First Project - Work Tables

[USFASME]

Yes that whole piece does spin-off but you do want the bigger holes at the end of your slot to ease installing and removing the clamp.

Perfect. We will have a 1/32 gap the whole way around on the slots, and we will put larger holes at the end, also with a 1/32 gap the whole way around.

You all have been extremely helpful. Any other ideas before we start hunting down metal? Specifically, are there any areas you see that may limit future expandability? (We're working on thicker legs per several suggestions).

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[Andy]

I probably would have put the jack bolts centered directly under the legs, and put the casters on the cantilever. The reasoning is the jack bolts are going to get used with the table loaded, and you're hammering around on things. The casters are going to get used to move an unloaded table across the room.
You can drill and tap the 1/2" material at the bottom of the tube and then insert the jack bolts up from the bottom. If you don't feel like tapping, just tack weld a nut on (it'll be in compression so you can just tack it) Also use a jamb nut to avoid the jack bolts moving after you have your table leveled.

When I built my table I wanted a massive top piece. After seeing the price I dropped back to a 1/2" piece, but I compensated by having a very rigid frame underneath. I used 1/2" x 6" flat stock turned up on edge to make a rectangular box. Then add cross bracing, and *diagonal* cross bracing. The diagonals will make the table very resistant to twist. The 6" depth of the box makes it very strong. The 1/2" table top isn't the strength of the table, basically it only has to be strong enough to support over the gaps in the frame. Ideally I should have plated over the bottom side of the box to make it really rigid, but that would have been near impossible to weld up. Take a look at some of the box designs on cast iron surface plates.

[USFASME]

I probably would have put the jack bolts centered directly under the legs, and put the casters on the cantilever.

Very good idea. We actually had one of the guys on the team mention that, and are working on changing the model. Thanks for the input. Sounds like you have one heck of a table on your hands!

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[Broccoli1]

http://www.millerwelds.com/interests...welding-table/

[USFASME]

http://www.millerwelds.com/interests...welding-table/

Thanks. We saw that and looked it over. Does anyone have any thoughts on the cutting section and tray? I guess that's for plasma cutting? Is it necessary? We don't have one right now, but are hoping to get one in the next 12-18 months.

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[Broccoli1]

I built mine based off of those plans and I did not include the cutting section. At the time I only had a Lincoln SP135 Plus- similar to the Miller 140 you'll be using.

The top is actually 2 pieces of 3'x3' x 3/8"

One thing that I did incorporate was the 2" Receiver tube so that I could mount various tools.

[Rbeckett]

Namasco is a supplier in your area, they might give a student/school break on materials. I delivered a lot of steel to em in the last few years. they have a large selection of sizes and grades. They will defibately have what you are looking for, probably in stock too. Hope this helps with the project.
Bob

[USFASME]

Hi All,

I want to thank everyone who gave us suggestions, and please keep them coming!

I made a sketch with the X-clamp dimensions in it, as given to us through this forum. Hopefully this will be helpful to someone in the future, any shop should be able to make the cut for you with these.

X-Clamp_Cutout.pdf

Cheers
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[USFASME]

Namasco is a supplier in your area, they might give a student/school break on materials.

Great lead, thanks! Just emailed them with our sponsor packet, and will follow up with phone call in a couple of days.

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[ffej]

check alro metals on 49th st in clearwater (727) 572-4344
they have alot of drops and scrap for half the price, you might be able to save alot of money on the frame by using the scraps and put that savings into a thicker top

[fjk]

Hi, three comments

- you did some numerical calculations re the loading that
the table can support and sized material accordingly. Did
you take into account the "extras" -- such as the dynamic
load of dropping a big hunk of something heavy on the table,
or wailing away on that something with a big f...ing hammer.
Or the off-center/etc loadings that might occur.
Or various lateral loadings.
?

- All of my benches/tables/etc are on wheels. I found, early on,
that having the foot "stick out" from the basic table, as your
drawings show, is not optimal -- it's something for me to trip
over. It also means that the table takes up more room than its
top -- you need clearance for the feet...
Now, whenever I put wheels on something, I arrange it
so that the whole thing can fit under the table, with nothing
sticking out, and nothing to catch a foot or crash into some other
piece of stuff in the shop...

- Since this is an educational exercise for you as much as anything
else -- I'd suggest that you go ahead and make a table AND be
ready & willing to make changes on the fly, to experiment with it,
and so on. Your professors, no doubt, have taught you the classic
engineering method of first figuring out requirements and then building
to the requirements. The dirty little secret is that requirements are
usually at best vague and poorly formed, they change constantly,
they are simply wrong, and finally, after you deliver the product,
the end user uses it in an unforeseen way... The process where you
build it one way, find out what does and does not work, and then
rebuild it will teach a lot more, both about welding table design and
the way designs evolve in general, and the informal methods that end
up being a part of engineering practice. Don't be afraid to fail at these
iterative steps; as engineers/mechanics/tinkerers/... we learn infinitely
more from our failures than our successes...

[1Winder]

Good luck with the table guys, I am building one too but it is just me in my garage. By the way, I am a third year Mechanical Engineering student at Rutgers.

[Pass-N-Gas]

Here is some ideas for you (post 7,12 &17):

http://www.millerwelds.com/resources...g-Table-Design

[secretdestroyers]

The inner shank is 5/8 and the larger part is 1-1/8.

I would look into having your local steel supply or fabrication business plasma cut the steel. My local welding supply will be plasma cutting my 5x10 1/2 thick steel for a little over 100.00.

Jay

what is the height of the inner shank? i'm wanting to include these in a skeleton style table, but thinking maybe just stick with c clamps.

[USFASME]

@FJK:

Those are all great points. We have modified the design several times since then. We also have a local manufacturing company that will be supplying all of the materials, and "supervising" the welding. The feet do not stick out past the table top.

We learn far more working on our electric cars and welding projects in our garage then we ever do in class...You're absolutely right. we get to get out there are really live what we are learning.

Thanks to all! Pictures will come as soon as we can finish this thing.