I just watched the last video on quality and distortion it’s 70% welder not paying attention or knowing what to do I’ve been a field/mobile welder last 20years you send me the tube I’ll build the frames in spec off a warped table or the tailgate … it’s about reading and time. If the specs are tight you just can’t slap it together
@Jas Give it a shot. The drawings are posted. Send the matching frames my way and I’ll test them. Include a video we would all like to see how it’s done.
I find it odd that you have to convince welders about the importance of quality equipment. I’ve been following you since your first Alec Steele video, and it was clear to me then that you’re an extraordinary guy. If I could, I’d also buy your stuff, but unfortunately, they are too expensive for me. However, I’m sure they are of very good quality. One more thought: quality comes with a price, so beginners probably can’t invest in these products, but advanced welders don’t need convincing about how good the fixture tables are. Excellent products from a great person, keep it up! greetings from Hungary!
@Fireball_Jason Watching your challenge video on testing fabricators abilities to build the same part and have it fall within spec and there are a couple of things that should be addressed but are not. The first being mild steel tubing. Mild steel of any profile can and likely is already out of spec for this project no matter how “good” a fabricator is at cutting, mocking up, and welding. Mild steel, while it can be used to get close, none of it is close enough to end up with 1/32" finished parts in three dimensions. Tube, pipe, plate, and pretty much any other profile will vary from mill to mill and from production run to production run. So we’re starting off with some variation in squareness, flatness, and size regardless of how we do it. H-beam will give you plenty of variation within a 20’ section. While tubing tends to be a bit better, the variations still exist. I’d like to mention that all of these frames could have been better and should have been within 1/8" tolerance. The second point that needs to be brought up should be that simply having a good setup table does not equal good fabrication or fabricator. I’ve been a fabricator for about 30 years designing and building hydraulic concrete forms so experience definitely plays a huge part in success of building parts accurately and with repeatability. Overall it’s a good video and a great way to show how difficult it is to achieve accuracy in something so “simple” but you may be expecting a bit much given that the material used can throw even one of these tolerances out very easily.
@Fireball_Jason i am a wood worker from Guyana and i knows nothing about welding and fabrication but precision is always something i strive for especially flatness where it is needed. I don’t have the best or the most sophisticated wood working tool but i make them work. However i agree with you 100%.
I have purchased many things from you Jason over the years. I still have the portable fixture table in my basement in the boxes I’ve never used. Because I haven’t had time to build a platform for it to sit on. I love your squares I have two of each type metal and aluminum. I don’t really know where to ask this question?
Here’s what I am trying to do. I’ve had a daughter in private school and been a single parent for years so I haven’t had the money to do any serious thing. She is graduating in a few months . So it’s time for me . I am contemplating selling a bunch of the stuff I’ve been collecting for years to build this table and buying one of your big tables I would like a 4x8 table. You would not believe my Welding Table, It was a 3/16 ditch cave in plate. It is not flat at all but I built it 30 years ago and it was only the third project I ever built. I am self-taught I know nothing really about welding other than what I’ve learned off of videos from you and many other welders on YouTube, and years of trial and error before YouTube :-).
So I have built everything off of your squares since I found them 13 years ago. I have since bought a half inch plate of American Steel it is definitely not flat it has no holes drilled in it. I have been blessed with a $3,000 magnetic drill that was brand new.
I would like to build a table. I have a half inch plate steel USA made that is not flat in the basement , I also have a set of truck air bags that I want to put airbags on my new table I want to build. I also have 4,000 lb casters off of a forklift for it. I’d like to be able to air the table up and move it around. I have to be able to sit at the table due to 4.5 million miles of driving a truck is destroyed my back. But a huge part of me wants to challenge myself to learn more by the process of building that table and having it be flat or as close to Flat as possible for a DYI guy.
So here’s my real question should I sell steel plate scrap the idea, or should I buy your whole drill system and get to work on building me a table? I would love to have your feedback or anybody else’s in this area. Sorry for such a long post.
@Porksausage some thoughts from the peanut gallery in reply. Give some serious thought to just how big a table you really need as that has a huge impact on the budget. Then there is the question of your time: do you want to spend all your time building the table, or is there something else that you really wanted to be building instead? I sold my old table which helped purchase the 30x60 “workbench” size & it is a delight to have, perfect really for a smaller shop. I got the one with casters on it as I too need to be able to move it around. Once you have it you can put your focus on the projects on the list rather than trying to figure out how to build a good table. So yes, sell your steel plate.
Hi Jason, I already knew the added value of a good welding table. But you really gave a wonderful live demonstration! I understand that demonstrating everything live causes some extra pressure, but, wow, you did a good job! This whole sequence was interesting. From the first external results you received to the live demonstration with quality control. How would you have corrected the frames if the legs were not pulled out equally? or if they were not facing each other? Have you considered welding the flat rectangles first, then the legs and then straightening everything back up with the table? would this be much slower?