Angle iron vs. square tub for welding projects?

I'm planning on welding several benches and carts for my shop and was wondering when to use square tube vs. angle iron.

When I made my welding bench last year, I used 1/4" X 1.5" x 1.5" angle iron that I scrounged via dumpster diving.

However, I'm making a new bench for my benchtop drill press and small lathe and was considering using square tube (3/4" x 1/8"). The dimensions of the bench will be 5' long x 30" high x 24" deep.

Any reason why most of the projects I see in books and online use angle iron over tube? Is it just because angle is less expensive? Easier to work with? I would think that one would be able to use smaller tube as it would be stiffer than angle for a given size.

A local rental center carries a 135A Lincoln mig welder which I was planning on using that to weld these projects. I was thinking that the 135A welder (using flux core) would do a better job on

1/8" material than 1/4".

Thanks for your thoughts, Aaron

Reply to
Aaron Kushner
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Hi Aaron, It really boils down to what is the best for the application. I use a chop saw, so cutting mitres in either tube or angle is not a problem. With tubing, if the corners are not mitered, then the ends should be filled, both for appearance & strength. My lathe stand is built from 1.5" x 1.5" x 0.25 angle & is bolted both to the floor & a brick wall. Lots of other projects are built from square or rectangular tubing. A little design work first can produce very strong constructions. One of my workbenches consists of 6, 2" square tubes concreted in the floor, with 3 pieces of light railway line welded accross the tops, then 2 more pieces of railway line 8' long welded to them lengthwise, upside down & a piece of 0.5" steel plate

3' x 8' welded to those. It doesn't move & the top overhangs so that it is easy to sweep clean. Another point is that the front of the bench overhangs by about 4", great for being able to clamp things to it for welding. In lots of cases using tubing where I want to put a through bolt, I drill one side out to perhaps 0.75" (depends on tubing & bolt size) & make a spacer to fit in the tube so that it is a little below the surface & then use a large washer to cover the hole. This way the spacer tightens on the side of the tube that is not drilled out, while the washer tightens on the side that is. This way you can really tighten the bolt without crushing the tube. Another tip, around here, we have periodic hard rubbish collections where housholders put stuff on the kerbside for collection that wont fit in the normal bin, I used to collect the crisper draws from old refrigerators, give them a scrub out with detergent & water, they make great storage bins in the workshop. Plastic ones for lighter items, steel ones for heavier bits. Cheer's Ian. (Oz)
Reply to
ian

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