of neutral battleship gray. Only thing I want blue is my Miller.Awesome welding table
But your title for this thread is wrong though! There's no such thing as stupidly over built welding table! Looks right to me
Nice job! The only thing wrong is I would of went with the blue paint
jhn9840
Well-known member
Very nice welding table
jhn9840
John
jhn9840
John
laser3kw
Well-known member
nice build! Gray is a nice throw back color to the old industrial era
OP
William Payne
Well-known member
As it should be. I don’t fully know why people went away from those neutral colours.
jack stand
Well-known member
Nothing wrong with a brick chithouse!
Very nice nice
Very nice nice
Firebrick43
Well-known member
Looks pretty lightweight to me? Tops just under an inch.
OP
William Payne
Well-known member
Top is an inch. Table weighs over 800 pounds.
akalian
Well-known member
OP
William Payne
Well-known member
Nice table! I do 95% TIG welding so my table is setup to be as close to sitting at a desk as possible.
I thought that said knitting and felt better about myself for a second.
OP
William Payne
Well-known member
You could absolutely knit at this table.
OP
William Payne
Well-known member
Yip, weld up some parts while knitting up a new sweater haha.Knit two, purl two, chip slag, wire brush, repeat...... Steve
Welding gloves*
OP
William Payne
Well-known member
that’s a good one haha.
Nice!
I used to word at a factory where everything was paint in dull light green. Everything. Easy to do repairs, never had to second guess what color to mix or use. But there was no variation whatsoever! You could hardly distinguish the (rather large) presses from the decoilers or sawing machines...
I used to word at a factory where everything was paint in dull light green. Everything. Easy to do repairs, never had to second guess what color to mix or use. But there was no variation whatsoever! You could hardly distinguish the (rather large) presses from the decoilers or sawing machines...
Mario428
Well-known member
OP
William Payne
Well-known member
Was it by chance sea foam green? Rumour is that they used that stuff as the colour is supposed to be calming and relaxing.
redm18
Well-known member
Do you guys just end up spending a fortune on these tops then or is there some sort of hack to get something like that relatively cheap?
Just googled it... Yes, might very well be. I remember it a bit darker, but that might be from years of dust and dirt.
It sure wasn't helping! Never been as stressed out as when I was there
akalian
Well-known member
Here's what I did. I went to different steel suppliers in town and told them I was looking for a 1" table top. Every one that quoted me a price was way out of my price range, So I left my phone number with several of them, and checked back periodically to show I was still interested.
Then one day, the guy called me and said, hey come by and look at this. Turns out it was a drop from some big **** fab shop and they didn't want to fool with it. The front looks OK, but the back was a bit rough. The price was right and the size was smaller than I wanted but I bought it. The guy pointed at a hand truck and said, "it's yours now" so I got to pick it up and load it myself.
Here's what the back looked like.
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OP
William Payne
Well-known member
I got mine from an oil and gas surplus place a couple of hours from me. Was still over $700NZ which is $450ish USD. My top also is not mild steel but a grade of tensile boiler plate. Either way it was cheaper than buying a brand knew piece of plate.
Cost just has to be factored in when designing the table. If you want a thick top you have to spend the money they cost what they cost. Otherwise you have to redesign with a thinner top and I really didn’t want a thin top.
redm18
Well-known member
Curious why you wanted such a thick top? Weight? Ability to hold up heavy objects? Heat dissipation?
rattle_snake
Well-known member
Nice table.
Cost limited my table top thickness. What benefit is 1" over 1/2" for the average fabricator?
Cost limited my table top thickness. What benefit is 1" over 1/2" for the average fabricator?
I had a car that was sea foam green. It was not calming or relaxing.
OP
William Payne
Well-known member
All of the above.
A few factors
Factor 1 is to maintain flatness and minimise heat distortion.
Factor 2 is ability to hold a lot of weight without any kind of dishing taking place from loading.
Factor 3 is more ability to resist and minimise any kind of warping caused by clamps as in the future I plan to drill and tap a pattern for clamps.
I work in the mould tool and die industry. My day job is tool and die making. From working in the that industry I found out I had a knack for TIG Welding as the first day on the job years ago I was handed a torch given a seat and told to weld which was a jump in the deep end moment considering I hadn’t really don’t it before. That was 10 years ago.
I have slowly over the last 8 years been setting up my own shop at home, built the building first, slowly ran 3 phase power to it. Built the table this year.
My plan for the table is to be able to hold big mould plates and castings.
Next projects are a restoration of a workbench I already had a than some kind of crane system. Alongside finishing lining the walls in my shop.
Slednut
Well-known member
OP
William Payne
Well-known member
Nice table!
For those who asked about thickness this gentleman’s table shows what you have to do with a thinner top you have to put more support under the top as shown in these photos.
SilverJimmy
Well-known member
The steel place near me builds roadside billboards, you know, the huge ones along freeways and such. I got a 2” thick 2’x4’ drop from a build they were doing. They suggested that I have them weld a lifting pad eye on the bottom side so I can move it easily. Pad also works great for attaching the ground lead. I also got a couple round drops from where the vertical post goes thru the base. Those are around 20” in diameter and 1”-2” thick and work great for making very stable bases for my bench grinder and other pieces of shop equipment that I don’t want mounted permanently to the floor.
speed bump
Well-known member
Luck or being in an industry that uses heavy materials helps. I have been planning on building a 1/2 inch topped table for a while but I had a piece of used 2 inch plate drop into my lap for free after we did some demolition work at the plant this year.
For new stuff sometimes you will get a deal if it was cut and then not taken or it was an oddball shape. Our steel yard gave me a smoking deal on a piece of 1/2" AR plate earlier this year ($1.10/lb) because it had a dogleg cut out of it.
BLUE72CAMARO
Well-known member
Heres the table I put together a couple years ago. I kind of got screwed out of a deal on a really nice table so the guy that ended up getting it sold me his old table for $100.
When I got it home it was a lot on the short side for what I wanted but has a 3/4" top and built on 6x6x3/8 angle legs with 3x3x3/8 angle braces top and bottom so it was plenty stout.
I made up extensions for the legs and then designed a lift system for the casters using airbags and mostly scrap stuff I had around the shop. This is the best pic I have of the air bag system when the frame was upside down to add in all the new parts and structure.
Here it is all said and done with an old cornwell tool chest I had setting around mounted in it to hold gloves, clamps, and that kind of stuff.
It now wears a Wilton C2 vise and serves as both a welding table and a work table very well. It is really nice having a table that weighs in at well over 1000#'s that one guy can easily move around the shop.
When I got it home it was a lot on the short side for what I wanted but has a 3/4" top and built on 6x6x3/8 angle legs with 3x3x3/8 angle braces top and bottom so it was plenty stout.
I made up extensions for the legs and then designed a lift system for the casters using airbags and mostly scrap stuff I had around the shop. This is the best pic I have of the air bag system when the frame was upside down to add in all the new parts and structure.
Here it is all said and done with an old cornwell tool chest I had setting around mounted in it to hold gloves, clamps, and that kind of stuff.
It now wears a Wilton C2 vise and serves as both a welding table and a work table very well. It is really nice having a table that weighs in at well over 1000#'s that one guy can easily move around the shop.
slodat
ALLIANCE MEMBER
I scored the table off an old CNC milling machine at the local scrap yard for $100. It is 2' x 4' x 2-1/8" thick. I had already built the frame for a 3' x 4' top and had not bought it yet. Someday I will get the rear 12" chunk cut so I have a contiguous surface. The rear plate is 1" thick. The heat sink of the top is amazing. Nothing moves when clamped down and welded.
Once I have the top extension dialed in, I will paint the frame and build some sheet metal drawers. Thy plywood is there until then.
Once I have the top extension dialed in, I will paint the frame and build some sheet metal drawers. Thy plywood is there until then.
nadogail
Well-known member
I am envious of the heavy welding tables, one day I will join those who have one.
Keep watching CL - I got my 3'x7'x1" table off CL for $200 about 6-7 years ago, guy even delivered it about 20 miles; needs a better frame under it, but more for flexible use than strength -
Got my 2'x4'x3/4" table off CL for $180 2-3 years ago, guy even threw in a (still functional but ugly) 6" Kurt vise with the "speed" handle - The table had been used as some sort of robotics test station, so it has a few holes in the top - it also has nice leveling feet and a real heavy square tube frame. The tube frame is set so I can move it with the pallet jack - good thing, 'cause it ain't light
The deals are out there, but you gotta be patient AND quick... Steve
Got my 2'x4'x3/4" table off CL for $180 2-3 years ago, guy even threw in a (still functional but ugly) 6" Kurt vise with the "speed" handle - The table had been used as some sort of robotics test station, so it has a few holes in the top - it also has nice leveling feet and a real heavy square tube frame. The tube frame is set so I can move it with the pallet jack - good thing, 'cause it ain't light
The deals are out there, but you gotta be patient AND quick... Steve