I'm looking for some advice. I got this great table frame and need to put a top on it. Can't afford to put a decent solid steel plate on it so I decided to use rectangular tube. my question is should I weld the tube on or bolt it. It's 1x3x.060. a little lighter then I was hoping to get but the price was right. 60.00 compared to over 200.00. the frame can support thousands of pounds and maybe when I go back to work I'll change it to something more sturdy. I'm putting a plasma table on one end and a pull out shelf for my chopsaw on the other. as you can see my little workshop is very full of stuff. I'm trying to weed some stuff out but it's hhhaaaaarrrdddd. I like my stuff. here's some pics of what I'm talking about

Edited November 29, 20205 yr by Veyser
to add pictures

Bolting would be easier to replace later. As long as you just do a few stitch welds to secure them, that wouldnt be too hard to cut loose later to replace. It's really in what you want to deal with down the road. 

I'm with Das and would tack weld them, unless you counter sink the machine screws so the surface is flat.

I'm with the guys who recommend countersunk bolts.  Too much welding might introduce warpage and you'd lose the flatness overall.

Thanks for the advice. I’m thinking of drilling holes in the frame and in the bottom of the tubes and bolting them down that way. No holes in the top that way. I am worried about warping the tubes if I weld them.

Too bad the frame doesn't have a rim, then you could just wedge them in place. It would only need to extend a little higher than the thickness of the tubing, say enough to get a 1/4" tapered pin through. A rim would let you drop a plate bench top in without welding too. 

Drilling and tapping the frame and drilling the tubing would let you screw them tight and not worry about counter sinking and flush screws. 

My first impression from reading the notice before looking at the post, was are you NUTS? Looking at your table top I'm seeing a number of useful purposes for the spaces between the segments. Lots of places to put pins, clamps sort of like a light duty Acorn table. 

I see we're typing at the same time. 

Frosty The Lucky.

 

OK another method: Drill and bolt the cross pieces to two rails that fit between the table top rails. Drop in place. You can easily clamp it to the table with a piece of flat stock and bolts and never have drilled into the table frame at all!

well I ended up tacking the cross bars to the frame clamped them good and had very minimal warpage( i think thats a word) . Put the plasma table on the end w hinges so it folds out of the way when not in use. I'm able to clamp things square and flat now. I also put a receiver for my vice so it's also removable when I need a flat surface

Looks great!   Only change I would have made is to make the fold up section sit at the same height as the rest of the table when it's up to help when working long lengths.

Nice job. I like the fold down plasma cutter table. And the good suggestion from Thomas. Might have to add something like that to my welding table. 

I made a piece for the top of my plasma table to bring it level with the main table. But Thomas is right i may re position it so it's level when it's extended