The Ultimate Welding Table
By Benjamen Johnson
You may have seen optical tables on TV or in a lab somewhere — thick metal-topped tables with threaded 1/4″ holes spaced every inch or so. They’re very flat and stable, and the grid of holes allows you to precisely place equipment.
Strong Hand Tools’ BuildPro Welding Table is reminiscent of this design, but instead of threaded holes, the ground-steel 5/8″-thick plates have CNC-machined 5/8″ through-holes spaced in a grid every 2″ apart. The table is flat to within 0.004” per foot, and the hole spacing is accurate to ±0.0015″.
You can reconfigure the plates to extend the width of the table for wider projects. With ball lock bolts you can connect a variety of accessories to the table top, like straightedge stops, right-angle plates, riser blocks, and a wide selection of BuildPro clamps. Strong Hand Tools lists eight pages of accessories.
The version available from Northern measures 48″ long by 36″ wide by 30″ tall and weighs 550lbs. Now the depressing side: It’ll cost you $2,200, and that’s without any of the nifty accessories.
BuildPro Welding Table (PDF) [Strong Hand Tools]
BuildPro Welding Table [Northern Tool]
Via Amazon [What’s This?]
May 22nd, 2009 at 1:09 pm
I must be missing something. This is to be used while welding (as opposed to using it to align pieces prior to welding and doing the welding elsewhere)?
So I arrange my work pieces, clamp them down or together, and strike an arc or light the torch. Now I apply high heat to the parts, some of which heats small areas of the table. Isn’t that heat going to cause te surface of the table to move? The precision inherent in the materials will be lost (at least in some areas) but you won’t know where or by how much.
What am I missing?
May 22nd, 2009 at 1:53 pm
Maybe you only tack the pieces together; not generating enough heat to transfer into the table?
May 22nd, 2009 at 8:23 pm
Welding is not necessarily a precision process. Yes, some heat will transfer to the table, but unless you heat a spot red-hot, it’ll only move a few thousandths. That’s irrelevant for a piece that may only be, itself, accurate to a sixteenth- especially since the part itself will move as much or more simply from the heat.
This sort of table, also, is typically intended for high-accuracy jigging for things like airplane parts, and as such is meant for use with TIG or high-quality MIG.
You wouldn’t buy one if you’re just patching up old trailer hitches.
Doc.
May 22nd, 2009 at 11:03 pm
“You wouldn’t buy one if you’re just patching up old trailer hitches. :)”
@ Doc - Well, *some* people might… haha. You never know
May 24th, 2009 at 12:33 am
Very well developed array of accessories. The price will probably limit sales to businesses. I have the “old” style jig table, which is only slightly less handy than this one, and use it mainly for tig welding assemblies.