I recently got a hold of a 4’ x 10’ table with a 1 7/8” thick top. It also has 5/8” threaded holes on 10” centers. I was thinking about getting the drill template and adding some 2” grids in some smaller areas. I already have a mag drill a some annular bits that have a two inch cutting depth.
Questions I have are would it work ok to cut the holes an inch deep with the template, then removed the template to finishing drilling all the way through?
Will fixture clamps still work properly with that depth of hole?
It will of course take some serious time drilling this thick of a top. Will it be more trouble than what it’s worth?
The table is in our farm shop and will be used for welding projects and repairs.
For the locking bolts to work properly you need a max thickness of approx 1 1/4” for the balls to expand out and then grab the back side of the plate. Any thicker and you are relying on the ball binding to sidewall of the hole and is not ideal. All the tooling that just uses the regular pins will work just fine IE: fence blocks, clamps, ECT…
1.100 is the maximum thickness of the table if you want to use the 1” thick fireball fixtures. The bolt will probably still function at 1.25 but the balls won’t be fully extended.
In theory, since this table has threaded 5/8” holes on 10” centers, could I use those and bolt the template to the table? Obviously there is a risk of the current holes on the table not lining up precisely with the template, but from what I have measured they appear to be quite precise.
My main goal is to have quick and easy way to use and move clamps on the table for doing farm repairs and some fabricating.
If it was me I’d leave the table just as it is. Use it as a workbench as a heat and beat table. It’s still useful. I’d invest in a separate Pro kit table for fabrication. You’ll be much happier with the capability of a proper fixture table. You’ll be able to use all the Fireball tooling as it’s intended. I see lots of converted tables and it’s never right. Holes are messed up, holes skipped because of ribbing interference, warped tops, wrong plate thickness. That’s my 2 cents.
