Weldsale Gooseneck Hold Down Dogs

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Any opinions on the screw type platen clamps vs. the hold down "dog" style platen clamp? I use the screw type platen clamps at work but just purchased a new platen and interested in other options. In my opinion, the screw type clamps are ok but nothing to write home about. Any downsides to the holdfast style clamps?
Reply:The gooseneck hold downs are heavy, but they are fast.  If the weight isn't enough, smack them with a hammer.  I am going to make a few with shorter legs to see how that works.  I just can't reach into the middle of the table to pull one of the big goosenecks.  My screw clamps don't have drop in style bolts, so they are a pita for one time jobs.
Reply:I think it depends on the type of work you are doing. Heavy structural beam work? Smaller tubular frame work? I can see the clamping force of the hold down dogs being very high as they are hammered down into place. That is probably good for heavy beam work as the hold down dogs have a deep capacity as well as high clamping force for moving and fitting pieces together. The hold down dog clamped pieces will not move if you hit them with another heavy beam while fitting. You do NOT need that clamp force for small frame work. Here are the stronghand clamps I used and they worked very well. I do small tube frame work. Notice the heavy duty pads on the stronghand clamp versus the regular pad on the C clamp. I kept the HD pads on the stronghand clamps lubed with lithium grease and they worked flawlessly, didnt spin and mark the metal being welded. These pads pop off for lubing. Do not buy clamps without these heavy duty pads.http://www.stronghandtools.com/stron...atenclamps.phpI bought 12 of them and they were about 65 each about 4+ years ago.The down side of these is that the neck of the clamp is a set distance. With the placement of the 1.75" square holes in the platen meant I didnt always get to put the clamp right where I wanted it. I wish the neck was telescoping.Keep in mind that the clamping force has nothing to do with keeping the metal from warping from the heat from welding. On my Bluco table, I can clamp very accurately with all the bad A tooling but if I do not manage the weld sequence, the metal will spring faster than a 13 year old in a strip club when unclamped. Again, accurately and securely clamping does not mitigate warping from welding. Those two things are not related whatsoever. Do you have any photos of your new Weldsale? Their website really sucks. I love those tables. I had an Acorn and a Weldsale and liked them both. I looked at buying a new 5x10 Weldsale but I could not get the girl in sales to sell me one freshly machined without the blue paint splattered all over. She said, "it will rust". Also, my 30x60 Weldsale was not square when pulling tape diagonal across the table. It was .125" off and I measured it every which way. I never could get my questions answered about who and when the sides are ground in relation to the top. I looked at BuildPro tables but they were all small and were just underwhelming at the time, and still are. I moved on to the Siegmund welding tables and could not get the time of day from anyone in their sales dept. I liked them alot . I knew they were not the quality of Bluco but the pricing was less. After not getting anywhere with them, I bought a new 5x10 Bluco. Never been happier but I will own another cast iron platen again someday. Slide a clamp across a bluco and a Weldsale and you can hear the weight difference. Then again, one is made to beat on and the other isnt. I want both.my freshly ground Acornnot me. this is this bad ace http://www.buckinghamstudio.com/These came with my Acorn table when I bought it. I ebayed them right away because I could not use them with they type work I didLast edited by Jimmy_pop; 02-21-2016 at 04:11 PM.
Reply:Interesting how those clamping legs are reinforced.  The ones I have used needed the flexing at the bend to give your the clamping action.  My guess is you made a smart decision to sell them.
Reply:Jimmy, i like your sign.     Can you tell us a little more about it, who, where etc.
Reply:Originally Posted by lotechmanInteresting how those clamping legs are reinforced.  The ones I have used needed the flexing at the bend to give your the clamping action.  My guess is you made a smart decision to sell them.
Reply:duplicate
Reply:Jimmy,     Here is a picture of the table as delivered, it's a 5'x8'. I'm not sure who you spoke to but I believe that the paint on the top surface is for the website only. Mine showed up with two layers of the thick corrugated plastic, you can see it in the back of the picture, on top of heavy oil to protect from rain/rust. I do side work for a company and they have had close to (30) 5x8 tables delivered in the past year and none had paint on top.  Just a note, and I'm not sure, I believe the big platens are cast in the US, they say Philadelphia on them, but some of their smaller platens are cast in India. We have a 3'x6' at work and it says India right on the side but still a quality table. There website seems to have gotten better in the past year so it might be worth another look.     As for the clamping, I do all kinds of work but no real heavy structural stuff. I get into some 3" and 4" tubing, medium channel, and smallish I-beams but also do some fairly small stuff. I'll take a crack at whatever walks in the door. Generally, I only use clamps for tacking and once it's tacked the clamps come off then use sequencing to keep it straight. The only reason I want to try the "dog" style clamps because I generally just need stuff held in place temporarily and once it's tight to the table you can't make it any tighter. Also, not a huge fan of the the knurled grip on the Weldsale clamps. There are probably screw type clamps in the future but I kind of have my own design that I want to use. They will be a cross between the Weldsale and Bluco clamps. I also clamp down angle plates, fixtures,  and square corners which just need to be held securely to the table. It doesn't matter if I smack it down with the dog or screw it down with the handle it can't get any closer to the tabletop than touching it.      I just purchased a new shop so have spent the past month moving in. Still not moved in but most of my stuff is piled in the center of the shop waiting to be organized. The building is no beauty queen but the price was right, or at least cheaper than rent anywhere, and I went from roughly 400 sqft. and 2 storage units to 3500 sqft. and 3 phase with an apartment in the building. The welding table is the first functional piece of equipment . I was fortunate to have a lot of side work last year so as you can see in the picture I purchased equipment.      I thought about making my own table and have used a Bluco and seen a Stronghand but for what I do the Weldsale was the best option. It came down to the Bluco (used) and the Weldsale but I couldn't see myself busting out the torch and standoffs on top of the Bluco. While mine hasn't had an arc struck on it yet, I use the table at work for everything and it's still in the same shape it came from the factory. Sure, there is a ding here and there but I've literally used it everyday for all sorts of things and it's just a little dirty. It's nice that spatter doesn't really stick either. I run a wide cold chisel over it like once a week and it's good to go again.
Reply:that is a thing of beauty!you've been around enough to know what clamps will work for your fab style and materials. When I bought my Weldsale and then the Bluco, I had never seen one of them in person. My Weldsale was in mint condition when I bought it used and it still had trace amounts of blue paint on the top. I have seen good condition Weldsales for sale online and at auction and in the photos there was still blue paint on the tops. That is how they did it for a time. Tables that were painted all black were considered 2nds as there was porosity in the casting. There was very little price difference between the 1st and 2nd quality so buying a 2nd was never an option for me. It was probably 3-4 years ago that I spoke with Weldsale about buying a new 5x10 and didn't get any good answers about the paint or machining process.My Weldsale was the heavy duty casting but it was only 30"x60". I would clamp tubing all the way around the perimeter, weld it with internal bars, then spin the welded frame 180 degrees and the frame would hang over/under in opposite corners, so I knew the Weldsale table was not square. This that I tried to get clarified from Weldsale and she had no answers except to say my table was abused. yeah right. Nevertheless, I think the newer tables are probably having better attention paid to the machining and will have another one someday. You are right, splatter does not stick and you can beat on the table and it is so solid. It is just a great tool. Congrats on your new shop and tool selection, I think we are wired up the very same way.
Reply:I can't believe that they actually painted the tops on them at one time but glad they don't do it anymore. It was bad enough getting the oil off the top because all of the holes are razor sharp. I'm going to spend a bit of time this weekend and deburr all of the holes. Which brings me to the next point, my table isn't actually blanchard ground. It's machined with what looks to be a large face mill unless they are using some type of surface grinder than I've never seen before. I'm not complaining but actually really impressed because there is absolutely no measurable different in the edges from one pass to the next. Going to check the sides for square and corner/corner and see what it looks like this weekend. Thanks for the info on the clamps.
Reply:Originally Posted by burnsI can't believe that they actually painted the tops on them at one time but glad they don't do it anymore. It was bad enough getting the oil off the top because all of the holes are razor sharp. I'm going to spend a bit of time this weekend and deburr all of the holes. Which brings me to the next point, my table isn't actually blanchard ground. It's machined with what looks to be a large face mill unless they are using some type of surface grinder than I've never seen before. I'm not complaining but actually really impressed because there is absolutely no measurable different in the edges from one pass to the next. Going to check the sides for square and corner/corner and see what it looks like this weekend. Thanks for the info on the clamps.