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Need advice for a first year team. What's a "good" size for a welding table and chassis layout/weld?
Should be large enough to safely place the car without the wheels extending past any edge Left/Right and the Front/Rear there should be some margin for side welding/fabrication work).
I'm thinking 5ft x 8ft or 5ft x 10ft.
Height adjustable between 33in to 40in via leveling bolts in the legs.
Thoughts?
Don't know if you are going to get many answers here...but maybe there are still some others using this forum?
My first thought would be to make the welding table just big enough for the frame and any supporting jigs, making it easy to reach across and inside. So maybe 3 feet wide, no attempt to support the suspension or wheels. Welding is hard enough, without having to reach to arm's length.
Also, I would tack-weld on the table, then finish weld with the frame on a separate "rotisserie" for access to all sides, and to minimize out-of-position welding. For a lightweight FSAE frame, the rotisserie can be very light duty, nothing like the ones used for street car restoration (like this): http://redwingsteelworks.com/article...r-wanted-know/
Separately, I'd have a carefully leveled and planar "surface plate" used to assemble the suspension and rest of the car--that would be your 5 x 8 feet (or thereabouts). This one doesn't get welded on so it stays flat (but not as flat as an actual machinist surface plate, that would be overkill). Jig blocks (for example to fix ride height) could be bolted on to this table and scales could also be fixed under each wheel during setup and alignment. It could even be an area marked on the floor, if it is a smooth, flat & level floor.