Welding Table

Are you going to bevel that 3/16” square tubing for the weld joints for the purpose of full weld penetration? If it were 1/4” or thicker you would need to bevel it.

The 3/16” is .188” so I would use an angle grinder to get about 45° bevel angle & leave about a .030”-.035” land.

I don’t think that I have ever achieved full pen on 3/16” with square (i.e. unbeveled) edges, and I weld crazy hot.

My welding table is on wheels & it is the only table in the shop, so it sees a lot of use as a workbench. I am VERY glad that it is on wheels.
 
Last edited:
erikmannie said:
Are you going to bevel that 3/16” square tubing for the weld joints for the purpose of full weld penetration? If it were 1/4” or thicker you would need to bevel it.

The 3/16” is .188” so I would use an angle grinder to get about 45° bevel angle & leave about a .030”-.035” land.

I don’t think that I have ever achieved full pen on 3/16” with square (i.e. unbeveled) edges, and I weld crazy hot.

My welding table is on wheels & it is the only table in the shop, so it sees a lot of use as a workbench. I am VERY glad that it is on wheels.
Click to expand...

Yes I will bevel them.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
For what it's worth, when you weld the top framing only weld the vertical portion of each joint. Welding the the legs on the outside 2 edges will be strong enough too. The welded stretchers at the bottom of the legs will keep the legs pulled in against the outside welds on top. Welding on the top and bottom of the top framing WILL pull the framing up or down.
 
Firstram said:
For what it's worth, when you weld the top framing only weld the vertical portion of each joint. Welding the the legs on the outside 2 edges will be strong enough too. The welded stretchers at the bottom of the legs will keep the legs pulled in against the outside welds on top. Welding on the top and bottom of the top framing WILL pull the framing up or down.
Click to expand...
Probably worth detailing how I'm cutting these so I'm clear on what you are saying.

The top will be bolted to a top frame. I've mitered the four corners. IF all seams were welded then there would be 4 outside corners, 4 inside corners, 4 top seams from inside to outside corners and 4 bottom seams from the inside to outside corners. I was planning on grinding the bottoms flush and then welding those to the tops of the legs.

EDIT: added screen shot for clarity.

1613404691386.png

The stringers are self explanatory.

Is what I detailed above proper? I mean, a few welds of what I'm planning will be plenty strong enough - but I would like to practice the technique, order of operations and minimize any movement for obvious reasons. Anyway, thanks for the feedback!
 
Last edited:
There is really no need to weld out the top and bottom seams.
I would only weld the 4 outside and the 4 inside corners as well as the 4 verticals on the center stringer. This will keep all of the distortion in one plane and the top will stay flat.
The same thing with the legs, a weld on the inside edge will tend to pull the top framing down. If you only weld the 8 outside corners the top will stay flatter.
Weld out the bottom as you see fit, that shouldn't affect the top. Try it, if you feel it's not strong enough you can always weld it out later.
 
Welding table looks good. Very similar to what I built.
Big question is.... what's the project??? :D
 
Can I ask what the cost was to laser the top out? I have a piece of 1/2" material that I've procrastinating on about drilling 3x8 sheet that's a lot of holes! Then do you grid the holes or offset them 3", 2.5" spacing man all the decisions. My plan was a mag drill annular cutter 5/8" hole. Friend has plasma table but I'm worried about a square cut hole which a plasma always has a slight angle to the cut. Laser or water jet is the way to go.
 
Looks like it will make a nice useful but simple welding table.

I have one of those HF folding welding tables, but my primary welding table is just a fabricated tubular steel frame with wheels and a plywood top that came with my shaper, and a 2x3 foot hunk of 1/2" steel plate that I got from the local metal supply's drops rack. Someday I will get around to making a real welding table but this cobbled together one has worked surprisingly well for my needs.
 
I made a welding table out of one of those Certiflat table kits which are also laser cut. And yeah, its flat. It does have some high and low points that vary up to 30 thou but good enough for me. Just take your time, spread that heat out, and measure measure measure and it'll be fine.
 
Cadillac said:
Can I ask what the cost was to laser the top out? I have a piece of 1/2" material that I've procrastinating on about drilling 3x8 sheet that's a lot of holes! Then do you grid the holes or offset them 3", 2.5" spacing man all the decisions. My plan was a mag drill annular cutter 5/8" hole. Friend has plasma table but I'm worried about a square cut hole which a plasma always has a slight angle to the cut. Laser or water jet is the way to go.
Click to expand...
Well, I have access to a laser cutter at work + offcuts/can purchase at cost. My cost is about $115 for the 304 3/16" material. I did the CAD in Draftsight and essentially we can just dump the dxf on a thumb drive and take it to the machine. No programming time needed.

The total cutting time for this sheet size and thickness was about 15 minutes. Multiply by (insert shop rate here) a shop rate and you can take it from there. However, if you go laser or plasma you should consider that you will get some slag depending on the shop and their programming and shielding capabilities.

Our laser can do 1/2" mild steel with some slag when cutting with shop air, it's pretty clean with Nitrogen - at that thickness you start to get warping. I would seriously consider water-jet over laser or plasma for that thickness.

I think you would be looking at close to two-three hours of cutting time of a sheet that size.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top