Another welding table build

johnnyc14

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Feb 17, 2013
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I've had the need for a welding table for years but just never got around to designing and building one. I was given 16 two foot long pieces of 4" X 4" square tube that were from parking lot plug in pedestals. I decided to use this material to build a table even though it is much bigger material than I need, it was free!
I started by cutting the pedestal bases off all 16 pieces.

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My aim was a tilting design something like this.

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I had to butt weld some of the pieces together so I used angle iron and clamps to hold the pieces in alignment. They turned out very straight.

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For the top I chose 6" X 1/2" hot rolled mild steel. I bought 2 ten foot lengths at a local metal supplier and got a discount as it was pretty rusty. I cut 6 three foot long pieces for the top and milled the ends to get them all exactly the same length.

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I drilled and counter sunk 6 holes in each one for 1/4" socket head cap screws.

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I wanted the minimize the foot print when not in use so I put a 1 foot long hinged section on one end of both legs. I added a piece of the 1/2" thick steel to the top of each upright with 7/16" holes drilled and tapped to mount a couple of bearing pillow blocks.

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I welded the top frame together and drilled 1" holes through each side piece for the bearing shafts to pass through.

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I have log of 5" 4340 that I bought at an oil field business bankruptcy sale and I sliced off a 1.5" thick piece to make a hub for the brake rotor I plan to use for holding the top in any position. This 4340 machines beautifully. I bored a 1.300" hole through the center for the shaft. I made the shafts from a length of 1.375" mystery steel that was originally a roller for a conveyor system. I drilled and tapped four 1/2" holes in the hub to match the bolt pattern in the brake rotor, and welded the hub to 1 of the shafts then welded the shafts into the top frame.

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I drilled a 1/2" hole through one of the uprights for a stop pin and then drilled a series of holes at 22.5 degree intervals around the rotor to allow lots of angle choices for the top. I made up a stop pin from some 1/2" cold rolled and a handle from some more of the 1.375" steel. The handle is a .001" press fit onto the pin.

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Then I welded the center support into the top frame.

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I wanted to make the top perfectly flat so I made up 36 height adjusters from 7/16" by 1.75" grade 5 bolts with 1/4" NC holes drilled and tapped in the center of each one. A long boring process.

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I mocked up all the top slats and transfer punched the holes on the top frame, drilled 36 holes and welded on 36 nuts.

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Then it was a couple of hours of fiddling around with a straight edge and feeler blade to get all the bolt heads level to +/- .003".

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It is turning out well. The hole in the top slats are on 12" centers so the slats can be offset to one side or the other to create an odd shaped surface that you need sometimes.

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More to come later.

John
 
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Most excellent work! Love the brake rotor as the indexing wheel. Also like the tool caddy on your mill.

Bruce
 
Thanks Bruce, today I got the caster wheels mounted and I added a short 2" trailer hitch receiver to 1 corner so I can mount one of my bench vises when needed. I added a couple of jacking screws to the folding legs so the casters can be jacked off the floor before folding the legs for storage. It's pretty much done except to strip it all down and paint but that's going to have to wait until spring.

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Nice design and beautiful execution!
Thanks for sharing this.
-brino
 
Nice work John. Also an excellent presentation.

Many good ideas there to steal. :cheerful:
 
Thanks guys. I often use brake rotors in projects. They are cheap (this one was less than $20) and already machined to very exacting tolerances. Chinese made rotors are so cheap now that almost nobody re-machines old rotors anymore, they just install new ones. Since I work in the automotive business I have access to them every day.
 
Thanks guys. I often use brake rotors in projects. They are cheap (this one was less than $20) and already machined to very exacting tolerances. Chinese made rotors are so cheap now that almost nobody re-machines old rotors anymore, they just install new ones. Since I work in the automotive business I have access to them every day.

Since you work in the industry, I'm wondering if you can provide a link or info where to access a DIMENSIONAL (not only "application") listing of automotive (and truck) disc brake rotors?

There used to be (probably still is) that kind of dimensional information available for various automotive components (universal joints comes to mind). In my Hot Rodding days, that kind of information was indispensable.

I cant get very far at the auto parts store these days without Year, Make, Model and my mothers maiden name.

My interest is when designing a rotor into a project like yours, it would be handy to pick from a table of available dimensional options.
 
I know of no such reference but I'm sure it exists somewhere. In my case I already had this brake rotor and used its dimensions to build the hub and decide where to place it on the shaft.
 
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