A lot of people don’t really know what a welding table should look like. A lot of people have the misconception that a welding table needs to be very long and very heavy, and very expensive, because that’s what they have seen in other places. But then it turns out that you don’t need all the features that they have on their welding tables.
You may not need all that stuff to weld, but one thing I do know is that you do need a table to be able to work from. A good quality welding table should be able to hold your filler rod and your electrode pads in place so that you can get everything in place correctly when you are welding.
From there, if your table is good, then you can start thinking about some of the other features that you might find on a welding table.
How tall should your welding table be?
Because all of the features that I’ve mentioned above are things you may want to consider, but they really depend on what type of welding that you do. If you are going to be doing a lot of general welding, then I’m sure that you don’t really need a long table, because you could probably still manage with one that is quite short.
But if you are going to be doing a lot of MIG welding, then it obviously makes sense for your table to be longer so that you can have more clearance between the filler rod and the work piece and also have enough room for your other equipment.
The other thing that most people also don’t realize is that the height of your welding table is actually affected by what type of clamps and what type of clamps can be used on your welding table. So let’s talk about the different types of clamps and how they affect the height of your table.
Clamp Type – Horizontal, Vertical, & Cantilever Clamps
Horizontal Clamps
Horizontal clamps are what most people are familiar with. And if you are using horizontal clamps, then you obviously need a table that is going to be able to fit in front of them. A lot of horizontal clamps are either fixed or adjustable. When it comes to adjustable clamps, I always recommend that you get the adjustable type because you can always adjust it as needed. But when it comes to fixed clamps, I don’t really recommend them because there is nothing that you can do to adjust them once they are in place. They are just there and you don’t have the option to adjust them.
Vertical Clamps
A lot of vertical clamps are going to be able to support workpieces of a certain height, so they are great for people who have taller workpieces that need to be welded. They can usually handle workpieces of up to around 2-3 inches in height. But if you do go with vertical clamps, then make sure that you get the right type of clamp for your workpiece. For instance, if you have a piece that is very heavy, then it’s not going to be able to support itself; so either make sure that you get a clamp with a heavy duty spring or get one that is designed to support workpieces of certain height.
Cantilever Clamps
A lot of people also don’t realize that cantilever clamps are actually clamping something other than the work piece. If you have a table with cantilever clamps, then they are typically going to be designed to clamp down on the metal frame that comes with your welding table. And so they will just clamp down on the frame and then you can attach your work piece to the frame. And that is great if you are using a welding table that has a metal frame because it will make it so much easier for you to weld because all of the pressure from the clamp is going to be transferred to the frame.
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Shop High-Quality Welding EquipmentHow Tall Should a Welding Table Be?
I think the best thing that you can do is make sure that you have a good quality welded table. Then once it’s good, if you need to get more height for your welding table, then you could always add on to the table. But I also think that it’s very important to realize that there is no real science behind how high your welding table needs to be. The amount of space in between the filler rod and work piece or between other equipment and your work piece depends on the type of work piece that you are using. If you are using a smaller work piece, then there is going to be less space in between the filler rod and the work piece.
But different welders have different standards for how tall their welded tables need to be. One of the things that I have noticed is that if you are a MIG welder, then you usually don’t really need a table that is very high. A lot of people don’t realize this, but if you are a MIG welder, then your work piece is going to be so close to your welding table that it’s not even like you are using a welding table; it’s almost like you are using a stand and your work piece is sitting on top of your stand.
If you use MIG welding very often, then I think it’s really important for your welding table to be high enough so that you have enough room to work. If you don’t have enough space, then at first you are going to feel a little awkward. You might even want to put your work piece on the floor for the first few times that you start using MIG. But after a while, it’s not going to be as bad as you might think because then you will be used to it and you will get used to the height and everything will feel normal.
Conclusion
I think that there is no real right way or wrong way about this because it’s basically going to be whatever height works for your particular needs so make sure that you use your head and think things through. If you are using a short table, then make sure that the filler rod is far enough away from the work piece so that you can still manage to get some good penetration on the work piece. But if your welding table is too high, then you might find that there isn’t anything underneath your weld; so I would definitely recommend that you at least take a look at getting adjustable welding stands.
That should do it for today’s welding table article. I hope that this helps answered some of your questions about how tall the welded table should be.
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