Rob ---

CUT FIRST -- THEN COOK... got to preheat!!

Another source for the levering feet is www.reidsupply.com

Found some more interesting designs and accessories.

I like the idea of a pull out roller drawer up under the table top to store common welding tools and stuff (gloves, picks, wire brushes, etc) and the bottom should be mesh/grate like the one's shown below.

Mine will be placed up against the wall most of the time - so I plan to put up the screen (removable) like the Miller ArcStation LS below. That way I can grind into the screen and not spray all over my garage.

Check the tool rest on the Miller ArcStation on the right side - it has 'slots' for the grinder wheels to drop into. That's a nice piece.

Think I'll build a 6 in deep cabinet under the top on the back plain with shelves inside to store consumables.

I almost have mine figured out - how about you ??

Jim

Jim --

Love the Miller version --

I like the way the one guy used a tool box for his drawers.

A couple of the other tables would be hard to clamp to. Clamping is critical for me.

What's this whining about grinding and sparks in the garage.... ?? Dude! (Spicolli) is this your man cave or are you wearing an apron? :rofl:

Have you seen pictures of this garage? I've been in Hospitals that aren't that clean! :bow:

Jim,

Send me the sketches and I'll model it for you!

:rofl: LOL ! Leather Shop Apron with skulls and demons ?? :lol:

My shop is in my garage - so I have the wife's car and my truck in there. Plus, I just don't like to clean for hours to get all the grinding crud off all the shelves, TV, deep freeze, tools and tool boxes, etc. Then the carpets get dirty, the wife gets involved and she takes away all my play money ....

:cheers:

Thanks Chad !!

Been there buddy... been there most of my life. It gets worse when you live up here in the Pacific NorthWET and you make your wife park outside for a few months while you're doing a teardown... Then you get the daily teeth marks in your butt... :lol:

You need a "dust collector system" with spark arrester pre-filter!

I like that green table with the threaded holes for clamping. My Dad used to have something similar, the holes were countersunk quite deeply so that they wouldn't get damaged if stuff was dragged across the table, etc.

I think I will make one with a 3/4 plate and lay out a grid on maybe 6" centers on which to drill and tap holes. Use a portable magnetic drill press to drill the holes. Should be fun. Added to my project list at position #146.

on that Miller station, the way that they made a little fixture to hold the 4" grinder by the wheel. That's a good idea.

Mark- That is one serious table, nice job.

Check out the tables and the accessories for them...

This is just ONE page of the catalog posted as an easy link.

http://www.bluco.com/welding/catalogd16/tables.html

Here is a video w/the Bluco table.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uN9h4...layer_embedded

Lots of good info here!
Mine on paper is 30 inches by 60 inches. Was planning on having holes around the frame under the top to bolt things to and a vice mounted. I was thinking of a 1/8 inch thick top shimmed level and bolted to the top but from everyone's posts that seems too thin. I was also planning on having the front open so I could roll things under it when not in use. Looks like I have to go to back to the drawing table and work on table mkII.

30 inches is the max width because I have to get through a door that is 31 inches wide.

Jon

Hi Jon,

The Miller ArcStation above is also 30 x 60. Looks like I'll go with 36 x 36 or a 36 x 48 with a 3 or 4 inch overhang back to where the top support connects to the top for a clamp edge - while I'll also add a 1/2 x 13 grid of threaded holes inside the support so I can clamp Enco machine clamps as hold-downs in the grid.

1/4 top is to thin IMO. I'm going minumum 1/2.

Nothing wrong with redesign since you're still in the paper stage. That's the best time to make a change and is the reason I started looking for ideas before I chopped up a bunch of steel.

Jim

Here is a top leveler design from the guys at offroadfab site that looks interesting if you need to have a very flat surface over time.

"The 1/2" plate top had five pieces of 1/2" x 1 3/4" bar stock welded to the underside of it, perpendicular to its length. So because of this the plate had a substantial bow to it. I needed to have a way to pull the middle of the plate back down (flat) so I welded three all-thread studs to each of the stringers making for a total of 15 studs. The studs are welded on the stringers at 16" centers giving me a left a right and a middle. On the frame that I built for the table I made five crossmembers with three tabs each to correspond with the all-thread, the all-thread studs pass through the tabs with a nut top and bottom each tab. Having a nut top and bottom lets me either pull the plate down (with the bottom nut) or jack the plate up (with the top nut). The plate only rests on the frame at the four corners (the 2 x 4 tube is welded 1/4" down from the top of the corner legs) so that if there was any bow in the frame upwards (which there wasn't) I would be able to still pull the plate to flat. Then it was just a matter of pulling or jacking with the nuts on the all-thread studs and the use of a straight edge to get the plate flat. It seemed to work well and if I did it again I would do it the same way."

Jim

More interesting accessories.

Pull out tray with grid for torch/plasma cutting.

Installed grid with pull out stainless dump pan under top.

Dual round tube welded (or bolted) to leg with opening in middle to bend sheet/thin plate - 2 different sizes installed. (can store rod inside of tubes too)

A simple hangar bar

And one has tube openings in mid-leg to insert brackets to hold steel and tooling mounts. (some at the table height too work the same) I also saw one table designed with a telescopic table top end on the left side that had smaller dia tubes sliding the full length out of the upper top mount tubes (think expandable dining room table top). That allowed him to expand the table several feet bigger when needed. I'll see if I can find that again.

Jim

Levelers and retractable caster ideas.

Jim

So here's the COMMON theme amongst most all of them:

They're HEAVILY built - with big heavy tops - heavy legs - and they're sturdy.

I don't want to see any more METAL working tables with particle board tops - that's just WRONG! :willy: :P

SO get busy building already!! You're over thinking it.

By the way - the 4' X 8' X 1/2" sheet I started with - weighs NINE HUNDRED POUNDS -- so be prepared to lift (somehow) some very heavy stuff! When they loaded the sheet in my PU -- I had them put some "dunnage" (I brought with me) UNDER the back end... I then welded D rings on all 4 corners... Hooked it to my hoist - and slowly pulled forward. I built mine upside-down and then tilted it on its side and then once more til upright - using my lift.

I found that if I put the cheapy car dollys under each leg at one end - I can lift the other with my floor jack and move it wherever I want to.

Neat lock down system. Ball lock. Check link for desc.


http://www.brownmachinerysupply.com/...1A3C3B28535541

Closer to 650 pounds, but, still a heavy s.o.b.

Mine was 24 kt gold plated -- so closer to 900!! :rofl: :rofl:

1/2 hot roll plate wt.# 20.42 per sq.ft. 32sq.ft.x 20.42# is 653.44 if the plate 48inch x 96inch. 3/4 plate wt# 980.16 FYI

You forgot the weight of the gold I had mine plated....:rofl:

here is my bench that I made with some tubing an old solid core door some old office supplies.fabbed it about ten years ago going to finish it soon. with rod holders for tig filler rods.taking one of the drawers out to move the cooler below with a set of bearing slides to service.the top is 36x72 1/2 plate. and a vice that is MADE IN USA.!
http://i643.photobucket.com/albums/u...0tools/018.jpg

Chad delivered on the models for the welding table - man that guy is good !!

Used many of the ideas posted here. 30 x 48. 1/2 steel top to reduce weight. No front lower cross bar so I can sit under and weld. Levelers with casters. 4 inch grid pattern drilled into the top to accept 3/8 NC machinest clamps and blocks. 2 electrical outlet on the front cross bar (1 left - 1 right) to plug in grinders and stuff. Racks down the left and right legs to hang stuff - in my case left rack is for 1 inch to 10 inch C clamps. The right side is for grinders and fender vise grips on first hanger and normal vise grips on the other. A 12 inch deep shelf on the bottom to hold equipment mounted to 12 x 12 plates that attach to the welding top (shrinkers, tube bender, tube notcher, T-posts, vise, etc) and a removable 3 piece grinding screen to help control the crud spray.

Chad is still adding to the design with a full length drawer under the top to catch the crud coming thru the table grid and we're working on a 5 inch deep cabinet that mounts under the table and between the back 2 legs to store consumables (mig rolls, rod, tips, cups, liners, etc)

And did I say - Chad is the Man ! :thumbsup:

Jim

Very nice design! Chad does nice work!

This is my work bench. I use it for tig welding. It got kinda filled up with other stuff. 3x8'x1.5". Was kinda heavy to lift up with my lil engine lift. Works for me. Seconds as an anvil :thumbsup: JR

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v3.../Weldtable.jpg

Im very limited on space so it has to do double duty. Kinda cramped in my garage..


http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v3...0site/both.jpg

1.5 thick - man you aren't hurting that table anytime soon !

Info on the machines in there ? Table Mill, and lathes ?

Jim

JR

You can't show "us" pictures of way kool stuff and not spill your guts!! That's just WRONG! :rofl:

Looks like it might be cramped - but cramped with all the right stuff!

1.5 THICK DAMN!! I think you might be overloading it without anything on it. What did that thing weigh??

#1470.24 + the wt.# of the legs & frame.

LOl.. Funny.. Yup, it was a load to lift with the engine lift, a lil at a time to get it up on the legs, was kinda scary..

Machines?? A few. Bridgeport boss cnc converted to ah-ha control. The lil mill on the table is a RF-45 converted to cnc with servos. Its an industrial hobbies system. Got a lil hardinge horizontal on the side. A pretty sweet Monarch 10ee on the floor and across from it my fav southbend 10L lathe with a long bed (love that one). A emco cnc 120 lathe on the other bench top. A 15hp rotary converter drives that. A home built 5hp converter runs the BP. 20" clausing drill press with powered down feed (it doesnt stop for much), servo sensitive drill press, logan metal shaper (my avatar pic), cuttermaster tool bit grinder, baldor carbide grinder, accu-finish lapper for the fine work, milwaukee die filer on the bench, couple of large air compressors, hobart tigwave 250, lincoln mig, thermal dynamics plasma, oxy-act rig, 50 ton press, two wilson rockwell hardness testers, one standard, one superficial, sweet lil paragon digital heat treating oven, 7" bandsaw, abrasive cut off saw, throatless shear (I like!!), small 7" straight shear (worthless), mechanical tubing bender, hydraulic pipe bender, 12" disc grinder, delta 6x48" grinder, two abrasive tumblers, four ultrasonic cleaners, one is a big 2500 watt (not the heating section, thats another 1500 watts) ten gallon unit, five large chests full of accessories for the machines and tooling then four more smaller chests for the tools, granite surface plate for setup, every measuring tool that you could want, full set of gauge pins from .001" to 1" in .001" increments.

The list goes on, its a metalworkers paradise.. I didnt mention the metal stock on hand. Literally thousands of pounds of aluminum, 4140, stainless, hardening steel and mild steel.

I didnt get into the wood working machines. Im not good with wood so some of that work has taken a back seat...

So yup, in my three car garage its tight. But I kinda like it like that. I can turn on my heels and work one machine and pick up a job on the next machine right at arms length. Im used to the tight working envelope. And for some stupid reason I remember where everything is.

Oh, and there is a 62 nova in the garage also.. She doesnt interfere with the metal work. I have a good three feet on each side of her to keep from scratching the primer :)

I love my garage!!!!! Fun to work in and its nice to be able to do what ever comes my way... Dont ask about some of the fun stuff inside the house in my one lil corner of the spare bedroom my wife tries to overlook. There I keep all the sensitive equipment. Like electronics and the stereo zoom microscope... JR

JR

Two things come to mind....

1) Working close with machinery front and back - DO NOT WEAR TIES!

2) The DEA is checking your power meter - they suspect you have a pot growing operation.

I'm so jealous right now! :hail: :hail: :hail:

I'm the opposite of you. I hate being tight for space - so have not bought certain machinery because of that. I do not want to have to move something to use something else. I'm amazed you have that much stuff in there! Wow!

:lateral: :cheers: :woot:

Greg-I see Danica likes to hang around in your "shed". Does she do any work or is she just there for decoration??;)

Cheep -

My wife is a VP/Director at a company that we invested in awhile back... they sponsored 3 Indy Light cars for a couple years. That gave us "access" to go to a race and go ANYWHERE at anytime. The light cars race before the big boys do - and share pit space etc. SO -- I got to actually "engage" with Danica - and her husband... as well as many others. She is very nice when a camera is not shoved in her face - or being hounded by the press. SHE IS HOT HOT HOT - a way better 1 footer than you can imagine! Got a few items signed... They now adorn the shop. Note that they hang out in the OPEN not in the bathroom. :rofl: :rofl:

Hahaha..

Ok, first.

1. I only wear shorts and flip flops in the shop (I know, bad idea), I keep the tie handy for trash day when I need to roll the barrels out. Gotta look professional for trash day :)

2. I have peeps in the DEA, they already have me black flagged. I go out to look at the meter sometimes and its spinning like a friken top!! I have questioned my wife to see if she has an indoor grow hidden in her undie drawer and she denies it, Im still questioning though, I dont believe her..

And I say I like a tight working environment but thats prolly BS. Id love to have a 20,000sqft shop, but not in the plans yet. And I hate having to move things to use a machine, wont use it then. So all my stuff is positioned to where it can be used without moving anything else, cept for the 50 ton press, its on wheels and it takes a minute to roll it out :) JR

I too am very jealous of all those tools JR !!!

Thou shall not commit Shop Envy - oh darn... I'm a goner.

:thumbsup:

Parts
 

Parts that I have ordered are starting to arrive.

Locking casters 4 inch with poly wheels from Grizzly
Levelers from Reid Supply - purdy in nickel finish. Hate to get'em dirty.
Weld Nuts for levelers from my local machine tool center (.60 per pound of stuff)
Heavy duty full extension drawer guides (22 x 2 x ½ and extend fully 23 inches)

I’d go pickup the metal – if it would stop all the raining !!! :willy:

Jim

RAINING -- WE GOT RAINING at BARRETT JACKSON -- I'm thinking the tent might blow away the winds are so strong!!