Hello everyone,
May I first introduce myself, my name is Chris Sherwood, I'm a journeyman welder and metal fabricator.I'm the owner/operator of a small metal fabrication business, Sherwood Metalcraft.
I've built the occasional frameset over the last 27 years, and have found myself about to take the next step over the threshold if you will...
Also, may i please, profusely apologise for being a lurker. and more importantly, thank you all for such excellent sharing!!!!

My question:

Given what i'm about to describe for materials, could you offer any advice and experience you may have had in building your own alignment table?

I've chosen these options as there is only so much space in the shop, and it's what is on hand..


Bringheli style table.

I'm considering using a piece of 12" wide x 50" long x 1/2" thick steel channel i have lying around, which i would have ground flat, drill some holes and mount to a frame. of course there are other parts and components to make.

the other option is,

using a 24" wide x 48" long 1/2" plate. which again would be mounted to a table and ground flat. holes and other parts to be made/machined as well...


thoughts and comments?

thanks again
Chris

I don't have much experience but I built my first frame fixture to provide as much access to joints for tacking as possible. I would think a plate style might block access from the plate side?

if you don't have to re-orient the frame, it's better. I have aligned a frame using only the table on my milling machine, and it works. With either of your approaches, verifying that the alignment table isn't introducing measurement errors is key. A big piece of plate and a channel may both distort as a result of grinding.