a quality workbench is one of the most important tools for a workshop and having a modern one is
even more crucial it gives the my room to design and create in my journey of metal
fabrication i believe there are certain welding products that are the first stepping stones
for me it was building a world fixture table for my home garage to help me bring my ideas to life
hi i'm ron de socenda and in this video i'll take you through the diy process of how i built this
welding table all from scratch in my garage using basic tools so kicking off this project
my main goals in mine for this table was it needed to be large enough to fit my needs
and be able to hold pieces in an accurate and repeatable way this was what i was working with
before it was a cheap welding table for small and simple projects but for anything larger
the garage floor was my best friend but like many home garage floors it was somewhat flat
and there's a saying you can only build something as flat as a surface you have to work with
a small table and an even floor wasn't cutting it i found it difficult to accurately hold parts in
place and struggled to keep it flat i spent a few weeks researching different fixturing tables to
buy but they were all really expensive at the end of the day i decided to take a plunge and
design and build one from scratch this meant i could take the best features from each welding
table that i researched and apply them into the welding table i was planning to build
before i order cut any materials i jumped into my favorite 3d program solidworks to maul it all out
some people like to build as they go but working first in cad enables me to see the design in 2d
and 3d before anything is made it also helps me identify issues early on
so let's break down the table design so when building a world fixturing table
i think these are the four main important factors to consider one a table top size and hole pattern
two table height three mobility and leveling and four
tool storage you should also add to it for anything that is crucial for your workflow
because this table would be used in my home garage i went with an overall dimension of
67 inches long by 43 inches wide and i used a half inch thick plate i feel like the 43 inch
width is still a reachable distance without having to walk to the other side of the table
and using a half inch thick plate would take the abuse and would less likely warp over time
for the whole pattern i chose to go with a standard 5 8 diameter hole
on 3 inch center commercially the tables i've researched are about 2 inches on
center but going that route would mean i would have to drill 693 holes versus 273
there's a universal rule that says that comfortable table height it's close to waist level
i use my office standing desk to get a realistic sense of feel
for me i measured something around 34 inches to work best the standard seems to be about 36 but
if i ever needed more tail white i think i could just add some blocks underneath
i wanted a table that wasn't too short or too tall
too short may cause you to bend over making it tougher on your back
or vice versa too tall would cause you to have to reach up more often causing heart fatigue
to help organize my squares grinders flat discs and other items i designed in the pegboard system
for anything larger i designed in the storage rack for the bottom base
i kept it pretty simple as i expect changes as i evolve with the table
now most of the details worked out i created a build plan and a shopping list of what i would
need to get i'll leave a link in the description for the build plans if you want to follow along
to pick up this steel material i rented a trailer and went to my local mounting yard
unloading was a bit of a challenge forklift would have been nice right now lucky i was
able to call up a good friend to help out it was a little tricky but unless we got it unloaded
i started first making cuts for the crosstalk bracing and the table legs
to make repeatable cuts i made a simple jig that would serve as a stop
to knock off the burrs that were left over after the cuts i use a metal belt grinder
for the table legs i used some two and a half square tubing and then cut and drilled out the
holes for the caster plate as i was welding the legs to the plate i made sure to allow clearance
for the bolt hole for when i installed the casters so now that the legs are done we're actually going
to build the top part of the framing um you can see right now we have um one half done
i'm actually going to show you guys how to do the second half and after that i'm going to connect
the two together so that's kind of the breakdown of the top frame and yeah we'll see how it goes
so when we put our legs up there'll be this gap right here we'll need to shave down the weld
so that it's smooth and then this could butt up against it nice and nice and flush and be exactly
perpendicular to this piece here and i'll use something like this on a die grinder it's kind
of one of those round bits here you can actually use a flat biss if you have one of those curved
flat discs to get in it but this is kind of what i have right now so we're just going to use this
now to get the four table legs welded to the cross bracing
after everything was welded now was a good time to install the casters
cutting the table plate there's a few ways to go about this
i use a circular saw with the metal sermon plate to be honest i wasn't too confident
especially cutting through half inch thick plate across a long stretch
to keep the saw trying straight i used some flat bar as a guide
i started with a short distance first to see how this would pan out i would go about 10 inches
then stop and let myself take a break or until my batteries took a dump
to my surprise it actually cut okay and left the clean surface
the other side however didn't go so well i realized the blade had prematurely dull
i tried cutting slower but noticed the blade wandering
instead i went back to the traditional carbide this because it was cheaper and this time instead
of trying to cut through half inch still in one pass i would make a series of multiple
passes cutting incremental depths of about a sixteenth and this time i wore a full face mask
after making a serie of passes this seemed to do the trick
i wanted to find an accurate and consistent way to drill these fixing holes i then saw a video made
by a youtuber named retroweld and he seemed like he made a homemade jig and he used the 5 8 angry
cutter attached to a mag drill now if you have access to a cnc laser or a water jet even better
but today we're going to focus on how we can get this done using basic tools to make this jig the
first thing i did was butt up the mag drill to the angle to measure the distance to the pilot pin
then mark the center the center hole distance to make my first set of drill holes i positioned the
angle on the table and drilled through both the angle and the half inch plate once it appears you
want to make sure the mag drill is but flush against the angle before each hole is drilled
you can look at this like your datum or reference point to do the next set of holes
i would need to add three plates to the jig and drill the holes so that they were positioned
three inches on center from the hole previously drilled on the angle hopefully this makes sense
after getting the three place position i tacked them into place
just completed the jig to drill the remaining holes more consistently here's a quick concept
i simulated using solidworks to keep the jig from moving i used my friction clamps and used 5
8 shoulder bolts instead of the standard ones because they held the tighter tolerance
this would help reduce the tolerance stack as each set of holes were drilled after i finished
my second set of holes to check for proper hole alignment i use a long square to see
if my holes are straight and perpendicular to one another you want to do this for each set of holes
drilled to make sure everything is still lining up it took me about two hours to do 39 holes
14 hours later 270 holes were drilled i was pretty happy how the jig had performed
to give the table a more professional look and to break the sharp edges left by the drilled holes
they needed to be chamfered to get good results i actually got a tip from 6l designs
he recommended that i use a wood router with variable speed and set it to the lowest setting
using a carbide to flute chamfer router bit i didn't set my desired depth and speed and plunge
i was actually surprised how well this worked it left a clean uniform chamfered to do the other
side i used my engine hoist with some straps and eyeballs to flip it over to keep me from
catching the four corners of the table i rounded it off using a flat disc and chamfered the edges
i think adding power is a great option for a welding table most of the time i find myself
having multiple tools plugged in i thought about using a power strip but decided to wipe some boxes
because being able to access power at any of the four corners just makes things easier also it
seems to be a more durable and permanent solution at first i was going to weld the top plate to the
frame with a series of tacks underneath but i was afraid it would cause a plate to warp
instead i decided to bolt down the plate using some countersink bolts
i then measured and marked where my holes would be drilled
you can see here i used some half inch bolts to temporarily keep the plate sandwiched down
and to prevent the plate from shifting while i drilled
i grabbed my mag drill and swapped out the head for a drill chuck i drilled through the table
plate and tab using a slightly larger bit to give the bolt some wiggle room
then use a one inch countersink bit and drill to
a depth until the head of the screw was flush with the table
i had about 28 d's to do and lucky i got a little help from my little three-year-old son
then for the last time remove the top plate yet again to get
better access to the tabs to finish up the welds
while the tabletop was off i figured this would be a good time to get the catch trays installed
now it's time to put the table top back onto the frame for the last time
originally when i was building my table legs i left this area to allow clearance for my legs
for when i would sit down at the table at work but i also knew i wanted a place to store large items
after weighing the pros and cons i went in the direction of having more storage space
i decided to give the metal cutting blade a try and this time to cut like butter especially on
thinner sheets i used it to cut down some 16 gauge perforated metal that were served as the
rack after it was cut to size i didn't notch the corners to clear the table legs to install
it i'd use some self-tapping screws this would allow me to easily remove it from when i would
paint the frame or change something down the line to organize items that i would use frequently i
incorporated a metal pegboard into the table i've seen this used on the walls of my garage
and i thought it would be a good idea to have an installer on the table i went with one made by a
company called wall controls normally this would be installed into wood studs but because it was
going on a welding table i used some 5 8 tubing and insulated behind the form part of the pegboard
to keep the install clean i riveted them in and installed the board onto the table using some fast
so the table sits pretty flat right now and i think i can make it even flatter um the way
we mounted the table to the actual table frame uh we're gonna with this with those tabs we're
gonna use those nuts and adjust it so that it's even more flatter so i'll kind of show you how i
do that here with this quick example so here's my mock-up of how i'm going to adjust the top plate
or adjust flatness well with at least half inch at least this is your top boiling plate and this is
the tab that was welded underneath um so how we're gonna adjust flatness is pretty much um you have
your countersink screws here which is this screw here and then you have your three nuts underneath
so let's say you had a low spot so let's exaggerate that real quick so this is a low spot
you can see and you wanted to adjust it up what you would want to do is
first loosen the bottom nut and then tighten this nut so that it raises up you see that there
um and vice versa so let's say you had a high spot and you needed to bring it down
loosen this guy up and then tighten it and then tighten both nuts so that it won't go anywhere
after adjusting the bolts and nuts while using a long leveler
i was able to get the table flat to an allowable flatness
after a few weekends i finally have a welding table that puts a smile on my face every time
i work on it and this grid layout of holes across the table now lets me use a wide range
of fixturing accessories in turn helps me hold pieces in place allows me for better alignment
and support while i weld overall that's my process of how i built this table it took a minute
wasn't easy but was absolutely worth the effort
for me the learning part is why i do diy projects like this i got to use a mag drill for the first
time i always get a chance to improve and i get to learn to cut steel sheet in different ways
because this table is so versatile i try to find any reason to use it even for woodworking projects
i now feel more confident in the quality of work and the result i can produce
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that's it for me thanks for watching