Creative Table Bases? Multiple Table Frames, Rolling Carts, Storage, Etc?

John, I thought about calling you up. My Mom hasn’t been doing too good, and we’re not sure how many more Thanksgivings we’ll get, so we went into California this year. But hey, I may still surprise you one of these years. A WHOLE lotta Nevadans moving to Tennessee, so there must be something pretty special about it. :grinning:

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Ok, well, I don’t feel right about posting a bunch of “look at my awesome new welding table” pics and videos of a competitor’s product in Langmuir’s forum, but I guess I’ll at least share the details of what I decided to do, and why. I also can’t make this post without being a little bit critical of Langmuir Systems, and I did have a previous thread deleted for that, so…we’ll see if this stays up.

If my competitor purchase does end up being a bad choice, I’ll come back and share that information here as well, to be as fair and transparent as possible. In the meantime, I’ve got a link to my YouTube and Instagram on here in my profile (I think), and you guys can get full details on my purchase there in a couple weeks.

So, here we go…

Much to my surprise, I discovered just prior to Black Friday that Primeweld is now selling a cast iron fabrication table. It looks almost identical to Langmuir’s offering. Before I go into the details, let me just reiterate that my personal experience with Primeweld has been that, while their quality control is questionable, their customer service is beyond reproach. When I had a QC issue with my first Primeweld Cut 60, not only did they answer the telephone, but they had a new unit on it’s way to me the same day, and they didn’t charge me or require me to return my original unit up front, and they sent call tags for everything. And they ended up refunding me for that replacement unit, which WAS actually functioning properly, because I suspected it to be the cause of the issues I was having with my Langmuir table. To be fair, there was a melted resistor on the main board, BUT, the unit was actually functioning properly.

While I consider Langmuir to have PRETTY GOOD customer service, I had a much harder time (3 months and the longest thread in this forum’s history) reaching a resolution with them, on what turned out to be their own faulty equipment. I can say without hesitation that they essentially required me to replace EVERY piece of my setup that they did not directly supply, before they would send me a new electronics unit. But, in the interest of transparency and fairness, they did have a technician spend a dozen hours over multiple weeks trying to diagnose my machine with me. They spent a LOT of money trying to figure out what was wrong with my unit, and they never left me hanging.

All of that is my very long-winded (yeah you guys know me) way of saying that I consider both company’s more or less equally based on my experiences so far, perhaps even with a slight favorability towards Primeweld.

So, the biggest general complaint about Langmuir’s fabrication table is their leg kit. And based on that feedback, and my own experience with the legs on my Crossfire Pro, I wasn’t even going to use their legs at all.

The Primeweld table looks to be the same casting as the Langmuir Table. The advertised specs for thickness, flatness, weight, holes, etc are all identical. The price with free shipping is the same as the Langmuir table with shipping included. In my opinion, the Primeweld table excels in three key areas:

  1. Legs; the Primeweld table legs (included) are almost twice the material thickness of the Langmuir legs, down to the thick machined plates at both ends for attachment to the table and feet. These legs are totally adequate for use with casters (optional), and for adding extra structure to support under storage. While I initially wanted to build my own table structure, I don’t feel that this is necessary with the Primeweld legs.

  2. Plasma Nitride Coating; personally this one I could have cared less about, and some may even see it as a detractor. Regardless. A plasma nitride coating means that the table will have to be treated more as a precision instrument than a “work surface”. Hopefully the precision of the table will live up to the coating that was applied to it.

  3. Levelling Feet; heavy duty nylon and stainless steel swivel feet. I don’t even plan to use these on my fabrication table, but they’ll be an awesome upgrade for my Crossfire Pro, and my band saw.

Three other things helped to further push my decision to purchase:

  1. Casters; Primeweld has optional casters. They are the EXCELLENT self-leveling Foot Master 1,200 lb offerings, and at $25ea, they’re about 2/3 the best price I’ve been able to find. Also, they don’t require any modification to install.

  2. Connecting Bolts; we’ll see how well these actually work, but Primeweld uses a chamfer bolt rather than epoxy, to keep multiple tables level. If this does work, I’d consider it a HUGE benefit, because I’d love to be able to easily split the tables apart for certain setups and larger projects, and reconnect them after. This would be nearly impossible with the Langmuir table’s epoxy-bolt system.

  3. In Stock; Primeweld has tables ready to ship versus 3-4 weeks for the Arcflat.

So, at this point, I was leaning heavily towards the Primeweld table, and then they put it on sale on Black Friday, for essentially $135 off on each table. Add to that the almost $120 savings on the casters that I was going to buy anyway, and I decided to order two!

It also helped that I had a buddy who has a couple of these tables already, and has been very happy with them.

So, there you have it. Subscribe to my YouTube to get the full run down. I expect to see these by next weekend, but I might be a little too busy to tear into them until after the 15th.

Posted with respect to Langmuir; who almost had my business on the Arcflat. Competition is generally good for business. And, I still want an MR-1. :laughing:

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AHH so the truth comes out… I knew you had some money burning a hole in those pockets! :laughing:

Looks like a great option… I was looking at their black Friday sale… I had the UPM105 torch in my cart all day… Finally decided I need to just keep saving my pennies for the real thing someday. I wish I would have looked at the table… didn’t even think about it. I really would love to have a fixture table to replace my weathered OSB plywood setup. :rofl:

I will look forward to your setup and review video. :+1:

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I’m a primeweld fan so far but since I’m just starting out with learning TIG I couldn’t justify the cost of a fancy fixture table to I opted for the new HF fixture table and I have to say I’m pleasantly surprised at the quality so far. If anyone is looking for a cheap alternative fixture table have a look at the HF titanium it’s worth the 170 bucks

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Hey, can anybody with a Langmuir table confirm that the hole spacing is in fact exactly 2” on center and not 50mm (1.969”)? @toolboy, perhaps!? I know that they call the hole sizing 5/8” when it’s actually 16mm. I just wanted to make sure the spacing wasn’t also metric. I want to order some of those Fireball Tool rectangular fence blocks, and that 0.030” is going to matter. I reached out to Primeweld too, but I’m still banking on these tables coming from the same factory, and this forum being faster than anybody’s customer service… :grinning:

Adding @mg6studios. He also has acrflat and has been active today.

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Justin from the Fabrication series did a review on all the tables under a 1000 and he says the holes are 2” on center he shows it with a caliper. Hope that helps

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not sure if anyone has seen the Fireball tool tables but they are crazy $$$$$$ but as the saying goes you get what you pay for. I couldn’t justify one ever for hobby use but someone with a Fab shop sure could benefit from one.

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Oh yeah! Everything those guys make is incredible. I want to say that their big tables start around $10k, and their Dragon Wagons, which are more comparable to the Langmuir/Primeweld offerings start around $2k. I certainly couldn’t justify the cost, but I also don’t really know if the Langmuir/Primeweld castings will actually stay flat under heavy (professional) use. Reading Seigmund’s (sp?) website about all of the effort they put into making their cast iron rigid and hard, and the importance of these efforts in maintaining flatness, and then considering that they also start out with a significantly thicker casting, makes me feel like the Langmuir/Primeweld offerings may just end up being fancy work benches.

Anyway, only time will tell. The Langmuir/Primeweld tables are rated at over 1,000 lbs loading; I’ll never put a fraction of that weight on them, but a complex layout of 1/4” steel with proper weld penetration can exert a lot more than 1,000 lbs of force as it tries to warp as the welds cool. My Harbor Freight table (I have the cheapy one that predates your new version) looks like a potato chip now. Of course it’s VERY thin.

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My Harbor Freight table is what helped me earn my wife’s support of getting the CNC table. :rofl:

I set her up a bit. I had been having a terrible time getting consistent cuts with my $2K plasma cutter set-up (poor control, shaking, poor technique) so I wanted her to try to cut out a hole with a purchased metal template. In a matter of 3 seconds of cutting, she sliced thru the the piece of metal, the template and the table. She hollered “Whoo!! that was scary” as she took off the welding helmet.

I said, “yeah it is hard to control…but I have an idea!”

I ordered the Langmuir table 3 days later. :grin: :innocent:
I found the clip:
WifePlasmaCutting1

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Yeah the fireball tables are insane but for heavy fab I’m sure they are worth every penny.

When I started looking for a fixture table I was blown off my chair at the prices but I now see why they cost so much.

Fireballs 1” thick table starts at 11k and I believe that’s just for the table with no fixtures so I can’t imagine what a full setup would be but I know my wife isn’t letting me get one anytime soon lol

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Great review thanks for posting!

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That’s great, Jim! I agree with your wife. I kinda skipped the whole hand-held plasma cutter thing. I don’t even own a hand torch for my Everlast. I’ve just always had better luck with my cut off wheels and die grinders, and I’ve had to repair way to many crossmembers and subframes that people got overzealous and plasma cut right through. :laughing:

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Well, guys, I guess I may have made a mistake going with the Primeweld fixture table, though they’ll probably still allow me to return them. But I’m curious how many of you with the Arcflat tables have measured the surface (extensively) for flatness?

At first glance my pair of Primeweld tables seemed pretty flat, but they’ve both got a taco shape to them. Measuring from one corner to the other, they’re both within the +/- 0.0075” spec, but measuring from the opposite corners, I’ve got one that’s 0.020” low in the center and another that’s nearly 0.030” low. Measuring lengthwise in the center of the worse of the two tables, the low spot seems like it’s only about 0.020”, which tells me the short sides are not totally parallel with each other.

Initially there was Internet speculation that Primeweld was sourcing their tables from the same factory that Langmuir uses. Obviously this does not necessarily mean that they would hold the same tolerances, even though they advertise the same tolerances. I’ve seen some comments on other forums that suggest Langmuir’s tables ALSO tend to run high on the edges and low in the centers, and I’m sure not too many purchasers have 3-4’ straight edges to verify.

I guess my point in typing all of this is to try and discern whether or not I have a reasonable hope of actually getting something BETTER in this price range of fixture table. I’d really like to start with something a bit flatter than a 0.030” dish…

Primeweld was offering me a partial refund or an exchange, but they haven’t replied to my question asking if they could reasonably guarantee an “in-spec” table would be received the second time around.

Thanks…as always, my friends, for your assistance.

-Casey

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I am curious to see what they say. I think your 100% right people buying these tables dont have a way to check them other then maybe a 4’ level which we know would not be accurate.

Are these tables Cast? I remember back in the day, if cast iron was machined too soon you would have problems like warping. These were called green castings. I’m not sure if that could still be a problem, or they have a new way of doing it.

These tables are really cheap when it come to price so maybe that’s as good as it gets. I will be watching to see what you find out.

You should buy a Siegmund table and see how they compare! :rofl:

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Maybe I could start a Go Fund Me!? :rofl: :laughing:

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Why not people love giving to a good cause! you having the correct equipment is no different than
The guy that dropped his car off the hoist and not wants everyone to pitch and help pay to fix it.
Its a crazy world out there :thinking:

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Crazy world indeed, @Knick. FWIW, I’m using a level too, but it’s a 4’ Empire with a machined edge, rated to 0.0005” accuracy, and I only use it for delicate checking. When I set it on my mill table, I can’t get a 0.0015” feeler gauge under it anywhere, and on this Primeweld table I can literally “throw” a 0.025” feeler gauge under it.

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I know what you mean. I have an Empire level and it does not come out when others are around. Too many people think everything is a Shopsmith of hand tools. At any moment the level becomes a hammer, crow bar or digging tool.

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