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.

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.

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