Brazing Table??
 

Looking for some suggestions for a brazing surface. As my shop is basically a woodworking shop all my surfaces are wood! What type of "portable surface" might you suggest that would work for my situation?
Thanks!!

All I ever use is a vise and a park stand. I have a small machine tool table I thought I would use as a surface, but I never have.

I've also never brazed anything on a table. Park stand or bench vise are my brazing locations.

I have a few odd pieces of Al plate/sheet that I use as a cover for the very few times I need to braze on a bench top. My #1 go to is about a foot on it's squarish edges and is formed with a repeating series of ridges and valleys. The thickness of the sheet is about 5/32" and the stamped contour is about 1/2" tall.

But as mentioned I also don't do much as the vice or Park stand are so much easier to get just the right access many times a job with little or no cool off time to reposition the parts. Andy

I'm wondering if Tom is going to use the plate for fixturing?

Tom, are you referring to a table where you can lay tubing blocks on to hold tubes in place while you spot some of your joints together? I'm assuming you will be brazing joints that are held in a vise on your workbench like you did in class. Like Andy suggested, putting some metal on top of your wood bench should work fine because the flame is not directed towards the table and neither will it take much time to spot each joint.

I"m also assuming you have the top of your bench saw to use as a alignment table?

Doug,yes that is part of my idea. The other is a surface to do practice brazing of different items on. I was wondering about sheet metal on a plywood substrate with an air space below. Or maybe I should source a 1/4" thick steel plate.

This is probably the best low budget welding table out there. https://www.northerntool.com/shop/to...2274_200712274

Harbor freight has a decent "welding" table that folds for around 60 bucks. Or a piece of 3/16 with several nuts welded on the back to give an air gap would also be fine.

For brazing a frame, I tack in the jig and braze in a park stand. When brazing small parts, I lay down some bricks on my bench. I like the idea of a dedicated table, especially with tooling to secure pieces. That is the part that I struggle with sometimes.

Starting from a woodshop, I've built a couple of frames using a large contractor table saw as a framebuilding platform. The saw has a fairly large ground steel plate surface that I used to get the main tubes layed out, aligned and tacked together before moving to a bike stand for final brazing.