Show your Welding Table!

[PILOON]

What always amazes me is folks asking what is best welding table to buy!
Heck, you bought a welder to weld!
What better project but to weld up but your very own table.
Customized as well.

OK, mine is a nice 24 X 36 , nice and clean cut on a shear and square.
Came as a steel supplier's cut off stock and cheap.

I pondered for a while made made up a base using bed angles, added a shelf that fits my welder, hooks for cables. and let the top overlap the base frame so as to be able to clamp stock accurately at 90 deg's.
Back then I was making lots of fireplace doors as that was the rage then and accuracy was. needed for snug fits.

LOL, but then I now most often weld outdoors and my 'table' is 3/4 plywood full of burns and scorches plus grinder parking skid marks.
OK, convenient as it sports folding legs so that I can hide it from view.
Besides, my shop is so full that I fear starting a fire from sparks.
It shares woodworking among other hobbies.

Again, what better way to practice your welding skills but on something not critically structural like a table!

 

[Gary Fowler]

Those $7-10k FIXTURE tables are great if you do a lot , and I mean a very lot, of fabrication that requires jigs for repeatability. I worked construction fabrication shops for many years and we never needed any more than a flat top table that we welded 4x4 angle to each side for laying pipe into it and a few adjustable jack stands. An over head trolley crane was needed to move out the fabricated pieces to the end of the shop and we did thousands of tons of fabrication. Of course each piece was different so no need for jigs, etc. I cant see a home owner needing on of those things with holes everwhere. I like to use my table to hold nuts, bolts, and other small items so all those holes would just be a hinderance anyway.

 

[barts]

Those $7-10k FIXTURE tables are great if you do a lot , and I mean a very lot, of fabrication that requires jigs for repeatability. I worked construction fabrication shops for many years and we never needed any more than a flat top table that we welded 4x4 angle to each side for laying pipe into it and a few adjustable jack stands. An over head trolley crane was needed to move out the fabricated pieces to the end of the shop and we did thousands of tons of fabrication. Of course each piece was different so no need for jigs, etc. I cant see a home owner needing on of those things with holes everwhere. I like to use my table to hold nuts, bolts, and other small items so all those holes would just be a hinderance anyway.

I think the fixture tables are pretty handy even for one-off builds, because they make it easier to set up stuff flat and square in all three dimensions. I've used a small (18"x36") table with perimeter clamping space for some time now; I'm really looking forward to a larger welding/fab table in the shop I'm building in the PNW. I'll definitely want a way to arrange clamps in the middle of the table. I can get by with a big, rigid square if I cannot get holes precision located all over, though. When I was at UC Davis, the Ag shop had a large flat cast iron table w/ square holes all over, and clamps to match. Some pretty experimental farm equipment came out of that shop; each (re)build was unique. The best welders there were ex-navy guys; they knew how to get the most of the equipment.

- Bart

 

[California]

... at UC Davis, the Ag shop had a large flat cast iron table w/ square holes all over, and clamps to match. Some pretty experimental farm equipment came out of that shop; each (re)build was unique. The best welders there were ex-navy guys; they knew how to get the most of the equipment.

I think automated tomato harvesters, and the hybrid tomatoes that stand up to machine picking, both were invented in UCD ag labs. Probably lots of other stuff too.

 

[Lis2323]

When I was growing up on the farm (here in Canada) UCD was well known for their innovation.

 

[Sberry]

They are scrap simply added as needed, hangers etc. I like a shelf under, no real holes, overhang and the most important 2 tables, one with the rotator vise. The whole deal is ergonomic.