Welding Tips and Tricks

Looking for opinions (actually justification!) for a possible purchase. I need to build another table, approx 30" x 60". Local craigslist ad, 50" x 84" x 3/4" steel plate, 250.00. Great deal, just a lot of extra steel. Gotta be approx 850lbs to transport and move around until it gets cut to size. Or just buy exactly what I need elsewhere? It's a good price for plate, is it worth it to have extra 3/4" plate laying around?

Build a set of oversized hinges and just make a drop leaf table.

Poland308 wrote:Build a set of oversized hinges and just make a drop leaf table.

Oversized would be an understatement! But, I thought about something like that, too good of a price to pass up. It's about a 1/3 the price of 1/2" plate.

Worst case, if you don't have a use for it, donate it to a local weld school?

Once you cut your table to your preferred dimensions, use drops as weld-on vertical wings. You could also use the drop as a portable fab table with some welded and collapsible saw horse legs. Free 3/4” scrap = priceless!!!

Like clamps a welder can never have to much material around

Can't offer too much here, other than if you could use a 3x4, you could get the Certiflat 3x4 ProTable for $329+shipping.

A bit shy of your 60" though.

The Certiflat fabBlocks are a lot more for that size. You might be able ot use 2 ProTables side by side.

If you're going to spend $250 for a sheet for the top, it's something to consider.

Alan

aland wrote:Can't offer too much here, other than if you could use a 3x4, you could get the Certiflat 3x4 ProTable for $329+shipping.

A bit shy of your 60" though.

The Certiflat fabBlocks are a lot more for that size. You might be able ot use 2 ProTables side by side.

If you're going to spend $250 for a sheet for the top, it's something to consider.

Alan

I thought about that type option, but where I want to put another table, more rectangle shaped (30" x 60") rather that 3' x 4' is better suited. Plus, having a 20" x 84" and a 30" x 24" x 3/4" cutoff around could come in handy.

aland wrote:Can't offer too much here, other than if you could use a 3x4, you could get the Certiflat 3x4 ProTable for $329+shipping.

A bit shy of your 60" though.

The Certiflat fabBlocks are a lot more for that size. You might be able ot use 2 ProTables side by side.

If you're going to spend $250 for a sheet for the top, it's something to consider.

Alan

Another thought, 3/4" plate goes for approx $25-30.00 sq ft, so getting some for approx $9.00 sq ft is hard to pass up

you can never have too much extra material lying around for those odd jobs that come in or things you want to build. I will occasionally scrap stuff but only if its been sitting around for a long time.

If yyou have a way to cut it 'properly" ? Buy it and put the word out that you have some with the heavy equipment crowd.Nobody wants a whole sheet but will pay a premium for a piece cut to size, and perhaps drilled, for a dozer/backhoe/track machine repair.You can turn that couple hundred into a couple thousand .......IF you have a way to deal with stout plate.

Antorcha wrote:If yyou have a way to cut it 'properly" ? Buy it and put the word out that you have some with the heavy equipment crowd.Nobody wants a whole sheet but will pay a premium for a piece cut to size, and perhaps drilled, for a dozer/backhoe/track machine repair.You can turn that couple hundred into a couple thousand .......IF you have a way to deal with stout plate.

I could have cut it with my plasma, drilling, no go. But...........key word in your reply was "IF". IF I hadn't procrastinated on it, I wouldn't have missed out on the deal. Plate gone. Next time, just pull the trigger, ask questions later.

Steel is expensive, and more liquid than gold. I mean a pound of gold won't find an immediate buyer, a pound of any weldable raw metal will sell. I watch Craigslist for nearby steel, aluminum, or stainless. When it comes up, either the price is higher than retail, or it goes immediately.

ljdm1956 wrote:I thought about that type option, but where I want to put another table, more rectangle shaped (30" x 60") rather that 3' x 4' is better suited. Plus, having a 20" x 84" and a 30" x 24" x 3/4" cutoff around could come in handy.

Something to think about is a smaller table with some type of extension/support for longer work, or 2 smaller tables and store the 2nd one against the wall to take up less space. The smaller 2x3 ProTable is 80 lbs. Not light, but could be a flip up work table on a mobile base. But also a smaller 2x3 table by itself might be more practical on your space, with some type of support extensions built to insert into the mobile/fixed/stand. Just a thought. I thought about a welding cart with a flip-up 2x3 ProTable, or even to be stored on the stand and assemble for use. Weighs 80 lbs, not too bad.

If most of your work would require the full space, then your original plan might not be too bad.

EDIT: calculating the weight of that 50" x 84" x .750" plate, I get ~890 lbs. That would cost me $490 + tax at the scrap yard at $0.55/lb.

Alan