welding clamps ...

[wquiles]

Some months back I bought some cheap clamps from HF and cut/welded shoulder bolts to fit the 5/8" holes in my welding table:




Those have been working awesome, but I wanted to have a few clamps for the sides as well, so I got these HF clamps over the long weekend:



I cut them, beveled them, cleaned the top of the bolt and got them ready for welding (Tig):




I welded on all 4x sides - here are two of the sides:



One photo of one of the other sides welded (again, two passes):

 

[wquiles]

I only had two of the long bolts, so I was only able to finish 2x of the 4x clamps over the weekend:



I just got the additional bolts, so I hope to do the other two this weekend:


Will

 

[wquiles]

I also got a set of short shoulder bolts to index/hold parts on the welding table. I trimmed the heads on the lathe to within a few mils of each other, and then used cold blue on them:


I used them above when I was welding, and they came really handy

 

[CWLONGSHOT]

I love it!! I have been a welder for years. Outside welder mostly. Fab/repair and manufacturing on boom trucks and "tree trucks" Never worked on such a fancy bench. Most ours was just heavy steel flat benches.

CW

 

[JonB]

Why are you gettin all fancy?

 

[Bret4207]

Saw something similar on Utube. Love the idea of the welding table, just don't have a place to put one! Good job! Nice welding too!

 

[KeithB]

OUCH! That makes me wince just to look at it.

 

[CWLONGSHOT]

OUCH! That makes me wince just to look at it.

Dont it tho...

 

[Tomme boy]

Looks good. Check this guy out if you need any fancy tools. Lots of vids on youtube with his fixtures. https://fireballtool.com/

 

[Ian]

Will, I couldn't use that setup you got there, I'd be afraid of getting welding spatter all over it!

 

[Tomme boy]

Then you need to tig weld Ian

 

[Ian]

I do. However, I do every other kind of welding too save for carbon arc and I'd have that table "ruint" in no time.

 

[KeithB]

TIG can make beautiful welds. MIG can make beautiful welds quickly.

 

[Bret4207]

I'm with Ian, it's just too purty! My "welding table" came from my late FIL. It's 3x3, more or less, hunka 1" flat plate with some pipe legs welded to it. All it's missing is all those nicely laid out holes...except it's outside! No place inside to put it. It's stout as heck though!

 

[wquiles]

Looks good. Check this guy out if you need any fancy tools. Lots of vids on youtube with his fixtures. https://fireballtool.com/

I do have two of his smaller cast iron "jigs", which I used for the roof rack project - the two small ones were a present from my wife last year for father's day:

 

[Bret4207]

There is an astounding array of jigs available for welders these days. Everything from cheapy jobs made out of Great Aunt Ednas old washing machine that wound up as scrap in far off Cathay before returning to HF to custom cast and precision ground jobs from custom concerns here in the US that cost hundreds. Amazing times we live in!