Dream Precision Welding Table / Workbench Build - Modular Plates and Awesome Clamping Options

hello everyone and welcome back to the channel in this video i'm going to be building my dream welding table i have wanted a build pro style welding table for a long time and finally decided i was going to make one for this build i didn't go with laser cut plates due to the warping caused by the heat of cutting all those holes instead i'll be using plates that have been flame cut then ground on both sides since the plates were flame cut the first order of business was to machine all the sides here i have a set of four plates clamped to the table and ready to machine i don't have enough table travel to machine the whole thing in one pass so i've rotated the head to one side which will let me machine one half then i'll rotate the head to the other side and that will let me machine the rest that's why these bridgeport style wheels are so versatile this is how i've clamped the plates to the table on the other side here i'm using a 160 millimeter face mill to machine the sides of the plates and if i remember correctly i used up all four sides on 10 inserts for this job due to the nasty carbon layer left behind by the flame cutting process so that's one half finished now i just need to rotate the head to the other side and finish machining the other half it's turning out pretty good but it's taking a lot longer than i expected [Music] is so that's one side finished and looking pretty i won't show you the machining of the other side as it's all the same with the sides machined it was time to machine the ends with all the plates machined to the same dimensions it was time to start drilling holes so [Applause] so so that's one plate down and only 12 more to go i could do no more than two per day so it took me a little over a week to finish all these plates these pieces are going to be what the plates are going to be bolted to so they'll be welded to the welding table frame then drilled and tapped and then the plates will go on top there are four per plate to give maximum support they're not very even because it's just mild steel bars so i need to square them all off in the middle and then machine them all to the same height [Applause] with that done it was time to start fabricating the top what you see here is all the steel that will be going into the table this was the most crucial step of the whole build process making a flat frame for the plates to go on without a flat surface to work with here i'm cutting four pieces of four millimeter 75 by 50 for the table top well here's my redneck solution to making the tabletop flat and square as you can see you can't have too many clamps it's really taken me a better part of four hours to put it together and level it and square it which can't see on camera is that i've leveled the frame on some four machines jack since my garage floor isn't very flat and i've just clamped a whole bunch of off cuts that i had to the top to make it flat so now it's just time to weld the corners to minimize distortion with a basic rectangle tack together it was time to start adding additional supports to the table top a basic design is to have five parallel beams under the plates and have all the beams welded together for additional stiffness in the end the table top frame should look like a grid this will make the table top very stiff and able to support heavy pieces [Music] so [Music] so so far the table top frame is turning out pretty flat according to this aluminium straight edge there are only a few um small air gaps showing about half a millimeter by my estimates to make the top absolutely flat i'm just going to shim the table top support bars with some shim material that i've ordered from the internet and hopefully that'll allow me to make it totally flat for the plates to go on the next step is going to be to fully weld it i'm going to start from the outside and move my way in to minimize any distortions so i've got the frame all welded up the next step is to start working on the bottom part of the frame starting with the legs and then building the shelves [Music] i'm making the legs out of three millimeter 75 by 75 and i'm trying to get everything as square as possible as you can see sometimes it takes a lot of prep work before welding especially if we want everything straight and square with the legs of the table welded on it was time to start making the bottom shelf i know not too many people will find this part of the build interesting so i've tried to keep it as short as possible [Music] um [Music] at this point the bottom shelf is finished all that's left is to put some sheet metal on it here i'm just cutting some angle iron for the rails for the sliding trays that will stop all the spatter from falling on the bottom shelf [Music] here i'm just cutting some squares out of flat bar that will go on the ends of the table legs and will be used to hold the heavy duty leveling feet that i made in an earlier video [Music] so these are the wheels i'll be putting on the welding table they're rated for 800 kilograms each and they're 200 millimeters in diameter or eight inches and i think they're going to be awesome on this welding table so there are the finished plates for the wheels they're not beautiful but they're very functional and the plates were going to be scrap anyway i've rounded the corners with a grinder so it's just time to weld them on and then give them a good coat of paint so the welding table frame is pretty much finished i've only got a few things left to do such as the trays that catch all the welding dust and spatter and the metal for the bottom shelf but before i can do that i need to figure out how to flip this table over by my estimates it weighs about 200 kilograms now and it's pretty big so it's going to be tricky to flip over here i'll be making the trays that go under the welding table and catch all the welding dust and spatter and stop it from falling on the bottom shelf making the trace ended up being a bit fiddly but well worth it after completing my first project on the welding table there is already a fair bit of bbs and dust on them so [Applause] so so so [Music] i've finally finished welding on the plate support bars and tried to level the top as best as i can unfortunately i haven't succeeded i've started with a warped top and i've ended up with a warped top the mere fact of welding on these plate support bars has actually distorted the top even though i've used very short welds on each bar what you can see is sealant it's not a full weld to the sealant is there just to stop any spots from getting in under the bars that are raised so what i'm going to do now is add set screws to the plates so i can level the top so having said that i could have really saved myself a huge amount of effort and not machined these bars and not cut them into pieces i could have just laid them on welded it and been done with it so let's continue the build here i'm drilling holes in the plates for the set screws the plan is to have four set screws per row this would give me a set screw on both sides of each bolt that holds the plate down so [Music] so the time has finally come to start laying out the plates and drilling and tapping the holes for them to arrange the plates in a perfect grid pattern i just made these templates on a milling machine [Applause] and i'm using these fixture things to space them out correctly and since i know that each plate is exactly the same size once these go in i just have to make sure that the edges line up and i know it's nearly perfect [Music] the welding table is finally finished and i've got the top leveled and i think it's turned out pretty well now you may be wondering how long did it take me to make and how much did it cost well initially i thought it's going to take me only about two weeks to make but i ended up taking me one month to make and in terms of cost into just the raw materials cost me about two and a half thousand dollars and that includes all the bolts and the sheet metal and everything anyway i hope you enjoyed this video and as always don't forget to like and subscribe and i'll see you next time

Channel: Projects Down Under

Views: 412,667

Keywords: welding table, buildpro, strong man tools, fixture table, welding, mig welding, workshop table, diy, make, build, do it yourself, homemade, home made, make it extreme

Id: lRX4Qj1VqNc

Length: 19min 55sec (1195 seconds)

Published: Sun Nov 01 2020