Welding Bench (Welding/Metal Working Cross Post) - Tool Gloat

Ok... its not perfect, and at first I didn't want it, but...

A friend is moving across country, and was emptying his garage. He told me to come over and get anything I wanted out of what he was leaving behind. I got some cool old style flip top metal gas cans, A faucet tap kerosene can, a huge metal funnel, couple tow bars that I will salvage the trailer coupler off of, some fence top rail and fence hardware and a big work bench.

Actually all I wanted off the work bench was the vise bolted to one end. Its an old Columbian vise Made in USA. Over the years we have used it for many projects at his house, and while I have broken cheaper cast ones when pounding on something with a 4 pound hammer, or using a cheater bar on the handle this one has never even deflected noticeably that I recall. My buddy told me if I take the vise I have to take the bench and all the storage boxes on the shelves under it. I almost left it, but then I saw all the wire brushes in the drawers, and all the handy looking v-belt pulleys filling one of the larger drawers. I went home and got my trailer. LOL.

Yeah I hauled off a lot of junk to sort through that wouldn't go in his dumpster and will wind up in mine, but I think its worth it.

While we were loading the bench I realize the top is a solid piece of 1/4" steel supported by heavy angle iron. (It took every bit of four of us to load it on the trailer.) I think I just got a new (to me) welding bench. Yeah it won't be good for butt welding, but for everything else, or for working with small hard to clamp to pieces this could be just the ticket. Never having had a welding bench before (and having welded on the floor many times) I wonder if there is anything I need to do other than add a ground lug/stud for the welder lead?

Table:

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Vise:
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Reply to
Bob La Londe
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Nice guy you are! Stripped the place so the next resident will have to start over, again.

The only thing you need to do with the welding table is to make sure the thing is level with no bumps in the surface. I have welded on a concrete floor and then discovered it was not all level. Sure you have, also.

Nice haul!!!1

Paul

Reply to
Paul Drahn

Good haul. Why wouldn't it be good for butt welding? A ground lug is good, but if the legs are metal, the spring clamp that comes with most welders is good. A ground clamp is good also for clamping directly to the work, which is sometimes useful. No reason you can't have both.

I made a serviceable welding table, almost 4x8, from 2x4's, 3/4 ply, covered in pcs of 1/4 HR, not even screwed You could make a serviceable welding table from 1/8 HR screwed to 3/4 ply. The wood underlay makes it quieter, as well, for banging, hammering, etc.

But free and pre-made can't be beat...

Reply to
Existential Angst

Welding to the table? I don't know.

I was actually thinking about bolting a copper stud through the table and using the spring clamp.

I do some stuff (like patching aluminum boats) that definitely won't ever be able to go on the table.

Nope. Tells you that the friend really did appreciate your help over the years too.

Reply to
Bob La Londe

Here's my free bench. I was at a customer's plant last spring and they had replaced it with an Acorn table. It's 4x10 and weighs about 1500#. It's now my fair weather outdoor bench. The wheels are an old trailer axle that slips under the middle and clamps on so it can roll out of the way for the winter -- I call it the ATB (all terrain bench). No free vise though.

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Reply to
Ned Simmons

Congrats! Awesome stuff...

i
Reply to
Ignoramus8327

Nice haul! Get a bar stool with wheels. Sitting down while TIG welding is a fine way to work.

BobH

Reply to
BobH

I'm gonna have a complex. Your bench is bigger, and your tractor is bigger. Atleast I got the cool vise. LOL. I've used that vise a lot in the past nearly 20 years. It sure feels good to have it in my shop now. Ok... its still sitting on the trailer outside. I have not one, but two mills where I would like to put that table. I have a refrigerator and a communications rack where I would like to put the big mill. I need to finish the communications room to move the rack... Now why did I come on here again? LOL.

Reply to
Bob La Londe

Actually brings up an interesting subject ...... welding tables. For me, and what I build, I like a table made out of angle, four feet wide, with long pieces at 12" and 18". BUT, you have to add fortification if you want it flat, and don't want it to flex on big stuff. For some things, a solid one piece top is the way to go. For building fence, it would not be as good. There are compromises to everything. I would not worry about a ground lug, but prefer to ground the workpiece directly, as if you have any grunge on there, it arcs, giving you a new scar on the work piece. There is no perfect welding table, only one that is suited to what type of work you are doing that particular day. As mentioned, do not assume that the table is flat, nor the concrete it may sit on. Once you get it where it's going, you might be surprised just how out of whack it is, where you assumed it would be a flat table on a flat floor.

Steve

Steve

Reply to
Steve B

That vise is about as good as big vises get, and I bet you don't have to drive your bench around the dooryard with the seasons.

The same customer tried to give me a very nice Lucas horizontal boring mill like this:

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But I think they were teasing me -- they knew I'd have to move almost everything else out of my shop just to get it in the door.

Reply to
Ned Simmons

Not a bar stool, get a drafting table chair they are taller like a bar stool, but are adjustable height and better for the task.

Reply to
Pete C.

Forgot to add ......... ten feet long.......

Steve

Reply to
Steve B

Good idea.

I found a hydraulic scissors table minus its broken electric pump cheap, and bought a foot pump from Northern to operate it. It had been a factory assembly table without wheels.

In order to roll it around I bolted inverted hooks to one end and a hitch coupler to the other. The hooks fit over the axle of removeable wheels. With the wheels off it sits solidly on the ground with nothing protruding to snag a heavy object being muscled onto the lowered top.

The hinged hook on the trailer dolly whose photo I posted catches the coupler and raises it enough to slide wood under the base, so I can rock the hook end up to install or remove the axle, which is CRS rod from the hardware store, threaded for a Nylok nut on both ends. This is a very simple and cheap temporary wheel installation.

I couldn't come up with any other way to fit retractible landing gear entirely below the table top level. Otherwise I'd use trailer tongue jacks.

jsw

Reply to
Jim Wilkins

I have an old wheeled chair that is about bar stool height but the chair is on a gas cylinder. Every time I sit on it, it settles to a different height. Still beats standing for most of the welding I do.

BobH

Reply to
BobH

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But I think they were teasing me -- they knew I'd have to move almost

Oooooh! For that I might even put up a shade and park my boat outside. Certainly my truck. LOL.

Reply to
Bob La Londe

A movable holder is a handy accessory for a welding table. It could have a clamp made from an old vise-grip or other quickly reset sort of clamp, so it can be moved around the edge of the table to where it's most convenient/comfortable to reach.

The holder "tree" can include a tube or tray to hold a handfull of rods, and scecure perches for gas torch, MIG/TIG guns, also tip cleaners etc.. numerous things that are always needed at the table.

Reply to
Wild_Bill

"Gunner Asch" wrote

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Even though I like open welding tables, I like the looks of this one. I had $325M coming the other day, but some clown in RI beat me to it. Ah, if I ever hit it, your place is one of the first places I come to. Which is, if I survive a few hedonistic stops on the way. Still trying to set aside some cash for items I know you can provide.

Steve

Reply to
Steve B

Did a little work on the bench today. A week and a half ago the kid and I dragged it outside and turned it upside down. The thing is freaking heavy. Reminds me why we dragged it inside with the tractor in the first place. Amoungst the "junk" my buddy gave me were a couple media drawers intended for direct plug in to some media equipment rack. (not a standard equipment rack They fit between 31-1/4" sides) There was also some 2" steel tube he had started to use to build a CNC foam cutter, and never finished. The tube made great extra legs for the table, and since we already had these two drawers we spaced the legs to hang them under the table.

Now the table is back on its '8' legs and sitting back where it belongs in the shop... with two cool looking metal drawers under it on one end.

Some day I am going to have to spend a day welding various bits of steel scrap with the Miller MIG. I swear I can do better work with the old China Store flux core welder.. Well, better looking anyway. Then I did say I bought it to weld aluminum, and I can do passing fair aluminum work with it. I do wish I had held out for a pulser MIG for aluminum though. Oh, well.

Reply to
Bob La Londe

Ok... its not perfect, and at first I didn't want it, but...

A friend is moving across country, and was emptying his garage. He told me to come over and get anything I wanted out of what he was leaving behind. I got some cool old style flip top metal gas cans, A faucet tap kerosene can, a huge metal funnel, couple tow bars that I will salvage the trailer coupler off of, some fence top rail and fence hardware and a big work bench.

Actually all I wanted off the work bench was the vise bolted to one end. Its an old Columbian vise Made in USA. Over the years we have used it for many projects at his house, and while I have broken cheaper cast ones when pounding on something with a 4 pound hammer, or using a cheater bar on the handle this one has never even deflected noticeably that I recall. My buddy told me if I take the vise I have to take the bench and all the storage boxes on the shelves under it. I almost left it, but then I saw all the wire brushes in the drawers, and all the handy looking v-belt pulleys filling one of the larger drawers. I went home and got my trailer. LOL.

Yeah I hauled off a lot of junk to sort through that wouldn't go in his dumpster and will wind up in mine, but I think its worth it.

While we were loading the bench I realize the top is a solid piece of 1/4" steel supported by heavy angle iron. (It took every bit of four of us to load it on the trailer.) I think I just got a new (to me) welding bench. Yeah it won't be good for butt welding, but for everything else, or for working with small hard to clamp to pieces this could be just the ticket. Never having had a welding bench before (and having welded on the floor many times) I wonder if there is anything I need to do other than add a ground lug/stud for the welder lead?

Table:

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Vise:
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And here I thought you would post a pix of the wire brushes.....

Reply to
Tom Gardner

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