Strong hand welding table clone

well I was in the local metal supply a couple weeks ago and they had a strong hand welding table on display, had I $1900 on hand I would have bought it in an instant, it's a thing of beauty. But being the thinker I am I decided I could build one for a fraction of the cost but I would not have the milled and trued top..... I can live with that .

what I do want is the 5/8 x 6 cold rolled top with the 1.750 spacing so I can use their clamping system . I am at home right now so I dont have pictures of the frame ( I will add those on Sunday ) I welded together a base for the plate 42.75 x 44.5 with the 5/8 plates installed this will give me a 48 x 44.750 top with a 1' overhang on the short side and a 1-3/4 overhang on the long side. Now I still have to weld in 2 more support cross bars into the top support base but being in a wheelchair I have decided to weld on the bolt down bars to those first and then weld them in .

the bolt down bars ( 24 of them ) support each plate to the table base on each of the 4 bars and I will have 6 5/8" plates so 6x4=24 . each hold down bar has 2 holes 7/16 - 20 in it to accept a corresponding flat head hex key bolt. I have finished drilling and tapping those and will be welding them in place using a template I made from a rubbing I did of the actual table down at the local metal supply. ( nice guys there )


Attachment 3110

so that's where I am right now, oh I also have the legs done with the caster plates welded on them 2" .250 square tubing. I will cut those to finished height so that I can roll under it in my power wheelchair ( my knees need to clear) so finished height top to floor should be 36" about perfect for someone standing also.

more to come

cheers

well not much progress because I forgot to take my camera, and it was so hot....but I did make a template for bolting down the plate support blocks and got the the center support bars welded in and 16 of the blocks tacked on. Ordered the Flat Head Socket Cap Screws from Mcmaster carr . Still pricing out the 5/8 x 6 cold finish bars. lowest @ this time is .99 lb . so 12.792 lb per foot x 24 feet = $307 ... Luckily my Pops is footing the bill on this one But I gotta build him some storage racks and a generator dolly in trade. Plus I saved his @ss yesterday with his computer he was trying to speed up his computer and disabled almost every service in windows 7, If he would have taken it in would have cost about $200 to fix it. Couldn't even use system restore as that was fubar also.

After I got done it was back running like new again and no loss of data ect. now I have to get a single disc NAS unit and set up both his and my mom's pc's to back up to it weekly with a system image and the documents folders daily.

well pictures coming soon ...

The strong hand is neat for sure, but at the price I would build one or go with a plasma CNC.

Can't wait to see what final product looks like and price is. You should be able to bang out the shelves on it pretty fast for your Dad. Same with the cart.

Yep I'm just having problems with the heat, my body doesn't regulate it's temp right due to the spinal nerve damage. I'm getting alot less done than I should be when it's over 82 deg in the shop. I'm thinking about popping all the fixture holes in the plates also. I just found out my friend has a nice mag drill I can borrow with a through the cutter coolant delivery system. and he's got q couple annular cutters in 5/8 :) . Even with the ease of setup it's still a metric crap ton of holes... 58 x 6 LOL.

Once the table is done I'll think about it :)

Cheers

well I got the Table framed up 2" square .250 wall throughout, 1/2 plate gussets on the legs and 1000lb casters. started welding the Plate risers in place. Just a short update and a pic for now. will have more this weekend. Everything is flat too I can put my straight edge across any point and no gaps or high spots. Just need the money now for the 6 5/8 x 6" x 48" Plates .... $300 +-

Attachment 3169

Cheers all

Just a quick update, i totally forgot about using this thread with the finished product. Any way, this is what i finished up with, very happy with it for under $400.
Took this picture a while back. As you can see the top plates bolt on so replacing the plates is very easy. Since i took this picture i have made a couple of mods. I have an adjustable height 2" receive on 2 of the legs this allows me to "plug-in" a couple of small tables. One is just a grate for doing my cutting on and the other top tilts fwd/back - left/right . Really nice... once i have my work clamped in place i can get to all sides from my seated position.

The biggest pain was truing up the top, started with shims at first but since then have installed .250 set-screws that i can access from the under side to level each plate independently and in relation to each other. Accurate to as few thousands, good enough for my needs.

Here are the pics.


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Sorry for the double post. New to this tapatalk app. Didn't see the pictures at first so posted again.
Going to have to figure this out later. I'll post from my pc, the pictures got resized for some reason

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Don, I see two thumbs, then one picture that is the size of the thumb (top one) and lower picture is a no show. Can you send them again, second picture anyway.

And by the way, welcome back! Haven't heard from you in a while!

Hey Don,

Beside a bigger shot of it, what did it set you back compared to the real deal? Great project and sure you will get a lot of use out of it.

Excellent project, to be sure. Nothing quite like a solid table and clamping system to really make project execution efficient and accurate. Would love to see some bigger pictures of the finished project! :D

Quote:

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Originally Posted by aaxiss

The biggest pain was truing up the top, started with shims at first but since then have installed .250 set-screws that i can access from the under side to level each plate independently and in relation to each other. Accurate to as few thousands, good enough for my needs.

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Another option would be to hand scrape those mounting blocks. That would give better bearing and you wouldn't have to worry about the screws putting dents in the plates.

Well I am going to be building another table soon (winter project). Being that I don't have access to free milling facilities and I'm not going to outlay the money to have it surface milled to get it that true. The set screws give excellent adjustability and I grind the contact point flat so I get the biggest contact to keep the screw from digging in with the small point that the screw comes with.
The only time I had any problems is when I had to fix a cracked block on a Detroit diesel 71 series v-12. I was more worried about the casters but the 3.99 cast iron harbor freight units held up fine with the guesstimated weight of over 2000 lbs on the table. After removing the block after fixing the numerous stripped bolt holes and the cracked edge of the oil sump surface a couple of the plates were loose. Putting a straight edge on the surface and snugging up the set screws brought it back true. I intend to use this feature on the new table.

Cost: about $450 compared to 1900.00 for an actual strong hand unit, since I have more time than money it's well worth it to me. On the new table I will be drilling the holes for the fixtures as I just got a new mag drill , I picked up a new rotobrute that accepts annular cutters which will make light work of the 57 holes per plate. I've already sold this table to my brother in law for 600.00 and he is delighted with that price.

I'll try to remember to get some new pictures but to be honest, that is the last thing on my mind when I have work to do lol. When I build the new table I will be doing a build video on it and will give a parts list along with dimensions and cutting/welding info. I will be changing things .like the bolts I used to hold the top on, I used some that I had on hand.. flat head 1/2-20, I was short a few and I guess because of the fine thread pitch they are quite pricey 1.65 each compared to.35 each for the 1/2-12's

Anyway now that I have a good table to start with making the second will be cake, I may make a few while I'm at it, I know I can get 1k easy per table and I figure it will take me a week to build. I made a template for the holes pattern out of 1/4 aluminum that I used to align the riser blocks and Mark the holes for the plates. They are all the same that way and easily replaced. Just put the template on the new piece, center punch the holes and drop the mag drill on and done. That's the other thing I love about the heavy top..... I use my mag drill for everything now. I don't think I've used my drill press much since I completed the table. I even bought a second motor for my Milwaukee mag drill. I got a 1/2 go motor with higher rpm and use that most of the time rather than the slower 3/4 300 rpm motor it came with.

Thanks for all the comments and I hope this project gives some of you ideas or maybe inspiration for other projects.. and I'll try to get better pictures asap lol

Adding a couple of pictures I have on hand to see if they come out right or not. I know these are good resolution. I'm thinking maybe this tapatalk program is meeting up the pictures. We'll see.

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OK I know I'm a Procrastinator but I finally got the pictures of the Table I built and the start of another tubing bender can't go in to to much detail on the bender as the plans are sold but will put it in projects, but can only show the build as the plans are sold here.

http://www.gottrikes.com/Tube_Bender.htm

anyway here is the table it's only taken me like a year to get around to posting the pictures LOL . also check out my Harbor Freight bandsaw mounted in chop saw fashion. Will eat a piece of 2" sq .250 wall tubing in 20 seconds :) and it's quiet. that could be a whole nother project. I'm switching the saw to a Milwaukee deep throat soon as it has a slightly wider opening as well as being able to cut thicker material. Right now I can cut a 45 on 2" sq as long as I trim it close first with the Milwaukee I wont have to trim it to 45 the 2" sq tube.

the last 2 pictures are the base of the tubing bender before and after cleaning it up a bit. Im just welding in the support for the end of the ram, Im just arc welding it because it's fast and I've got a lot of arc rod I need to use and I don't have a mig welder ( I really need one for this kind of stuff ).

And I know Im a messy worker. and I still havent got around to drilling the top plates ( that doesn't bring in any cash LOL )

And I know there are a few bolts missing from the table top, they got thrown away by mistake while I had the end plate off and had to steal a few random ones to reattach it till the new ones arrive from McMaster Carr.

That really turned out great! Nice use of a little steel and probably a lot of time. You'll sure use that over and over again.

Yep both me and my dad use the beck out of it. Great investment rather then buying something.

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Very Nice. I have been looking at my welding table options lately and I like this ideal a lot. Thanks for sharing.

Really great idea! I'm looking at building a table for my shop and I think I may copy you. I've been working on a bakers rack shelf and it's pretty terrible for doing any kind of welding, much less tig welding.

I have considered making a table similar to the strong hand ever since I seen one. Whenever I actually buy a house and have a shop of my own, I will build one.

Very cool, thanks for all your information and the pictures. I have a table I am building at the house. Will post pics soon. I had the local shop cut a 2'x4' 1/2" thick top with rounded corners and 1" wide 6" long slots for mine. Got the whole thing cut and the metal for the legs etc for $225.00

Glenn