Anything welding

Spent about 30 min on the phone with John from TMW this afternoon, super friendly guy and seriously passionate about his products!

He talked me in to the 1/4” option. Highlights to me were he hasn’t had a single complaint or warranty claim for holes that were deformed, which includes customers like NASA, Honda and McLaren, who are undoubtedly tougher on their tables than I will be. Doesn’t mean it hasn’t happened, just never a big enough problem for anyone to make a stink about. The friction clamp base material is softer than the tabletop material, and with however many hundreds or thousands of hole options, you’re unlikely to overuse one so much to wallow it out. The folks he sells 3/8” tables to do stuff like outfit firetrucks and such.

We also talked extensions and he pointed out that they are great for when you want a permanent upgrade, but he suggested he uses these squares on his personal table at home when he needs extra envelope of support, but not necessarily full table functionality. Going to add a few to my order!

I still can’t believe the owner of the company was so eager to talk to some rando about his process and products that in depth, it’s really giving me confidence to pull the trigger!

 

i cannot fathom the amount of pain i'd be in from hip-checking that extension on a daily basis.

 

Haha! 2 bolts and it packs away. Figure it will mostly live on a shelf but will be super handy when it’s needed. I ordered 4 so my 30x60 table will have a lot of options for larger configurations.

 

Been considering making myself at least two of those extensions

May have to grab myself some 3/8"

 

I thought about asking you, I could even do the bending in my own garage. I figured shipping would kill it though, that’s an awful dimension. If you want to look at something like 8-10” (or whatever would fit into a medium flat rate) I’d be interested!

edit: a little wider might be nice too

 

The shipping definitely kills it which is why I didn't push it

But you could definitely make your own for sure, especially if you just use them for supporting any overhang (and skip the holes)

It's why I set my table up in such a long orientation, but if I do get overhang, I use my pipe jacks to support said item(s)

 

Good call! I’m not going to be using a friction clamp way out there, a regular clamp will do if needed.

Not sure how perfect I’ll be able to get the bend but if what I need is just general support and not precision flatness I should be more than good.

 

That's why you just do a single bend at the end, and then weld on some sort of gusset that supports part of the bracket extending away from the table

No need to bend it on the side, especially since the brake you use creates a large bend radius