Hey there, looking into a 30x54 table. Has anyone found a reason to do the pro table over the dragon wagon other than cost? Taking its the same top thickness and all. Does the actual material the dragon wagon is made of make it worth the additional investment. I’m coming from a harbor freight table so right now I’m always watching for that rusting and grinding the top from splatter. Just wanting some opinions on which table may be the better investment for the long run.
The biggest difference is the material. The Pro kit is steel the Dragon wagon is cast iron. The cast iron is a premium material when it comes to weld spatter resistance. The machined flat surface with 4 sides for table expansion is a major plus. The table structure is capable of holding warped materials in position before and after welding. The table legs are heavy duty with holes for accessories like trays, seats, shelves, bottle holders, vises, ect. The Dragon wagon was designed for the Professional everyday fabrication.
The Pro kit is designed to meet a lower price point. Targeting the “Professional Hobbyist” or educational environments like schools. The idea is lower the entry cost to a heavy plate table top by building the table frame yourself. The 1/2 ground and milled plate allows a professional surface compared to the laser or plasma cut plates you would normally find on a budget table. The plate is chamfered on all the holes and is reversible. It can also be calibrated for flatness with adjustments screws. The plate is bolt on this allows the plate to have the Dragon Scale applied to help the spatter from sticking to the steel. Other laser cut products don’t have this option. Pro kits can be combined to increase the table size later if desired.
All the Fireball tooling fits both tables so that not an issue. If your weekend fabricator the Pro kit is a very popular choice. If you see yourself fabricating for profit or want the best, the Dragon Wagon is the clear choice
I appreciate the reply. Is the maintenance kit required immediately or something I can get in a few months?
For the dragon wagon do you have any recommendations for when grinding material? I see some post about metal being added to the top?
Also can you put a metal sheet over the top of the Dagon wagon to protect it when not fabricating?
Yes absolutely you can get the maintenance kit later. Sure you can throw a piece of plywood or sheet metal on the top and use it like a regular work bench. We do it all the time.
Perfect and have you seen people out metal down to protect the surface when grinding? Mainly wondering how bad a flap wheel will do to the surface by accident.
Yes grinding wheel will gouge the surface just like does on any metal.
Figured I would check. Never been around dragon scale. How much weight can a dragon wagon and a pro table hold on top?
Weight is limited by the you casters you choose on the Pro kit. A fixed foot is basically limitless.
Same for the DW. 660 lbs per caster.
Just deleted most of what I wrote, Jason pretty much covered it; guess I should’ve read everything first before commenting. However, I feel it only fair to make sure you understand that if you do go with the pro series, you absolutely must remember that it is a kit, so you have to be skilled enough to build it; as in, it’s not a pos rickety bolt together unit. Not dunking on your skills at all, just information to consider.
Perhaps join the Fireball forum, and read the adventures (and mis-adventures) other people have posted, probably help to decide if you want to go down the “kit” rabbit hole or not.
Anyway, good luck either way!
I know making the table would be extremely easy. Having a dragon scaled surface is something I know nobody personally to have so it’s an unknown on how it actually works. The pro table is half the cost of the dragon wagon so I was trying to get a feel for if it’s really worth the extra cost to go dragon wagon. Is the cast iron top far better than the plate steel you think?
Although I don’t personally own one, I have welded using a 1” thick steel plate as a table, and have also done some welding on a cast iron table as well; I would say that personally, the cast iron is better. It behaves better than steel, and I also feel that it takes the heat better. I could be wrong, I am not a metallurgist nor do I have a background in metrology, although there are several members here who are very well versed in both of these topics.
I can’t speak to the coating, but I do know that the cast iron table has a fairly robust webbing structure underneath, as well as the sides. The top, sides, and the webbing structure are all cast as one piece, so it is super rigid. The Pro table does not have any sides, or any built in webbing structure, so if you compare the two tops by themselves, the cast iron would be the winner, by a huge margin. If the Pro table has any advantage at all, it would only be the fact that the top is replaceable, as well as fine-tunable, to a point. Watch the video and you’ll see what I mean by tunable, Jason explains it way better than I can.
The Pro series does have a decently designed frame, at least in my opinion, but even if you added the steel top to it, I still think the cast iron is stronger. Don’t get me wrong, once it’s assembled, I’m sure it will be strong enough to serve the intended purpose; it’s a fixture table, not a 100 ton press frame, or intended for any other extreme force situation. I’m not a career fabricator, welder, or machinist, so this is just my opinion, but if you’re doing ok work with the HF unit, and don’t plan on needing heavy duty capability, just get the Pro series, and use the left over cash for more stuff; you can never have too many tools, if you move across the country, it’s gonna suck, but 
Hope this helps