Heavy duty weld table?

[swyman]

Anyone have any leads on where I might find a heavy duty weld table?? The real thick ones with the square holes in them. Or bolster plates. We had 3 5'X10' bolster plates at Ford that we made tables out of, they were awesome!

[KB Fabrications]

It's called a welding platen and is what the part in the pic is on. Do a google search and you should find plenty.

[Fat-Fab.com]

KB I hve been drawing your table so that I can fab one. Question what is the demention of the frame top is it 48" square or did you hold back the tube from the edgesome?

Once I get a PDF writer Ill send you a copy of what I came up withIf you like


Thanks a gain great design
TJ

[MetalCrafter]

Platen

This might be a stupied question but what is the welding platen used for?

[KB Fabrications]

..........what is the demention of the frame top is it 48" square or did you hold back the tube from the edgesome?

It is 36" square. The stringers are set back to the inside edge of the corner posts so I get about 6.5" of edge overhang.

..........what is the welding platen used for?

It is used for fixturing during welding. The top is flat to within .0005" over its length/width. The square holes are used for clamping things down. The pics I have included will give you an idea of some of the stuff I use it for.

[MetalCrafter]

I have a small railing fabrication shop and the tables I have seem to warp on me all the time. Would you suggest in me using a table like this? How would I go about making one?

[JonnyTIG]

The table also wont warp due to the heavy section it's made from, and the holes help dissipate heat. Here's a shot of a table I built last year.

It is 1.5" thick, and it still warped slighty from welding the base on.

Getting a truly flat surface to fab precision stuff on can be difficult.

[MetalCrafter]

Hey Jonny,

Thanks for the tip. What do you fabricate?
I just recently took over my Father's Ironworking buisness in Jersey. It's a very very small company which was never brought to it's full potential. So, I'm stuck doing to hard work into making it a larger and more technology savvy company. Any suggestions?

[JonnyTIG]

I do just about anything I can for the challenge, however I work for Finning, a Caterpillar dealership. The table was built as a jig table for fixing big broken stuff. I have drilled and tapped many holes into the surface for clamping fixtures. The table can hold upwards of 15 tons and is as versitile as I want it to be. On the side at home I do soley TIG welding, aluminum fab and repair, stainless, hot rod parts and choppers.

[JonnyTIG]

As for suggestions, I don't currently run myown business, just small jobs on the side, so I can't offer much in the way of advice, except for if you want to go big without going home, try to diversify your product. Take on what ever you can afford to do pertaining to jobs. Get a customer base and a business plan in mind, and work with it. When you are comfortable with your plan and things are running smoothly, buy a new piece of equipment and exspand a little. Small bites will fill you up, large ones may end up on your lap.

[MetalCrafter]

Sounds like good advise. My next project will be building a sweat chopper.

[JonnyTIG]

Chopper builds are fun, but very time consuming. Currently I only work on myown rides.