Ultimate Welding Table / Workbench with Awesome Clamping Options

i'm still in the process of setting up my  metal workshop and i'm in desperate need for a new workbench i paid 50 for this one and it's pretty handy but i do need something better i need a general workbench/welding table and also as i have no storage whatsoever in the workshop i also need to add some drawers i'll still need more storage than that and i do plan on building a cabinet soon i've got the steel to start making the frame it's 50 by 50 square tube and the rest of the material is being delivered in a day or two i found a new steel supplier that was super helpful and cut all the pieces to length all i need to do is prepare the joints and start welding in this video i'll finish the welding table all but the storage and i'll make the storage in the next video i need to make sure that the top is flat when it's welded because everything i build off this bench will rely on that i don't have a work surface large enough to weld it on so i'm going to have to do it on the floor and i'm using a method that i saw in a video from fireball tools it's pretty cool, it uses three points contact and that means everything's on the same plane and i'm clamping a piece of steel across and that eliminates any twist in the tubes i'll put a link to that video in the description because he explains it much better than i have and also he shows squares that he sells that make the job even easier and i don't have those but i think it's something that i need to invest in too i'm checking the frame for square by measuring across the diagonals and that is absolutely spot on next i'll check that there isn't any twist in the frame and as the two string lines are pushing against each other it looks just about spot on too i made the second frame off camera and got too ahead of myself as this piece is completely wrong it seems i can't even follow my own drawings on the bottom frame i'm making a recess so i can sit with my legs underneath the table when tig welding or any other task when i want to sit at the workbench next i'll weld on the legs and join the two frames together this would be an easier task with one of those squares from fireball tools that i mentioned earlier the last leg did need a bit of help to line up just in the one direction i've decided to add a rail across the middle for more support   for that i'm using a piece of 25  by 50 millimeter rectangular tube that's the frame just about put together and it's ready for some casters i got these really cool casters off ebay they cost $90 for the set and they carry 500 kilograms each i'll add a small tab to fully support the caster i could have welded a plate the size of the casters fixing plate to the underneath of the bench but i didn't want to change the overall height of the table not even by that small amount this isn't the final color i'm using an old can of paint just for the underneath i don't think i'll need to put the feet down that often but it's an option for when i do the feet will also be helpful for when the table's rocking when it's on a piece of uneven floor for the top i'm using a 100mm by 12mm flat bar   so that should be pretty hefty and pretty stable i'm leaving gaps between the flat bars for clamping to the table and because i'm using this as a general workbench i'm filling in the gaps with 16mm by 8mm flat bar and they'll be removable i'm adding tape to each bar for some wiggle  room so they're easy to put in and to take out the last bar fell just short of the end of the table so i did add another layer of tape to all the slats and that's made all the bars fit perfectly across the tabletop to stop the slats from sliding out i'll weld an edge all the way around the top i also want to be able to clamp to the edge of the table so i'm making sure to keep the edges as square as possible i did get two extra legs cut for the center but i wasn't sure if i'd need to use them but when i went to put the rail on i noticed that it dropped down about a millimeter with the weight of the top so i'm going to put those in and that will spread the weight between the top rail and the bottom rail i welded those off camera and that did the trick and got the top back flat again once the edge has been welded on that will also provide more support and help to keep the top flap too the opposite side doesn't have a leg in the center and it is dropping down just a smidge in the middle but hardly anything propping it up in the middle gets it absolutely flat again and the edge will keep that stable when it's welded i need to grind just to touch off the top of these welds so the fill in bars will sit just below the surface of the main bars the idea here was to use screws to set the height of the fill in bars but i didn't like how they rattled so i decided on a different method the rubber stops any rattling and it seems more stable too there is more chance of debris getting underneath the rubber than if i'd use the screws but that's not difficult to remove by blowing out with some compressed air and also i may be wrong but i don't think there'll be an issue with the rubber meltingwhen i'm welding if i were to weld a thick bead directly next to a bar it would only take a second to remove it and it only takes a few seconds to remove all of them and that's the reason why i put the rubber on the bar and not on the table i'm planning on using regular f clamps to fix down the work pieces they reach just over halfway across the 100mm bar and they can turn all the way around within the slat allowing me to clamp anywhere on the table i'm also running another bar along two sides it will leave a gap so i can also clamp fittings to the side of the workbench too i'll probably make some stops that i can bolt to the outside of the workbench and because i know the corner is square i can clamp two stops to each of the adjacent sides this will let me position two pieces of steel  against the stops and i know they'll be square and ready to weld even though it isn't necessary i'm going to remove the mill scale it's not easy to remove and after trying a small section i decided to soak it in vinegar to see if that helps i kept soaking it every 20 minutes or so for a  few hours and i gave it a good soaking overnight i'm not sure how well this will work but hopefully it loosens the scale even if it doesn't remove it it definitely helped and it really did loosen it up a fair amount the wire wheel i was using was starting to wear out so i went out and bought this one and that was a big improvement too it took some work but i reckon it was worth it now i need to seal it after i've cleaned it with acetone i'll use a cheap furniture wax and i'll apply that by heating up steel first to help the wax penetrate the surface i made these stops off camera there's nothing to them just a piece of flat bar welded to a one-inch  round bar and an m10 bolt going through them if i bolt two of the stops to two adjacent sides i can then easily line up two pieces of steel ready for welding and i know they're going to be accurate the smaller f clamps won't reach across the full 100mm flat bar on the two ends so i had to modify a bigger clamp just for that i've never had a setup like this before i've just managed the best i could with clamps and magnets and this table really should be a game changer i reckon it turned out awesome and i can't wait to put it to use i'll be doing that in the next video where i make the storage for the underneath of the workbench hopefully you enjoyed this video if you did please like and subscribe thanks for watching and i'll see you on the next one

Channel: Pask Makes

Views: 1,004,198

Keywords: paskmakes, pask, pask makes

Id: e2GVVJBzTAA

Length: 19min 7sec (1147 seconds)

Published: Sun Oct 25 2020