Plasma Cutting Table - Make your own Downdraft table

See part 2 of this plasma cutting project here
I built a downdraft plasma cutting table over 20 years ago and it worked so well....was so useful...that I decided to fabricate another one.

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The first cutting table I made was about 24 inches square and about 34 inches tall.

It had an attachment built in that allowed it to be connected to a fume extractor snorkel and the downdraft function worked so well, that you could burn a wad of newspaper on the grate and never even smell smoke.

Once, I even cut the cheese while smoking a big Churchill cigar at work and nobody even noticed because the fume extractor was working so well.

sound of crickets chirping.... Oh I took that too far, didnt I?

But now that I have your attention, This weeks video is about building another downdraft plasma cutting table.

This time around, it will work even better.

A bigger work surface, removable slats, and a telescoping handle that can be used to support short lengths of angle iron etc.

Its going to be great.

I even have a Miller Fume extractor that hasn't even been uncrated...just waiting to hook up to this thing.. ( a little bartering of services worked out pretty well )

The two phases of fabricating this cutting table that I am focusing on with this weeks video are

1. framing up the box...

2. fabricating the tapered funnel

For the framing part, I used a Stronghand Tools 3 in 1 clamp.

Let me be clear...

I know that the price tag of this clamp is simply out of reach for most weekend warriors and hobbyists.

I know that.

If you are going to frame up one or two jobs a year, it would be hard to justify the spend.

But for serious fabricators, for business owners who understand how quickly the cost of this 3 axis clamp can be recouped in labor savings, this clamp should be a no-brainer.

This plasma cutting table should be a mandatory item for all technical colleges.

for a few hundred bucks worth of steel, any school can have a useful downdraft table that will make any school or shop a safer place to work

So how do you figure the angles on the upside down vent hood for this downdraft plasma cutting table?

I used the Stronghand Tooling.

I got lucky and the hole pattern on the buid pro table let me use the magnetic pieces you see in the video to make a 26-3/4" square. Exactly what I needed.

I drew a 7 inch box in the center of that and using a riser block piece, I was able to figure angles and dimensions that I knew would work....no guesswork.

In the next few segments of this project, I will talk about mistakes I made (plenty of those) as well as things I could have done differently to make this a better project.

I know I will get some comments on YouTube on how it could be better so when all is said and done, hopefully, I will have a good drawing for Tech Schools, and job shops to build their own plasma cutting table that really sucks....fumes that is.

welding dvd

exit plasma cutting table page and watch more videos on welding

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