Welding bench thickness

I made a welding table with a thin sheet of steel for the top. And it worked well, but I stiffened the top by welding on a bunch of angle iron on the back side of the top.

Dan

Any kind of thickness starting from 1/8 (reinforced on the bottom with angle) will work great. Thicker will be only slightly better.

I have used several welding benches with different thickness tops. When I built my own I used 3/4 inch thick steel with 2 inch square tubing for the legs and the frame. I wanted thick steel so I could clamp stuff when welding and it would remain flat. I made a mistake when making the frame. I put the square tubing even with the edges of the plate. This means that when I clamp stuff near the edges, which happens a lot, I need to use pretty big clamps. My bench is 2 x 3 feet and is on heavy duty casters so that it rolls around easily, which I need because of cramped space. I welded two 1/4" thick plates that measure about 2" x 3" in the frame corners at the back of the bench for the ground clamps from the welders. If I had to do it again I would space the square tubing about 3" back from the front and sides of the top. I would still use a 2' x 3' frame at the bottom for the casters though. Eric

My table at work is a 5'x18' grid top of 11ga 1" box tube on about 1' centers. Most of what we weld is open framework of steel and Aluminum box tube. I have a 2"x2"x3/8" angle iron fence on two sides to make a square corner since almost everything has either a square corner or is drawn so I see the square and the offsets from each side. With the grid, most welds fall off the grid, so with proper clamping I can weld all the way to the bottom without worrying about welding to the table.

I have a feeder on a shop made boom arm flying over the table, so I can reach anywhere on the table, and quite a ways off the table without ever moving the power source.

Stuart