What is a good size for a work table?

[Glenn]

What is a good size (and height) for a work table? How heavy should it be constructed? This would be for layout, assembly, and as a all around work table.

[drogo]

I thing a 4' x 8' would be good.....heavy enough to park a car on (not that you could) and about belt buckle high so you can bend over it and so its not too short. A shelf underneath for tools and make a section with culvert grating(my supplier sell it) for a cooling rack. some hammer rings on the side would be good too for hammers but not too many(remember it is belt buckle high;) )

If it was a platen table I would say a littel higher for mechanical atvantage while bending stock.

Drogo

[yesteryearforge]

I just cut one up that was 8 ft x 12 ft x 3/4 plate.
It was a little too big in size and a little to light in weight so I cut into 4 ft x 8 ft strips and built a 4 ft x 4 ft x 8 ft x 3/4 thick woodstove out of it.

Mike Tanner

[yesteryearforge]

My welding tables are 4 ft x 10 ft x 2 " plate on 4"x4" schedule 80 square tubing for legs.
I have 4 of these and if I put them together I have a 10 ft x 16 ft area to work on if needed.
I think that your work table should be as big and heavy as you can afford to make it.

Mike tanner

[tbrforge]

First table I built was 60 x 48 x 3/16 with rec. tube legs and sub frame of 2.5 x 1.5 x 11ga . Now used for tig work. Second table was a find, Bosch plant in South Carolina had an auction, I won (no other bidder) a 60 x 85 table with 1/4 x4 x4 sub frame. 1 inch thick blanchard ground stainless steel top the table was a robotic welding station. Moved it into the smithy with a back hoe and a pallet jack after watching my brother in law and his friend struggle for 2 hours. The got frustrated and let me have a shot (I didn't bother trying to tell them how to do it) and I got longer chains out and with not too much trouble had her in the smithy in 10 minutes.
Third table is 1/4 x 48 x 48 and way to tall (free from a sculptor) plus one heavy rolling cart about the size of a gurny.

[Mende]

Mine is 4 feet by 6-7 feet. .

[ThomasPowers]

It depends a lot on what you do. A knifemaker doesn't need a 4'x8' work table; but someone making gates may need one twice that size.

One of the handiest things my shop has is a soapstone slab on top of a wooden work bench, it used to be a laboratory bench top and I can set hot work on it without fear of fire or too rapid cooling.

[Marc]

The right size for a workbench is 1 foot smaller in each dimension than your shop. Or maybe that's just how it seems.

[sdalcher]

My bench is 4' X 12' and just about waist high on me. I have been contemplating getting rid of it and finding two smaller tables. That could be set together or apart as need dictates... It is currently occupied with all sorts of tools (sand blast cabinet, bench grinder/buffer, etc.) I am the part I like about the table is the under storage. I can fit 4' x 8' sheets underneath with no problem.

[waianvil]

my work table 4x6 ft 36 inches height 1/4 inch thick so I can weld a sample to it for bending pattern

[imagedude]

I use old surface/inspection tables. I've got half a dozen of them, the biggest is 5' x 3'. I wish I had a bigger one but even the small ones weigh a ton. Some of my benches are old machine bed plates. The 'T' slots are useful for securing work to the bed.

Doh! Posted in the wrong section. Anyway my welding tables double as work tables.

[Sam Salvati]

My work table is about 4 by 8, 3/8ths thick. Pipe legs on wheels.

[the_sandy_creek_forge]

My welding table/workbench is about 2.5' x 6 or 7' with a 3/8" top (been a while since i had to measure it) The top sits somewhere around waist high.

My layout/welding table is 4' x 7' with a 1/4" top on a HEAVY dimensional lumber frame. I'm not sure why it is only 7' and not the full 8', but hey, it only cost me $20 at an auction. It sits about knee high. This one, because of the wooden frame, is no good for welding ON/TO but works great for welding OVER. The knee high is nice and easy to hop up on. Eventually when the whole shop is concrete floored (yeah, I'm still working on that...) I'll put some heavy casters under the layout table, as a chunk of worktable that big can get in the way at times.
-Aaron @ the SCF

[Sam Salvati]

The other ones at the shop are 5 foot by 12 foot, 1 is 3/8ths thick the other is 1/2 inch thick.

[Mills]

My only Table is now a 30"x60" 34" tall on wheels. Nice big heavy casters that will go over the junk that usually stalls portable objects. chocks to sturdy and level when it is where I need it for a while. When doing large panels clear out an apprpriate size area and put a 4x8 sheet of something on it and presto large layout table! It has a base shelf and middle shelf cut in a 'C' I can then store all my measuring and layout things as well as tools and some tall items.

Next iteration may see 4 square receptacle on each corner so that I can hang grinders and saws underneath handy and ready to go. Just have an extension cord to trip over.

[rthibeau]

My shop has a work table about 24' x 30' by about 4 - 6" of concrete; unfortunately, I have all kinds of STUFF sitting on top of it. I could move all of that out when needed, but I have kinda defaulted to a 5' x 9' pedestal thingy in the middle of it that I pile stuff on. so I end up with a 3' x 4' space about 36" high that I can actually do work on when there is nothing there, which means I have I work table........somewhere. someone once said something about organization...but that is not in the Blacksmith's Dictionary that I have found........ And you wanted what???

[Donnie]

My work table is 51" square, made of 1 1/4" plate on 6" pipe for legs. I think the ideal work table would be 10ft.X1mile, or as close as to that as funds and available space will allow........it would still get covered with junk eventually

[R Funk]

Be very careful with electrical and electrical power tools on your work table if you weld on your table.

I went out and bought the supplies to "electrify" my table and then began thinking.

Some of the electric power tools use are 3 prong grounded tools. I had planned using grounding 3 prong electrical outlets I installed on my table.

I also do a lot of arc welding on my work table.

If the grounded electrical power tool is laying on the table and it provides a better ground than the welding ground, I have most likely just smoked the tool by putting 100 plus amps of welding current through the tool as it is the ground path of least resistance. This applies whether the tool is plugged into an outlet on the table or into the wall or extension cord.

Likewise if you have grounded outlets on the table and the conduit and outlet boxes are grounded to the table as the NEC Code would most likely require, and the welding ground were poor, Welding current could flow through the #12 wiring supplying the table and fry your table and shop wiring

(I admit this is a gray area in the code but I feel most inspectors would look at the table like a frame of a machine which require grounding... Of course you could use all pvc conduit and boxes and possibly avoid this issue)

I am lucky I did not fry any of my tools with welding current through the ground before I thought this through more carefully.

Bottom Line:
Make absolutely certain that welding table has a good ground to your welding machine so welding current will flow through the welding ground lead and not the elctrical ground and/or the power tool ground

Use only double insulated tools if you intend to lay them on the welding table or hang then on parts of the welding table that are grounded.

Perhaps a wooden shelf liner to lay the power tools on under the work is a additional level of electrical safety (I stored my 5 Dewalt 4.5" grinders as well as my 6" and 9" grinders under my bench on a shelf, each with a unique wheel so I don't have to change wheels

Trust this assists in preventing anyone from smoking any tools as when the factory installed smoke comes out it is very difficult to get the smoke back into the tool and make it work again.