Welding Table Top - thickness??

[TimS]

I know, thicker is better - I drool at some of the big plates people have used. But I'm just a garage welder, so I'll be making a folding table using some off-the-shelf legs and a top with angle iron braces. With the angle iron, warping shouldn't be a problem, so I would like to keep the plate as thin as possible for portability. What do people think would be a good minimum size? 1/4" thick enough? Could I even get away with 3/16"? Thanks for your input.

Tim

[ridesideways]

well you can weld on a piece of sheet metal if you want. whether or not it makes sense really depends on what you plan to weld on that table. if all you're doing is small thin-wall or sheet work then yeah 3/16" is fine. but if you want to clamp a piece of 3/16" wall 3" square tube down so it stays square during welding, then a sheet-metal table top isn't going to cut it.

personally i wouldn't use anything less than 1/4" plate for a table. my table is 3' x 6' x 1/2" thick.

[Wacko Welder]

If you can not for what ever reason "have" a thick table top . . . Look at all the skeleton type tables in here . . . Built from heavy angle, channel & square tube . . . Then you can still have a "plate" type table for lighter stuff....

Some of the most experienced people you will find in here use a skeleton type table ONLY . . . and swear by them . . . and their work shows it clearly that anything can be built on them.


I have a 30" X 42" X 5/8" table but have plans to build a skeleton table . . .

Perhaps there is a better name for what I call a skeleton table, but I'm sure you get my meaning . . .

[TimS]

Had not thought about such a table - not a bad idea at all though. I will try to locate some examples. Got any favorites?

Tim

[Fishy Jim]

You mean like this?

Been using it for about 6 months and never regret not getting a piece of plate.


The wheels are temporary. I just needed them so I could use the table as a mobile base for a jin pole style crane to raise a couple I beams.

I used some 6" channel they had in 5' drops at the yard for cheap. Spaced them @ 1.125" gaps so clamps would have lots of room and I can use 1" tubing for any fixtures or jigs. All the slats come off so making odd shaped things that drop below the plane of the surface is a breeze or if one gets cut up too bad to fix, I can just replace it.

It works great for cutting things with the 8" metal cutting saw too. You just clamp on a straight edge and slice it off.

[paulrbrown]

Fishy, I really like your Idea, I am a little slow, but what sort of 8" saw are you using to do the cutoff, could you do a pic of your setup, it looks like it is a breez to do accurate cuts, best regards,Paul

[Fishy Jim]

Milwaukee 6370-20; they're a great tool.

The table is great because you're within 3" of an edge at any given point on the entire 4x8' surface. So you can use standard c-clamps over the entire thing and adjust them to your hearts content without ever grinding a tack.

It's also within 1/16" of flat across the top, and some steel plate tables can't even achieve that without blanchard grinding.

[trstek]

"All the slats come off so making odd shaped things that drop below the plane of the surface is a breeze or if one gets cut up too bad to fix, I can just replace it."

How did you attach them so they can be removed?

Tom

[Fishy Jim]

Bolts.



This shot was prior to welding the nuts on. Then I just welded across the leg of the channel bracket to the web of the channel slat. 6 bolts per slat is overkill, but I didn't want any slop either.

[paulrbrown]

Fishy, thanks for the photo, that is a very helpful picture for attachment technique, I like the use of tube to hold other tools, Preciate it, Paul