[Music playing]
So the garage is a mess right now, and today we're going to build a table so I can start stacking
this pile of stuff on top of the table instead of the ground, you know, keeping things organized.
I want to mimic the style of these other tables that I've built. So the metal table I'm building
today is 3 feet by 8 feet, with a height of about 35 inches, give or take. And like the other tables
that I've built, this one is also going to be on wheels because I like the ability to move
everything around. This one is going to be built out of metal. And I have the design in my head,
not so much written down on paper so it's going to be one of those things that we
get started and see how it turns out at the end. That being said, let's get started.
[Intro]
So I have a giant slab of metal here on the ground. I think it's one quarter inch by
three feet by ten feet, and I had my local metal mart, just a company that sells a bunch of metal,
slice that for me. They have a giant pincer machine that made short work of it. And I
also had them cut these pieces of metal here for me that are going to be in, like,
structural supports for the legs. The legs are tucked back in here on this same pile,
and they were taken from the scrap pile and I'm going to use them to mount the castors on
the bottom so it should be interesting to see if it all turns out. The metal slab already weighs
several hundred pounds, so I'm going to build the whole thing on the floor where it's easier.
So this isn't going to be a welding tutorial by any means because I'm not a good welder. I have
one of the most basic welders that are available to just plug into a normal wall outlet- the 110.
I have 220 here in the garage, but I haven't upgraded my welder yet. And I'm welding some
pretty thick metal, and how it works is that this little end right here, every time I click this
button wire comes out of the tip. And when there's an electrical connection made between this tip and
the ground which I have clamped to the metal, this metal that just comes out, the wire, adds metal to
the gap and glues both pieces of metal together. So I'm moving very slowly between one piece of the
metal to another in kind of like an arc to glue, just like a hot glue gun, both of these pieces
of metal together. And I can adjust how much power is coming out of this machine, as well
as the speed of this wire. And using those two variables I can adjust how thick that glue bead
is between the two pieces of metal. And to make a cleaner weld, I have to make sure the metal itself
is really clean. Using acetone is a good way to get rid of all the debris and dust on top because
the cleaner the metal the cleaner your weld is going to be...at least from what I can tell.
So there is one of my welds, and if I brush it off you can see that it's pretty securely gluing
the top metal with this bar that I'm going to use to support the legs. The reason I'm not doing the
whole seam all along the edge is, one, that would take forever. Two, the welds that I'm
making are really strong and, three, if I weld too much in the same spot it'll warp the metal a
little bit. So I'm going, you know, sporadically across the beam so that the top of the metal
isn't warped when I'm done. The last thing I want to show you before I put down the other side rails
is this welding helmet is electronic. So we can see through the welding helmet right now, but as
soon as I start welding this will go dark, I'll show you in a minute, and it protects my eyes.
You can see how the lens instantly dims and only lets me see the bead of light coming from
the weld which is super important because it's so bright that it can damage your eyes really
quick. So now that you know the basics, let's finish gluing these pieces of metal together.
So you can see with this one there is a small curve at the edge of this metal. Start at the
base of the table, curve my way up onto this bar, down, curve up, curve back down, curve up,
all the way down to the end and then it adds a really thick bead of metal along all the welds.
So now I need to cut a piece of metal for the cross beams so the legs will mount to it. And all
I have are woodworking tables now. If only I had a giant metal table that I could do this cut on.
There's several ways to cut metal. There's like a cutoff wheel.
I have a portable band-saw that I could use to cut this off. Or I have a metal
chop-saw. All of them are kind of rough ways of cutting metal but it should get the job done.
So this is a flap disc and it's used to kind of grind down the edge of the metal. Normally
I would use a grinder, but once again I don't have a metal table to mount my grinder to. So....
And that should clean it up enough that we can put it on the table.
So I just realized the reason I ran out of rectangular tubing and had to use angle
iron on the end was because I was supposed to use the angle iron for the entire top,
and the rectangle tubing for the supports on the around the legs.
So that was a mistake. But I don't think it's going to end up being that big of a mistake,
because now I can use that angle iron for brackets for the casters, which you'll see in a second.
So the next thing we gotta do is weld the legs upright. The thing is,
welding won't eat through this rust very well. It needs to have, like, a bare metal connection for
a better weld, so what I'm going to do is take my flap disc and
get rid of that rust so it looks like this and there's going to be a better weld.
So I have two levels on legs to kind of tell me if it's tilting left or right, but the problem is,
is that the slope of the garage is also at an angle so the levels aren't doing a perfectly
good job of keeping the leg perpendicular with the table top. So what I've used is this square,
and the square does a much better job of telling me if the leg is perpendicular
to the table top and then I can just move this around to the other side.
So far that's been the way I've found that works the best to keep the legs up.
So now I have chopped up another piece of angle iron and I've put it at the base of the feet.
Remember this whole table's going to be flipped over...someday. And right here, we can see that
the angle iron is going to be making a shelf once it is flipped over. And that piece of wood
over here is going to be a bottom shelf. Just like I've done with all of my other tables,
there's going to be storage space on top and below. Now it's time to weld up the angle iron.
Woops. I accidentally melted my clamp.
I've got extras.
Since I'll be putting wheels on top of this, I just took that bead of weld and ground it down
so it'll be flat with the surface and the wheels won't be tilted scawampous.
Both long cross bars are welded in place. And now we have these short crossbars to put up.
But these are a little bit different. I can't just weld them in place as they are. Remember,
this piece is a bottom shelf for the wood and we need this to also be a shelf matching up
right here, but we need the back end to extend to the edge of this so we can weld it and it'll
still be a support. So basically we have to cut this much off the crossbar so that it'll rest
in between this piece of angle iron and this piece of angle iron. You'll see what I mean in a minute,
and we will be using a cut off wheel for this. It's not a flap disc, it's a lot thinner
and it should be able to slice through the metal about as easy as the big chop saw over there.
And now, with this cutout,
we should be able to fit it right in there as the small side of the shelf.
And there we have it, all welded in place.
Now we just need to do the other side and then we're ready for wheels.
So with a table this big and heavy, I needed some pretty beefy wheels and so I decided to go
with metal casters. These are some pretty big ones. They can handle 1,000 pounds per wheel
and the whole table. So 4,000 pounds spread out between all 4 of them
even though the table doesn't weigh that much, I want it to be beefy enough that I can, like,
hammer on the table and the wheels not break or damage, or compress
like rubber wheels would. These...there is no compressing metal. These are mostly
made for high temperature situations, but they weren't even that expensive so I went with them.
Now in order to mount them in place, obviously if I just stuck the wheel on top of it, two of
the bolts would go down in these holes. Now, if I wanted something quick and dirty I could just weld
all 4 wheels straight to the frame, but I want the option of taking the wheels off later. So what I'm
doing is marking out bolt holes on this, drilling through all the way through the angle iron here,
and then just tacking the bolts on the backside of the metal, setting the whole thing down into
place and putting a couple more welds around the side just for good measure.
That way if I want to switch the wheels or take away the wheels entirely I have that option
later. Because once you weld something in place it's relatively permanent...bolts, not so much.
And there you have it. The table is done. Now you might be thinking to yourself, you know, the table
looks a little bit upside down. And you would be right. I haven't quite figured out how I'm going
to flip it yet. I estimate that it weighs around 5 or 600 pounds which is pretty heavy....but
I have an idea.
[Music playing]
Well, at least we know it's well balanced.
[Music playing]
Woo!
There. Easy.
So I added a board down for that bottom shelf. And you might be asking yourself,
'Hey Jerry, why is your table flying?' And that's because I'm actually weighing it right now.
And it is a total of 642 pounds, which is not too bad. It's a pretty big table with lots of room
up top and below for activities. Anyway, thanks for joining me on this project having a little
fun with metal. I'm pretty happy with it. Thanks a ton for watching, and I'll see you around.