what kind of welding table is recommended for TIG Aluminum?

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I was thinking of using a right angle clamp like this onehttp://www.northerntool.com/shop/too...ct_12495_12495to hold my two pieces of square 1x1" (.062 wall thickness) aluminum pipe perpendicular to each other. Should the grouding clamp be attached to the right angle clamp or the welding table or a single square piece of Al pipe?What kind of welding table it necessary underneath the clamp. If I need a thick piece of steel, where would I buy something like that?
Reply:If I was going to buy a corner clamp for production work, I'd spend my money on a good one like a Bessy or Strong hand. A lot of the cheap import ones I've sen guy bu are no where close to square to begin with.http://www.besseytools.com/pdfs/sale...mpswelding.pdfhttp://www.stronghandtools.com/stron...ngleclamps.phpUnderstand that a corner clamp alone will not guarantee good square corners. You need to have an understanding of why things move when they are welded and how to minimize these issues. Simply clamping something up and going to town will mean it won't be square when you take it out.As far as the table top. In general heavier is better. It resists warping due to heat, and allows you to attach clamps and jigs to the top. How elaborate you need to get depends on what you are building and your tolerances. You can get thick steel tops blanchard ground so they are perfectly flat, but this isn't cheap, and for many projects isn't required. Note that thin steel often comes from rolls from the mill and usually won't be perfectly flat. Since it's been straightened, some times if you apply too much heat, it will want to start to curl back up again some what. Heavier steel is usually more resistant to these issues, but the weight of the table and cost can be a problem.As far as where to get steel, you get it from a steel supplier in most cases. Where do you get your alum? Many suppliers stock steel and alum, and you may be able to get both from the same place. If you are buying your alum from a box store like your welder, then you definitely need to look into a commercial supplier. I can buy a 20' length of steel for what 2 3' chunks would run me from Lowes/Depot..No government ever voluntarily reduces itself in size. Government programs, once launched, never disappear. Actually, a government bureau is the nearest thing to eternal life we'll ever see on this earth! Ronald Reagan
Reply:Thanks for the tips!  I'm mostly making 2x3 foot sized rectangles out of square 1"x1" tube. Each rectangle has two 3' long pieces and two 2' long pieces, they are welded together in each corner. tolerance is probably plus or minus 1/16th, possibly 1/8" worst case scenario. I'm getting aluminum from EasternMetal in bulk 1000 pound prices. Lowes prices are ridiculous about 8x more!Where do I attach the grounding clamp/wire to? One piece of alumium? make a jumper so it is grounidng both pieces at once? To the vice? etc. I'll check out the better clamps soon, these will be good enough for practice for now.
Reply:Ground to the table, or the work piece.  Just curious....what are these frames for?-AaronJet 17.5" Drill Press1942 South Bend 16x84 Lathe1980s Miller 320A / BP --- 2013 Power Mig 2562012 Jet 7x12 Horizontal BandsawVictor O/A Setup
Reply:For alum I usually prefer to ground directly to the work if possible. It guarantees the best connection and the least chance of stray arc marks on the work from a poor ground. You can ground to the clamp or to the table and in some cases I will do that if the ground keeps trying to drag the work off the table or if the piece is too irregular to attach to easily. In these cases I try to make sure I have the work clamped or weighted so I get a solid connection between the work and the table.If I had a lot of identical square frames to build over and over again, I'd probably opt for a frame type table on a rotisserie. The frame would support the 4 clamps in each corner and the whole assemble would pivot in the middle. Clamp up all 4 pieces. Weld all the inside corners 1st, weld all the outside corners 2nd, weld all the top sides 3rd, then rotate the jig and weld all the "bottom" sides 4th, flip the jig back to it's original place and remove the completed project. The frame would easily allow me to reach inside to weld the inside/ outside corners with no obstructions. the down side to this is that the jig wouldn't allow for other uses easily, say if you want to build 3 or 4 different sizes of frames. It's possible to make the jig adjustable to a certain extent, but the more adjustability you build in, the greater the chance you introduce slop and error.A flat plain table would allow a greater variety of step up options. In this case I'd do the same rough layout, with the clamps all bolted to the top, but set up on tube spacers so I'd have some room to do the inside/outside welds. I'd have to pull the frame from the jig between step 3-4 to manually flip the whole assembly. For mass production I might even opt to have the jig set up on a lazy susan. Same idea as the 1st one, but in this case I could stay in one position and rotate the whole jig 360 deg so I could weld the joint directly in front of me and not have to walk around the "table" to do the welds. Then I'd flip the piece and weld up all the "bottoms". If the welder was good enough he might even be able to weld all the bottoms in position doing overhead, but his skill level would need to be much higher to do this well.I also wouldn't rule out simply "tacking" all the frames in the jig, then welding them out completely on a flat table out of the jig. In some cases as the material contracts it can get tough to get frames out of full jigs if the clamps aren't positioned correctly. This would also allow for a bit of "adjustment" if the fixture isn't perfect. One advantage of this is that the welder can do all the welds in the flat position, requiring the least amount of skill on the welders part. The down side is he would constantly be moving, rotating the work, loosing production time. If I only had to do a few, this would be the easiest way to go, and would allow the most flexibility.I'd have to play a bit with the setup and see what worked easiest for me based on number of frames I'd need to crank out, the variety of jobs that would need to get welded, and shop space requirements/availability etc..As far as cheap clamps being "good enough", maybe.... I was given one of those cheap clamps and I never use it. It's simply not square and it's more awkward to use than the good ones. Keep this in mind. Part of any clamping/jigging issues you may have or poor quality results may be due to your clamps. Quality clamps make a bigger deal than many actually think.Last edited by DSW; 11-26-2012 at 04:53 AM..No government ever voluntarily reduces itself in size. Government programs, once launched, never disappear. Actually, a government bureau is the nearest thing to eternal life we'll ever see on this earth! Ronald Reagan
Reply:I like the lazy susan idea!@rabbitchimp, these are frames for a portable photobooth set up that we sell.
Reply:you will do better buying these clamps with machined surfaces so you get a perfectly square joint in all directions.. http://www.northerntool.com/shop/too...3562_200403562I may actually order a couple myself as they are on sale...  Browse through the Stronghand catalog.  if you are doing production work you cannot beat this kind of setup   http://www.stronghandtools.com/Tiger Sales:  AHP Distributor    www.tigersalesco.comAHP200x; AHP 160ST; MM350P,  Spoolmatic 30A; Everlast PowerTig 185; Thermal Dynamics 60i plasma.  For Sale:  Cobra Mig 250 w/ Push-pull gun.  Lincoln Wirematic 250
Reply:I prefer the BESSEY. I have both the WSM-9  7 inch and the WSM 12  9 1/2'' . We did try some Wilton and some others at work but BESSEY was the best and MOST SQUARE.http://www.amazon.com/Bessey-WSM-9-7...=welding+clamp
Reply:Originally Posted by BD1I prefer the BESSEY. I have both the WSM-9  7 inch and the WSM 12  9 1/2'' . We did try some Wilton and some others at work but BESSEY was the best and MOST SQUARE.http://www.amazon.com/Bessey-WSM-9-7...=welding+clamp