ULTIMATE DIY Welding Table

not too bad I'll take it oh yeah this is going to be a good one finally showing you how I made the best welding table you've seen it in a bunch of the videos so let me answer all the questions you've asked about it what material did I end up using well this is just good old plain steel and I went with that because it's cheap you bet I would have loved a cast iron table you know once machine down those suckers are very accurate but they are expensive so for me and probably most of you as well a plain steel table will do just fine now when you ask for material you probably asking what shapes I used not the actual composition and I went simple I just went with one shape flat bar uh I use some 3 in by 3/16 flat bar for these top plates and then 8 in by 2in flat bar for all of the stiffeners that you see maybe you can see I don't know the ones underneath help supporting the table and then the actual legs number three still ties into actually the material and I get asked all the time where do you pick up your steel I do not go to Home Depot or Lowe's they'll charge you know four or five times and that is if they even carry this just Google steel supply near you or near me when you're actually Googling it and then you'll have a bunch pop up give them some calls and see if they have what you need now I would would suggest uh keep an open mind for example I was going to go with a/ qu inch tabletop and they had some 36 on Surplus and so I went with that I was concerned that I'd have to add some more stiffeners and I started out with 12 in I guessed right because this is just perfect I ended up picking up three 20ft length yes still typically comes in 20t lengths if you don't have a way to move that which I don't just tell them to cut it either in half or in the section you want they'll charge like a buck per cut it's well worth it picked up these guys for like I think they were 20 like 19 or $20 each the 20 foot length yes that's a smoking good deal and then I picked up four of the 2in bar 20t length for about $15 ended up not even needing that fourth 20t length so I got a whole bunch of scraps for some welding coupons coming up time to cut it up if you are currently making all those cuts with just an angle grinder this is the perfect project to step it up if this is just a oneandone project then we get an abrasive chop saw leaves little cleanup to do but hey you will get the job done but halfway through this I did decide to bite the bullet and get an evolution metal chopa and this thing is amazing the accuracy the beauty clean cuts are just well worth it it my only regret was waiting as long as I did or maybe that's actually I should have held off a little longer that's because sure enough Evolution reached out to me and asked if I wanted to test out their new miter chops well I just bought one out of my own pocket but heck yeah why wouldn't I want the upgraded model so we've got the Beast itself it's the evolution I think it's like the s355 MC Evolution you got to work on your model numbers regardless it's their miter saw and no it doesn't come with these pretty little orange Universal clips and I'll get to those in a second some of the upgrades they've made are the clamps on both sides and on top Overkill no not really it is nice to have that piece really secured down while making the cut like the name says it's a miter saw so you can change that angle within seconds and within that it has stopped at those common angles definitely a lot quicker than having to pull out the Allen wrench to adjust that angle even though this is a sliding miter saw it is not I repeat not meant to be slid while in use the slide allows you to position the blade for better and larger shapes but not for wide boards as you would a traditional wood sliding saw I did buy their stand to go with their previous model which I really enjoyed so I asked if they had one and they don't yet so they said it is in the works Evolution if you're listening I've got a suggestion for that stand and that is make it a mobile stand with the clamps Universal clamps for my rigid miter sawce stand uh which yes these fit perfectly it fits right on the miteru stand but it is so easy in the garage or shop just to be a able to fold it up and cart it around where it needs to go and then also it makes the storage Compact and easy to stow away make it collapsible put wheels on it you'll sell a bunch of them the size so my table ended up being 27 and some change by 60 in the 27 came about because I got 7 rows by three plus 1 in gap spacing give or take there is some change in there um I didn't make it exact didn't really care that much going that way I just wanted it longer than 24 in now uh as mentioned before the steel lengths come in 20 ft so I wanted to optimize that and either go with a 4T or 5 ft and ended up going with a five which I'm glad I did it just seems like a perfect size table for all my projects number six the golden question how accurate is it now it works for me okay it's not perfect it's not like a machine cast iron table but for only being 24,000 off that is pretty dang good for being built on my concrete floors so way to go concrete finishers whoever built my house 20 25 years ago two thumbs up and not to get into a comparison that will be a different video but it is a lot better than my new titanium modu table which go check out my last video just did a mini review on that that sucker was more than a tenth out a tenth yes a tenth of an inch out more than that at the end so way to go concrete floor kind of begs a question of hey if you're doing a fixture table in mass production why aren't those suckers being built on fixture tables let's say you want it even more accurate here's what you do you're going to do your box structure just like I did St now and then before you go and Tack or weld the stiffeners in place just do the outside and then get your level and then you can shim anywhere that you see a gap right there then go in and Tack it and that sucker will be flat I'm going to get to that in a second I promise okay gol hold on to go along with accuracy I wanted my Corners to be right on 90 and square and they are I did it just by double and triple checking those angles as I was fitting up those pieces to go along with that you'll notice that I actually put a bar right on the outside around the whole border well I did it so then I can add some you know clamps some you know some stops whatever it is some vertical pieces so then if I got something out here I can just take my work piece butt it up right against wherever I want and it just makes the fit up and set up so much easier and quicker knowing that everything is at right 90° perfectly straight just well worth it to take the extra minute during fit up number seven how did I do the legs as you can see well it's simple just 2in bar I made my own angle I know I could have gone with some Square Tubing I could have gone with you know 50 other different things I went with this it works they're plenty strong enough to hold me and so I went with it I know the Caster connection is ugly and if well room allows Place those Casters in the center of the legs where mine is going I am maxed out on that 5 ft so I couldn't extend them or overhang them from the legs at all either way these work fine they hold everything up just fine but for future reference as a design standpoint you do want to Center the load directly over your casters Buck 50 Harbor Freight clamps that right there might be the number one reason why this is the best budget Welding Table having slots in your table makes it so you aren't tied down to a certain whole size or fixture setup bar clamp C clamp ratcheting clamp it doesn't matter what you get as long as well the head fits through your hole so I did use this as a reference round it up a little bit thought hey 1 in it works great and that quick setup is the number one reason why I love this style of table all material and casters included I'm in it about 140 bucks I know it does help to search those Surplus piles the problem is it's not finished that's one of the reasons why it's taken me so long to get to this point is I don't know where to go from here and that's because I've added my little angle rack that works great I love it but what do I do should I add some shelves or a welding cart it's up to you leave me a comment go now wait before you do go if you're like me you want to take off all that Mill scale and have a nice shiny clean surface downside it will Rust trust me it will let's just say after that little accident I've been pretty Vigilant about adding WD something to protect it from those elements now other people claim you should use wax do whatever well leave a comment tell me what you use or what you like and maybe we'll test them all out that's all I got I'm mechmaster we'll see you next time

Channel: DIY PRO

Views: 44,361

Keywords: harbor, freight, hf, review, how to, wire feed, solid wire, worth, testing, quality, good welder, fix, broken, steel, helmet, tip, vlog, tool, diy, titanium 125, yes welder, gasless, beginners, basics, cheap, frame, exhaust, HF tools, portable, band saw, porta band, bandsaw stand, band saw stand, hercules, how to cut metal, angle grinder, evolution, evolution chop saw, evolution miter saw, evolution metal, welding table, fixture table, diy fixture table, homemade welding table, Harbor Freight

Id: aY5PAZ2D320

Length: 10min 51sec (651 seconds)

Published: Sun Oct 08 2023