[Josh646]

Thanks in advance for your help.

I would like to build a table to do oxy-fuel cutting on in my home hobby shop. My question is if I can build it with a chute to a catch pan like a downdraft table. Would I need to use a heavy gauge material for the chute or am I going to be burning it up to often to be worth building? I am trying to avoid destroying the driveway/yard.
Also I want to put in a lot of practice but don’t want to only cut large pieces of scrap into a pile of small pieces of scrap. I was thinking of cutting triangles and bolt tabs so the cuts might be useful(someday). Is there any other ideas that would make good practice cuts?

[Poland308]

Your table idea should be fine. Light gauge metal shoot out the bottom will work fine. Practice straight cuts, not just a straight line of travel but not tipping the torch leaving a beveled edge. Then practice cutting beveled edges. Also pierce cuts, this would be a common skill needed for cutting bolt holes or openings for access. And most important for repair work washing out or back cutting out a weld, IE a lap joint. You should be able to cut out the weld on a lap joint without really cutting either piece of metal.

[TraditionalToolworks]

Then practice cutting beveled edges.

This ^^^^^^

I always felt I could cut a bevel with a torch, but every time it came down to it I never had the confidence do so when I needed it.

For me it was certainly something when I practiced it, it gave me the confidence that I can feel comfortable when I need to do it, now I won't hesitate.

An oxy-acetylene setup is so useful for fabrication, good to practice various things on it, cutting off a straight edge, beveling, being able to cut circles, even being able to weld using it. Good tool to have, IMO.

[Josh646]

Thank you!

[JayWal]

Simple circle cutter guides are easy to make and work a lot better than you'd think. This is the first one 1 ever made, ill probably make a 2.0 version one of these days but this still works great. Very handy to have.

Sent from my SM-G970W using Tapatalk

[sbaker56]

Your best bet is to make something like below, we use a very similar design at school and the chute is made out of thin gauge sheet metal and holds up just fine. Remember the thing with Oxy-Fuel cutting is you're actually burning the metal and it must be at a certain temperature to do, unless you're traveling WAY too slow and hot you'll unlikely to even cut sheet metal a couple inches underneath the piece your're cutting.

[Oscar]

That's a nice clean design. Is that yours?

[BillE.Dee]

THAT is one nice table. Is the chute thin sheet metal or something more like 10-12 gauge steel?

[sbaker56]

Not my design, just a picture I pulled from the net that's near identical to the cut tables and school and I believe Jody made one as well. The walls on the school ones are roughly 14-16 gauge I believe, you would want it at least thick enough that anything that falls through won't dent the hell out of it.