Welding Tips and Tricks

I found a 1/2 thick steel plate for my welding table top. 4x4. If I had a machine shop drill holes into it similar to a stronghand table would the stronghand clamps and other fixtures work? I believe their tables are 5/8 thick. Thanks!!

I've always admired those Stronghand tables.

The Stronghand website shows their "Insertaclamp" clamps on a 0.16" table top
http://www.stronghandtools.com/strongha ... epoint.php
...so it sounds like their tables come in a variety of thicknesses.

Just a thought, but it seems like farming that drill work out to a machine shop would get expensive very quickly. If you get a quote before you do the deal you might compare the cost to buying a mag drill. I bet you'd be money ahead even if you kept the drill afterwards. Come to think on it, you might even be able to rent a mag drill, although you'd probably have to buy the bit.

Good suggestion on exploring a mag-drill option to do it yourself. As a hybrid, see what it'd cost to have a machine shop center drill all the holes before you mag-drill them, so your grid comes out crisp - having the holes lined up precisely is important for the accessories, and for relying on it to align your parts. You'd want the spacing of the holes to match too - some of their brackets (e.g., the towers) have a string of holes, which would rely on identical spacing; most of the brackets use slots, which are more flexible.

Now, whether their accessories would fit... Excellent question. I would say yes, maybe. StrongHand uses a locking mechanism where ball bearings are pushed out from the side of the peg to lock it down, so there's a little bit of tolerance there for a slightly thinner top. They also countersink their holes, so if you didn't on the bottom you might be close to the same fit-up for their peg locks. Worst case, the pegs would be locked in the holes, but not pulled down solid (which is less than ideal, but workable) - much of the time, I don't even use the peg locks because the fit is tight enough.

Note that some of their accessories like the tall F clamp are designed to fit in a larger hole. They make a donut that slides in the gap between 2 plates for this mounting - that wouldn't work with your setup, so there are some accessories that won't work. (Of course, you could drill a few larger holes if you really wanted to use that larger F clamp.)

Cheers,
Richard

Clearly there's more to it than meets the eye. Is it correct to say that not all fixtures will fit all tables?

Thanks for the advice. I'll get a quote and go from there.

Artie F. Emm wrote:Clearly there's more to it than meets the eye. Is it correct to say that not all fixtures will fit all tables?

Their main heavy table seems to be pretty universal in terms of accessories (at least the ones I have access to). Most use the holes drilled in the surface. There's at least one much taller clamp that uses a 1"(?) post that requires the donut that inserts into the gap between plates.

They have apparently come out with lighter weight tables and accessories for them as well, and I don't imagine those are interchangeable with the heavier tables.

Cheers,
Richard