Table Top, Drill and Tapped holes...Opinions?

[tlmartin84]

As the shop build is winding down, I am starting to think about the "furniture".

I will have 20' of 2' solid top work bench. I am also planning either a 4x10 or 5x10 Fabrication Table.

I had intentions of drilling the top on 12" centers, and threading the holes for use of step clamps. My hangup on this is loosing small parts through the holes, and the grinder dust/dirt falling through onto whatever is below.

I thought maybe some socket head/Aleen Screws would remedy this. What are your alls opinions?

 

[chris_c]

Foam earplugs squashed and pushed into the holes?

Hi all bye the way, (long time reader, first time posting).

Chris.

 

[sberry]

I will bite here. I done this every which way you can and simple is king. There are some so highly specialized apps where all that makes sense but have seen most of it sit idle. Its about like air lines, put one every 4 ft and find out after there is one spot used, all the rest of the pipe and couples sit.
This is a thread with an open end, whats the intent, what kind of shop and how big? In general fab, maintenance this is too big to start with. My ideal bench is 3 ft, maybe 42 inches and absolutely no longer than about 6 ft with a overhang and a square top and no holes for dirt and weld bb's or spilled fluids to leak thru. In small shops most benches are the bench and not strictly welding benches, this may not be true of outright weld shops but those are specialists and may have other room for other tasks or simply exclusive.
I kicked around a few shops back in the day, and never seen 1 of these brainfarts end up like the vision it was. A good share were company owners carting something home from a sale and they become ornaments with sheet piled on them.
I know one now trying to dump some thing he thought was just the ticket, cant sell it, never did use the thing. A great thing about it being steel, if there does come a day you cant live without a hole one can drill it in.
I got 3 or 4 holes around the edge of mine I needed over the last 20 yrs. They don't even need to be that flat. The big thing is location location location , decent height, hangers for clamps and a shelf under to toss stuff and a place to work clamps around the edges.

 

[sberry]

I had intentions of drilling the top on 12" centers, and threading the holes for use of step clamps. My hangup on this is loosing small parts through the holes, and the grinder dust/dirt falling through onto whatever is below.

This is the reality, holes ruin a fine piece of steel.

 

[tlmartin84]

I know 4x10 and 5x10 seem big, but I do a lot of larger furniture........both wood and metal. Often multiple projects at a time.

I am now using saw horses and a sheet of plywood, which I find to still often be too small. It is all about the application.

When I laid out the shop, this is one thing I have planned for from the beginning. It will include a hanging hood, with lights, receptacles, and dust/fume evacuation system.

I could use cap screws with a thin head, and cut recesses........

 

[sberry]

I would say furniture could use a bit bigger bench so that's good, skip the screws.

 

[gc427]

I am of the opinion that you should only drill & tap holes as you need them. If you want to fill them then countersink the holes and add countersunk screws.

 

[sberry]

I agree and as a side note may not even bother with a tap if I could reach the underside.
My floor layout is really good and one of the reasons is there are 2 benches, nothing to write about on their own but how they relate to each other is what is.
Those vise stands and some other ideas are better ideas than they are really useful. The trick here it to work out bugs you use every day and meet those occasional needs or the once in a decade uses as they come. You will be surprised if one looks back at the difference between vision and use.
I like the top clear on the main bench and another bench for vise and maybe a few attachments. A pedestal out in the middle of the floor with post and socket seems good but where does a guy sit a drill or a hammer?

 

[sberry]

Most work too big for a bench is on the floor or on equipment anyway and we do a hundred little jobs for every big one. These are the ones I want easy and fast. If it takes a setup to do something one off so be it, not worth working around it all for the next 20 years because it seemed like a good idea at the time.
BTW, most of this is really as much fact as opinion, a lot of it I learned the hard way or have seen and used.
Here all the equipment reaches both benches, can walk between and not so huge you have to walk around to get a tape you left on the other edge, can drape a lead around.

 

[sberry]

Look at the plow blade in pic one above, with a larger bench would have to flip flop to reach all of it.
Old pic here.

 

[LumpyMusic]

I did my welding table that way.

12" centers, two 24 x 24 inch sections that slide toward or away from each other if needed -

Then I made "SubPlates" with holes on 1" centers. I mount those plates on any area of the table via those 12" center threaded holes -

Various clamps and jigs are mounted to small plates which then bolt to any of the subplates -

Everything is interchangable because all the mounting holes are on similar centers -

These elevated plates holding parts and tools are on hitch receivers and they swivel/rotate. They can go from 90 deg to 180 degrees to the table and slide in/out/up/down. I can remove 4 socket cap screws and take off the tool holder plate, replace with any of the clamps and jigs. Make up several blank plates so that any time I need a new jig, I can simply weld something up on the blank plate, screw it onto the table wherever I want -

In use, squaring up and clamping parts for welding up a van rear door ladder -

Parts falling through the holes? Don't lay tiny parts on a big bench. I don't do that on a solid top. Lay them in those free magnetic parts bowls from HF or in some other small cut off plastic bottle bottom or box. Small parts on a fab table are problematic more for sweeping them off the side than dropping them through a hole in the top. If they drop through the top, they land on the shelf below. If they sweep off the side when you move a part, tool, welding clamp etc, they disappear into scorpion nests in the corners of the garage.


Sgt Lumpy

 

[Richard D]

I have a welding table at home I made of 6" wide slabs of steel, based on the stronhand design. I bought a few of the Stronghand discs that slide between the slabs, but I have found in actual us, it's easier to just slip a c-clamp in there. I made a table at work with drilled and tapped holes, but I think I like the table at home better. I have only used the tapped holes a few times, when I had jigged it up for making lots of identical parts. If you are making lots of identical parts, it would be nice to have the tapped holes, otherwise I agree with sberry.

 

[kazlx]

Holes are definitely worth the time, but threading the top really isn't IMO. There is plenty of friction type tooling examples to look at. If you really need a solid top or to lay things down on, but a piece of 1/4" or so rubber mat and lay it on your top. Or a piece of aluminum, or plywood or whatever else is handy.

Jig holes and tooling are the way to go. Having references and adaptable jigs that are already square and ready to work are a huge time saver. Ask anyone that does good work.

 

[tlmartin84]

I did my welding table that way.

12" centers, two 24 x 24 inch sections that slide toward or away from each other if needed -

Then I made "SubPlates" with holes on 1" centers. I mount those plates on any area of the table via those 12" center threaded holes -

Various clamps and jigs are mounted to small plates which then bolt to any of the subplates -

Everything is interchangable because all the mounting holes are on similar centers -

These elevated plates holding parts and tools are on hitch receivers and they swivel/rotate. They can go from 90 deg to 180 degrees to the table and slide in/out/up/down. I can remove 4 socket cap screws and take off the tool holder plate, replace with any of the clamps and jigs. Make up several blank plates so that any time I need a new jig, I can simply weld something up on the blank plate, screw it onto the table wherever I want -

In use, squaring up and clamping parts for welding up a van rear door ladder -

Parts falling through the holes? Don't lay tiny parts on a big bench. I don't do that on a solid top. Lay them in those free magnetic parts bowls from HF or in some other small cut off plastic bottle bottom or box. Small parts on a fab table are problematic more for sweeping them off the side than dropping them through a hole in the top. If they drop through the top, they land on the shelf below. If they sweep off the side when you move a part, tool, welding clamp etc, they disappear into scorpion nests in the corners of the garage.


Sgt Lumpy

Thanks Lumpy, I read the thread you started on tapping them, and watched the you tube video. Seems like it shouldnt be to bad of a job.

 

[jhn9840]

Lumpy that is one fine welding/fab table.

jhn9840
John

 

[LumpyMusic]

Thanks Lumpy, I read the thread you started on tapping them, and watched the you tube video. Seems like it shouldnt be to bad of a job.

If there was a YouTube it wasn't mine.

I debated and ended up NOT actually tapping the holes in the table itself. I welded nuts under the top. That allowed those pan head bolts to countersink better. The sub-plates are all tapped in the 1/4" steel but the table itself is 7/16 holes with 3/8-16 hex nuts welded below.

The whole combination makes squaring up and clamping things really quick.

That little HF portaband with fabbed up stand usually sits right there on the corner all the time. But like any other fixture, it can be removed in moments by pulling a couple of bolts.


Lump

 

[LumpyMusic]

Lumpy that is one fine welding/fab table.

jhn9840
John

Thanks John.

Since I showed so many booger welds in the other pics, I guess I'd better show a good bead for redemption. 110v Chinese MIG, 030 wire, blah blah -

Sgt Lumpy

 

[dr_clyde]

I have a link in my sig about my fab table build. Mine is similar in size to what you are wanting. I wouldn't change a thing if I had an unlimited budget and space to match.

I have 5/8" holes on 12" centers, seems to be working out great. The holes are very useful. Maybe $200 into drilling them including 8 clamps to go in them from stronghand.

 

[Thumper68]

I just finished mine. It has a ton of tapped holes but it came that way. If I had a blank plate to start I would have done the holes on 12 inch centers.

I did a thread on it.

 

[zmaxmotorsports]

As the shop build is winding down, I am starting to think about the "furniture".

I will have 20' of 2' solid top work bench. I am also planning either a 4x10 or 5x10 Fabrication Table.

I had intentions of drilling the top on 12" centers, and threading the holes for use of step clamps. My hangup on this is loosing small parts through the holes, and the grinder dust/dirt falling through onto whatever is below.

I thought maybe some socket head/Aleen Screws would remedy this. What are your alls opinions?

sounds good to me,but id probably run them from bottem up to keep them from being filled in.
Or you could just run 2" long bolts from the bottom up.

 

[tlmartin84]

sounds good to me,but id probably run them from bottem up to keep them from being filled in.
Or you could just run 2" long bolts from the bottom up.

Too simple......this is exactly why I asked the question.