Tangledfeet
Think outside, no box required.
- Messages
- 3,065
- Location
- Top of a hill above St Andrews, Fife
Selling a box of wooden bowls (woodturning being one of a few pastimes) at work a few weeks ago left me with some unexpected cash burning a hole in my pocket; I did consider investing most of it in strippers and booze and then frittering the change away at the bank but COVID has put a bit of a stop to the former.
I happened across this discussion a weeks ago and it got me looking more seriously at using the cash to help me buy a better welding table; I've always perused them and looked at what I could justify getting. I looked at Siegmund, BuildPro, etc., and the usual offerings on eBay, but then started looking more closely at the GPPH tables that @Tom Orrow L mentions.
I noticed that Welding Supplies Direct had the 1m x 1m ECO listed on their Facebook page as being on special offer; it ticked all the boxes so I enquired through Facebook - initially I was told that this offer had expired as it had been on their initial stock but then Tom on the forum here kindly offered to do that price for me on the new stock as a 'special'.
I placed the order with Tom on the Friday morning and it arrived on Monday morning by PalletForce. Also worth mentioning is the free delivery from WSD; most others that I looked at weren't.
My wife contacted me whilst I was at work and sent me photos as both she and the delivery driver were concerned about the (lack of) packaging/pallet. I'd anticipated it being on a pallet but there was merely one length of timber under one end and metal strapping securing the four legs on top; without that block of wood a forklift might have struggled to get its tines under, perhaps? As it was it was all good; all bare metalwork nicely covered in oil/grease and the legs themselves well painted. I did get back to Tom about it not being on a pallet and he has addressed this issue with his packing department for subsequent orders.
I'd also anticipated needing a burly neighbours help (had some wine set aside) to get it assembled but, whilst lesser mortals may have struggled, I was just able to get it done myself; got the top on to a sack truck, bolted the legs on and then levered the other side up to rest on the sack truck whilst I bolted the remaining two legs from underneath. Each leg slots in to the underside and is secured with two M12 bolts passing through at 90deg to each other:
I'm reasonably tall at 186/6'1.5" or so and once I've decided where it'll live I'll level it and set it at 910mm; most tables seem to be around 850mm - there's adjustable pads on each leg:
I'd envisaged the sides being separate parts but these are folded with incredible precision - I could also only envisage this stiffening the top itself and you can also see that the holes have actually been drilled out to 28mm after (laser?) cutting:
I'd also anticipated the surface having 16mm holes as the GPPH ECO tooling mentioned on WSD's website refers to 16mm but they are 28mm. I'd found a box of unused 16mm woodwork dogs/stops at work (in the wee cardboard box labelled 'steel billets' as nobody before recognised them for what they are - the school is 60yrs old!) and thought they'd be useful. Most welding and fab tooling in the UK seems to use 16mm so might be a consideration for some. Again, I've pointed this out to Tom; it seems that 28mm is standard and 16mm an option.
As work was so quiet with only about ten percent of kids in before we broke up for Christmas I jumped on a lathe after finding some 35mm stock and turned some dogs/stops:
Anyway, it turns out the larger holes are a blessing in disguise as I've found I can just grind off the outside corners of some cheap Aldi/Lidl clamps and they'll slip through the 28mm holes and clamp from the underside:
In terms of flatness, GPPH guarantee a +/-0.5mm on the surface, so here's a 600mm stainless steel rule (the Japanese one I save for 'special') balanced on its edge:
I've yet to actually do anything on the table but I'm very happy with my investment. I'd previously had a go at making a table and it didn't end up anywhere as flat as I'd hoped, nor does it have the holes for tooling, clamps, etc. The 1m x 1m is fine for my needs as I certainly don't see myself making anything that wouldn't sit entirely on it! In terms of bangs per buck, unless you have the resources to make one yourself, I don't think there's anything out there that comes close - especially bearing in mind the 8mm table as the vast majority in this price range, and indeed more, are 6mm.
I happened across this discussion a weeks ago and it got me looking more seriously at using the cash to help me buy a better welding table; I've always perused them and looked at what I could justify getting. I looked at Siegmund, BuildPro, etc., and the usual offerings on eBay, but then started looking more closely at the GPPH tables that @Tom Orrow L mentions.
I noticed that Welding Supplies Direct had the 1m x 1m ECO listed on their Facebook page as being on special offer; it ticked all the boxes so I enquired through Facebook - initially I was told that this offer had expired as it had been on their initial stock but then Tom on the forum here kindly offered to do that price for me on the new stock as a 'special'.
I placed the order with Tom on the Friday morning and it arrived on Monday morning by PalletForce. Also worth mentioning is the free delivery from WSD; most others that I looked at weren't.
My wife contacted me whilst I was at work and sent me photos as both she and the delivery driver were concerned about the (lack of) packaging/pallet. I'd anticipated it being on a pallet but there was merely one length of timber under one end and metal strapping securing the four legs on top; without that block of wood a forklift might have struggled to get its tines under, perhaps? As it was it was all good; all bare metalwork nicely covered in oil/grease and the legs themselves well painted. I did get back to Tom about it not being on a pallet and he has addressed this issue with his packing department for subsequent orders.
I'd also anticipated needing a burly neighbours help (had some wine set aside) to get it assembled but, whilst lesser mortals may have struggled, I was just able to get it done myself; got the top on to a sack truck, bolted the legs on and then levered the other side up to rest on the sack truck whilst I bolted the remaining two legs from underneath. Each leg slots in to the underside and is secured with two M12 bolts passing through at 90deg to each other:
I'm reasonably tall at 186/6'1.5" or so and once I've decided where it'll live I'll level it and set it at 910mm; most tables seem to be around 850mm - there's adjustable pads on each leg:
I'd envisaged the sides being separate parts but these are folded with incredible precision - I could also only envisage this stiffening the top itself and you can also see that the holes have actually been drilled out to 28mm after (laser?) cutting:
I'd also anticipated the surface having 16mm holes as the GPPH ECO tooling mentioned on WSD's website refers to 16mm but they are 28mm. I'd found a box of unused 16mm woodwork dogs/stops at work (in the wee cardboard box labelled 'steel billets' as nobody before recognised them for what they are - the school is 60yrs old!) and thought they'd be useful. Most welding and fab tooling in the UK seems to use 16mm so might be a consideration for some. Again, I've pointed this out to Tom; it seems that 28mm is standard and 16mm an option.
As work was so quiet with only about ten percent of kids in before we broke up for Christmas I jumped on a lathe after finding some 35mm stock and turned some dogs/stops:
Anyway, it turns out the larger holes are a blessing in disguise as I've found I can just grind off the outside corners of some cheap Aldi/Lidl clamps and they'll slip through the 28mm holes and clamp from the underside:
In terms of flatness, GPPH guarantee a +/-0.5mm on the surface, so here's a 600mm stainless steel rule (the Japanese one I save for 'special') balanced on its edge:
I've yet to actually do anything on the table but I'm very happy with my investment. I'd previously had a go at making a table and it didn't end up anywhere as flat as I'd hoped, nor does it have the holes for tooling, clamps, etc. The 1m x 1m is fine for my needs as I certainly don't see myself making anything that wouldn't sit entirely on it! In terms of bangs per buck, unless you have the resources to make one yourself, I don't think there's anything out there that comes close - especially bearing in mind the 8mm table as the vast majority in this price range, and indeed more, are 6mm.