Welding Tips

Welding Table Care

Here are tricks that were shown to Karl Blorstad by an 80 year old retired welder friend of his. If you have a metal work table and you do a lot of arc welding of small things, try grounding your welder to your table. That way anything laying on the table is grounded and you do not need to clamp to the work. I have a vise bolted to mine also so anything in the vise is grounded also. You can just clamp right to the table or what I did was made a short lead with a quick connect (or sometimes called "cable extension connectors") on one end and a heavy ring connector on the other that is bolted to my table with a stainless steel bolt. (Make sure your connector can handle the max amps your welder puts out.) That way if I need to weld off the table I can disconnect my ground lead from the table and plug the ground clamp into the quick connect. You should sand the area that you want to bolt to very clean so that there is minimal resistance. I even used conductive grease to try to prevent any rust from forming. This has worked for many years for me trouble free. The parts that are needed are found at many welding shops. Use a light good oil on your table. I use OW-20 engine oil and keep it oiled that way any welding splatter will not stick to the table. I have a rag soaked with the oil right near my bench. You do not want a thick coat of oil just a thin film. I also keep my anvils and other tools oiled to fight rusting. (/ suggest storing this oily rag inside a metal can. If you leave it laying about, there is a chance of "spontaneous combustion",)

If you weld lots of the same thing and your table top is thick enough, tack weld small pieces where you need them for a jig layout so to speak. You can easily grind them off when you're done. Example: If you're welding square frames, you can tack weld corner stops on your table, lay the pieces right up against the corner stops & weld them.

-- RebStaup - 08 Feb 2008