All great suggestions- thanks for the feedback!
Part of my goal was to build something from the ground-up; I figured it'd be good welding practice as well. I've got a number of projects waiting on my 911 which will require some cutting and welding, and I'm trying to build up my confidence a bit before I take them on
@tperazzo Thanks, Tom. I've got a long way to go to get to your level, but hopefully this will be a step in the right direction! I don't have any tig experience, but I've been inspired by some of your videos to give it a try. That was actually one of my main motivations for this project- to create a comfortable space where I could more easily mess around with some small tig projects. I was even originally thinking that I should just tig this whole table together as a way to learn- but then decided I really needed to get it done more quickly (and with more confidence).
@bill My table top size is roughly 3' by 6'. Even at 3mm thick, a solid top would be quite difficult for me to manage. I do appreciate your point about falling molten metal!
@Boom Thanks for the suggestions- I did check out the CertiFlat stuff, which looks really nice. That's also part of what I used as the mental model for how much things might cost; I figured as long as I built something for less $ (at a comparable size) than that, then I was doing ok. Mine would not be anywhere as nice, but I'd chalk that up to the value of the learning experience.
@Cory Great question- why use screws at all? Believe me, after going through all of the drilling, tapping, assembly I was really questioning that decision as well! My main reasoning was that, due to lack of experience, I wasn't really sure how big of a deal warpage would be. If one of the slats were to warp, I liked the idea that I could just unscrew it, and either move it to a less critical part of the table, or perhaps replace the individual slat altogether. Also, I like the idea that if I ever needed to weld something big in an upright position, I could remove a couple of slats from the middle of the table to position the workpiece. I'm really happy with how it turned out (many more pics to come), but only time will tell if the extra work to use screws was really worth it.
-Jake