Learn How To Weld
Welding table: Free welding project table plans.How to build a welding table in a day. Here is a welding project for you that is easy and simple to make.
I have made this welding table because I was sick and tired of having to work on the floor.
Step one:The first thing that I did was to cut down the marine ply. I must say that that marine ply is amazing for a
plywood. I have had that marine ply for about 3-4years and half of that time it was outside in the weather. It has
hardly buckled or fallen apart. Step two:
The next step is to chop up some angle iron. The angle iron will be welded up so that it can be bolted to the underside of the wooded table top. The angle iron that I used for this was 40x40x4mm. I had this left over from another project and that is why I used 40x40x4mm angle. Note: This old angle that I used was kept outside in the elements and had started rusting a fair bit. This is the basic shape you will need to weld up. Notice how all the cuts have been made at right angles? You will need to cut them at 45 degrees so that when you weld them together, the height will be flush. If you were to just weld it up as it is now, two bits of steel would sit higher than the other two which would leave a gap all the way along. Step three:  On this particular abrasive chop saw you have to loosen the two bolts and adjust the angle to 45 deg. Like so. Once that is done you can then trim the ends at 45 degrees. Here is what it will look like when that is done.  Step four:Now you have to get the angle grinder and clean up the cuts so that there are no daggy bits of metal hanging around the cut edges. Get them nice and smooth so that when you butt the pieces together you will not have any problems. Because I have used rusty angle iron it needed to be cleaned up before I could weld it and paint it. And also so that it looked better! I used those twist knot and wire cupped metal brushes that you can attatch to your angle grinder. The before and after results were quite inpressive.   Step five:Now it's time to lay out the four pieces again and tack weld them together. I have a couple of angle vices that will keep the steel at 90 degrees (square) to each other.  If you do not have these same vices or clamps, you will have to use your square and tack weld the corners that way.
Welding Tip:If you have another bench or table, clamp the angle iron to that to help it from pulling out
of square when you weld it. You could even use your piece of wood that we are using for the table top to clamp
the angle iron to.
Step five:Once the four corners are tack welded you will need to check the whole thing for square and flatness.  Check the flatness of the work by turning over the tack welded frame and making sure that all the corners are level with one another. The corner joints need to be flat otherwise when the top is place on it, it will not sit flush across the it's length.  Check the corners with a square to make
sure that they are at perfect right angles.Once you are happy with how square the frame is you can fully weld it up. I'm mig welding it.   Step six:Now that the frame is fully welded up, you will have to grind down the weld beads on the top flat angle surface.   Step seven:Some holes will need to be drilled around the frame so that you will be able to screw the timber top to the bench. Luckily this angle had some holes in there and I saved time not having to drill these holes.   Step eight: Now you need to make up the shelf frame.
This consists of four pieces of the 40x40x3mm box section steel welded into a rectangle of the same
dimensions of the top frame.Cut two lengths at 995mm long, and the other two lengths at 632mm long. Once they have been cut to length mitre the corners at 45 degrees.  Don't forget to finish them off with a grinder to get the burrs and metal shavings off the cut face. If you don't they will be in the road when you go to clamp and weld the frame up. And they cut your hands! Once again lay out your four lengths of steel and tack weld them in all four corners four times. Check for square. This frame will not be fully welded as the legs have to sit on top of and underneath it. If you were to fully weld up this shelf frame, you would have to do a lot of grinding down of the weld beads for no reason so that the legs can sit there flush.     So leave the four tack welds in each corner and just grind them down. Step nine:Next you will have to cut to length four pieces of box at 500mm long. These will be welded onto the blue painted frame that we just made. This part is the tricky bit. You have to weld all the legs in place and keep them at 90 degrees. The heat from the welding will pull the metal as the red hot steel cools. The best way to get these legs straight is to use clamps and some spare box section to hold the leg in place. Then you can check with a square before you tack weld. These legs are to only be tack welded on for now. It is hard enough trying to just hold the leg in place without clamps. Let alone trying to weld it square. Here is how I do it.  When you are finished it should look like this.  Step ten: Now you will tack weld the angle iron frame to the top of these legs. Step eleven:Flip over the welding table so that the box section is up. And take some mesh and cut it out to fit on top of the shelf frame. The mesh that I have used is 50x50x3mm. Any thing like this will do. I just had this left over from another welding project. Make sure that you chop the corners out of the mesh so that the legs can be welded on.   Do not weld the mesh on yet, put it aside when you have cut it out to the correct size. Step twelve: The bottom legs will now need to be cut out. Again out of 40x40x3mm box. My legs here are 500mm long, as I want the table to be nice and high. This is where you can custom cut the heights of your legs to suit your height. If your small cut them smaller if you taller make them longer etc. Once cut, they will need to be cleaned up with the angle grinder and they can be tack welded on. Making sure that they are square. Only tack welds for now. Step thirteen: To drive this baby around I have bought some castor wheels.  The size of the mounting plate of the wheels are 50x50mm, but the legs are only 40x40mm. So go and chop up four pieces of 50mm width flat steel that are 50mm long. Like so.  Sit the plates onto the legs making sure to have the 10mm overhang on the inside. The outside two edges shall all be flush. These can be tack welded on. Step fourteen:You can now weld the mesh into place. The mesh once welded will hold that blue frame very tightly. This is great because there will be minimal distortion when we go to fully weld the whole thing up.  Step fifteen:Assuming everyting is all good and holding square you can now fully weld it all up. And a few small tack welds for each castor wheel should see them holding on tight.
Step sixteen:Now it's time to grab the angle grinder and use the wire brush and go over the whole frame work of the welding table. I have included some photos of before and after. As I was using gasless mig wire there are these little spatter balls all over the place near the welds. To remove the spatter balls you will have to use a flat head screw driver or cold chisel and hammer to knock them off. They come off really easy. Had I remembered I would have used some anti-spatter spray. Pictures show the slag on the weld beads straight after welding   These pictures show the welds cleaned up with the wire brush in the angle grinder. See the little spatter balls.   Finally the finished welds with the spatter balls removed   I did also go over a few places with a flap disc as there were a few sharp spots. Step seventeen:There will be an angle iron frame that goes around the edge of the marine ply top. This is there to protect the edge of the wood, and also because it makes it look better than just having a wooden edge exposed. For this I used 25x25x3mm angle.  As the angle is 3mm thick there would be a 3mm high edge all the way around the table. This isn't good because if you want to lay down a long piece of metal to weld, you would have one end up in the air by 3mm. So to fix this you need to use a wood router and cut out a strip that is 3mm deep. The pic shows the angle iron on top of the sheetmetal sitting on the marine ply. The router bit that I used for the cutting was a three flute spiral up cut bit. Man did it zip through that wood. I'm not a wood person but compared to a standard straight router bit with two flat sides, this thing was like a
termite on steroids!!! Step eighteen: Now flip the whole thing over onto the
floor and sit the table frame work onto the underside of the marine ply top. All you have to do here is
position the table top in the center.Measure 100mm from each direction and center the frame in the middle of the wood. Use wood screws and screw the top to the frame throught the pre drilled holes. My holes were already drilled, but you will have to pre drill holes in the angle first. If the screws poke through the otherside, like mine did. Sand them down with your angle grinder.  Step nineteen:Tack weld the top sheet of steel in a few places to the angle iron edge. Not to much though as too much welding here will start to buckle and warp the top which you want to keep nice and flat. You can now also do the vertical down welds for the edges of the angle iron.  Finish off the welding table by going over those last few welds with a flap disc, smooting out the welds You might like to paint the table as well, just don't paint the top! Thankyou for readng my article on building a welding table. | |
Cut two lenghts of the angle iron to 632mm
long, and two other lengths to 995mm long. Once you have done this you will have two short pieces and two
longer pieces that will make up the underside frame of the table top.
