Welding Tips and Tricks

Hello, brand new to the forum and brand new to welding. I'm setting up a welding station in my garage and hoping for some advice.

I just bought a Chicago Electric flux core/mig welder and ran some 8 2+g to wire an outlet for it. I'm wondering if I can use one of the work tables I have. It has a particle board surface with steel frame/legs. Is something like this ok to weld on or do I need to get a sheet of plate to lay on top of it? I know harbor freight doesn't have a great name when it comes to gear like this but hoping I can accomplish the small goals I have and learn some skills before something better and affordable comes along.

I'm blacksmithing so my projects will mostly be surrounding welding things for forging projects (small utility items, steel billets for pattern steel, etc...) The folks at iforgeiron recommended I read through everything possible on this site relevant to what I'm trying to do.

How heavy of a table will be determined by what your welding on. Even if you lay 1/4 in plate over a wood top you might end burning up the top. You may consider ditching the wood top and just putting the steel on your existing legs. If your not hammering on the table but just need a flat fire proof table even 1/8 in with some stiffeners under it might work.

I found an oLd bench at a roadside sale. It had an MDF top but I wasn't confident at all to weld on this, so I replaced it with a slice of 3mm steel.

Very light duty I know, but has made a great starter table for the small parts I generally work on. And there's no risk of it catching fire.


Kym

The other thing you need is a bit of space, room to move around, a bit of distance between whatever you will be grinding and whatever expensive things you have in the garage, the sparks will find them. Steel makes a better surface to weld on than mdf, 4mm to 5mm plate is a good solid surface. You can always build a heavier one once your requirements become clear, its also great practice.
Place a fire extinguisher or 2 and a fire blanket in your welding area just in case.

Thank you very much. I didn't think about splatter and this is a wooden garage.. I'll plan for a backplate too to protect the wall. Great suggestions, thank you again!

I made a small welding table from an old cast iron table saw.

There are a lot of options out there, check out this link...
http://www.weldingtipsandtricks.com/welding-table.html

WerkSpace wrote:I made a small welding table from an old cast iron table saw.

I was thinking about do the same thing. Got any pics and/or any thoughts on how it's working out?

TIA