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Welding and fixture tables.... was getting ready to order this one but

Looks nice, but why would you want a tool steel top for welding? Even worse why would you want it coated? Sounds like a bunch of useless fluff.
Good point. At first when I read it, I was like "huh, that's neat"... Then, I thought about it... If I was
That table looks low to me. Look how the guy is bent over. That would kill me after a couple of hours. Plus, they are trying to hide how low it is. On a page full of specifications they left out table height. Lame.

I am sorry, but I can not suggest a better. For that kind of money you could buy an old planer and get a superflat uber rigid cast iron table with lots of tee slots for clamping. Scrap the rest of the planer and get a good chunk of your money back.

I have a fixed welding table now, but for years I used a piece of 3/8" plate set on a 55 gallon drum. It made a fine little welding table. It was pretty flat but if I needed it dead flat I could always shim things. When I was done welding I leaned the plate against a wall and turned the drum upside down and just let them be out in the Seattle rain year after year. Every so often I'd knock the rust off the plate and then wipe down the plate with boiled linseed oil. After a few years it stopped rusting. That table has been in continuous use since the '80s and many many projects have been built on it. My total cost in it was zero, not counting the linseed oil and rags.

metalmagpie
Put the boiled linseed oil on when it's HOT.

Sort of an old blacksmith's technique... I guess.

When you're done forging something like a piece of hardware that you don't want to rust, you wipe it with linseed oil. Getting it cooled to the right temperature is a bit of a trial and error game, but once it's cool enough to take the oil, but hot enough to let it soak in and burn it a little at the same time, it makes a very resilient finish. All of my hammers and other forging tools have this finish. I used one of my hammers out in the yard a while back and it got left outside for a few days. Ended up buried in leaves and I couldn't find it. It sat there for over a month (Virginia weather - plenty of rain) and didn't rust.

A steel grate over a 55 gallon drum works good for welding and cutting, too. Gives a safe place for most of the sparks to go.

If I'm not going to be in the shop after a cut, I take the work outside, clamp it to my burn barrel, and cut over that. Usually the sparks DO catch the contents of the barrel on fire. Its on bare dirt and nothing flammable close by, so I just cover the barrel and let it smolder.
 
The Linseed oil leaves a pretty finish, anyway... If you apply a few coats, it's a nice semi-gloss.

All of my wooden hammer handles are soaked in linseed oil, then charred, then oiled again. Very durable and doesn't give you blisters like a polyurethane coated handle (rub one hand on a piece of oiled wood, rub the other on a piece of poly sealed wood with a shiny finish...)
 
Nothing beats a 1" thick plate

Fully customizable
Cut to size
Plenty of meat to grind on


I thought that too, until I got a couple of 5 x 5 Weldsale platens. Holes for hold downs throughout the table. I can still chase them around the shop with a 20# sledge, but at 3500# I don't chase them very far. I have 1 1/2" threaded bar I use through the holes and enerpac equipment to make a 5' x 5' press.
 
As been mentioned it depends, when not fabricating in place I favor heavy 1" plate with deep overhangs for clamping, discarded hydraulic blocks of known squareness and weight, and the odd tack weld. More involved is fabrication of a fixture. But then I started in blacksmithing and we'd often pound the hell out of it, bend it or heat it in place. Weld splatter come off easy with a DA, volatilizing paint on the other hand will never see me with a coated table.
 
Curious if anyone is using and has an opinion on Fireball’s cast iron welding tables. I use his squares and like them.
 
I've always coveted a cast iron Acorn, but it's never risen to the top of the acquisition list
 
I've wanted a nice flat rigid welding table for a long time. I finally found this 36"x48" T slot table at an auction. I made some risers to get it up to 36" high and made myself some hold downs out of HF clamps. I've got a nice "medium sized" angle plate for making things square. For an amateur, this thing is the bee's knees.
 

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Went to an auction preview yesterday and they had 2 Siegmund 2000x4000 mm tables (That's 6.5x13 feet!) The largest they make.

So I'm online at the auction today and they go for $22k each. (Plus 18%, plus loading...) The guy buys both.

Sad thing is:

1. They were advertised as unused but had weld splatter on both and one had a single bad grinder mark

2. New price is $18,500 and they're in stock

Auction fever is real.
 
Went to an auction preview yesterday and they had 2 Siegmund 2000x4000 mm tables (That's 6.5x13 feet!) The largest they make.

So I'm online at the auction today and they go for $22k each. (Plus 18%, plus loading...) The guy buys both.

Sad thing is:

1. They were advertised as unused but had weld splatter on both and one had a single bad grinder mark

2. New price is $18,500 and they're in stock

Auction fever is real.


I could not believe when I saw what they went for in the end either.
 
For larger stuff like sheetmetal and frames, I like a slat style table. Two 6061 beams parallel with channel bolted down with countersunk bolts as needed. Easy to clamp to and make big fixtures quickly. Can throw a sheet over the top for solid surface if need be. Big fan of aluminum extrusions, tend to have much better mfg tolerances than mild steel.

For smaller precision stuff I like some 1" plate with thru holes like the one you shared. Just have some A36 Laser cut and blanchard ground. I have a good CAD file for a table I designed if you want. It's maybe 3*6'.
 
DDoug.
A comment in response comes to mind; but there's been a very good initiative on this site recently to clean up some of the content; so I'll take the high road.

My point here was to share something I thought might be of general interest, to a post now several weeks old. A welding platten about 60 ft x 100 ft.
Bob
 
DDoug.
A comment in response comes to mind; but there's been a very good initiative on this site recently to clean up some of the content; so I'll take the high road.

My point here was to share something I thought might be of general interest, to a post now several weeks old. A welding platten about 60 ft x 100 ft.
Bob
So you spamming now ?

The OP's linked table is of the new generation.

Do you change out air tools by taking off a hose clamp ? of course not, you simply use a quick coupler.
Same with these new tables.

FWIW I have designed and had built large quick change tables 10' wide x 80' long.
 








 
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