Welding Table Build

BFHammer

BFHammer

H-M Supporter - Gold Member
H-M Supporter Gold Member
Joined
Jan 27, 2017
Messages
184
I'm a YouTube taught welder. After a couple of years of welding on my Harbor Freight table and/or the basement floor I decided it was time for an upgrade.

I scoped out a bunch of great builds on the web and headed to the local steel yard. I was looking for a plate somewhere in the neighborhood of 30" x 48". As luck would have it the 1/2" plate on the top of the drop stack was closer to 4' x 8'. They made me a deal I couldn't refuse and I hauled it home.

It took the engine hoist to unload it and the plasma cutter to get it down to size. Since I now had more to work with I decided. 3 1/2' x 6' would work just fine.

For the past couple of months it has camped out on my heavy duty sawhorses. This weekend I finally got started on the build.

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The legs will be 3x3 3/16
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Since it needs to be mobile I got some 6" poly on iron casters. The caster plates are bigger than the 3x3 legs and I had plenty of left over 1/2 plate some I made some plates.
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Unfortunately to accommodate both the caster plate and the 3x3 legs it's a tight fit. I had to dry fit it to make sure I would keep clearance for the nuts.
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Got them welded up and everything still fits!
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I used angle iron on one side as I will be dropping a tool chest in that end. The small plate in this picture is just a spacer while I got it tacked up.
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Bob Korves said:
A 1/2" by 4x8' drop? I gotta find that place! Good score!
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We're lucky to have a steel supplier here. They have an 'outlet' store for all us little guys. You never know what you might find. I misspoke on the size it was 4'x6'+. Best I can tell they just cut the end off of what was originally a 4'x8' and threw it on the pile. Of course it had been there long enough that it took half a dozen bear-tex grinder disks and a new set of respirator filters to get to the shiny stuff.
 
easttex said:
This is going to be one hell of a stout table when you're done with it!
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I definitely have a little bit of an "overbuilding" problem. But I did want something that i could pound on - depending on how the welding goes - I might have to resort to the BF Hammer for those fine adjustments! :grin:
 
While your on the subject of cleaning mill scale and rust from metal, I discovered something interesting this week. The guy on Welding Tips and Tricks had a video series on building a welding cart and he used a 3M bristle disc to clean up rust and mill scale on scrap metal. It seemed to work pretty well in the video so I bought a 4.5 inch one from Amazon for $27. I used the same brown disc he used (36 grit) and it works great. I cleaned up both sides of a 3 ft section of 4"x 1/2" mill scale crushed metal in a few minutes.
Edges will knock the bristles off but they can be touched up with a flap disc before welding.
 
catoctin said:
While your on the subject of cleaning mill scale and rust from metal, I discovered something interesting this week. The guy on Welding Tips and Tricks had a video series on building a welding cart and he used a 3M bristle disc to clean up rust and mill scale on scrap metal. It seemed to work pretty well in the video so I bought a 4.5 inch one from Amazon for $27. I used the same brown disc he used (36 grit) and it works great. I cleaned up both sides of a 3 ft section of 4"x 1/2" mill scale crushed metal in a few minutes.
Edges will knock the bristles off but they can be touched up with a flap disc before welding.
Click to expand...
I am not familiar with that style disc. How about a part number or a link to one. Sounds interesting...
 
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