Welding table, whats a cheap one to make or buy?

My fold-down bench is made of 1/8" thick steel with a frame that's 2"x2" L stock that is 1/4" thick. The frame makes the bench strong enough to do just about anything on. I can jump up and down on it, and it doesn't burp. But I wouldn't count on it being perfectly flat.

That said, it takes up zero floor space when it's not in use and also makes for an okay place to store a lot of my welding clamps.

Here it is up and out of the way:



Here it is down:



The trick with any kind of folding bench is that it's tricky to incorporate a vise. I put a trailer hitch receiver into the adjacent wall space, so I can have a vise nearby when I need it. This is an older picture, from when the walls were yellow, but it also shows how I covered the plywood walls with aluminum sheet to reduce the chance of an accidental fire.



I'm lucky, in that I've also got a thicker bench for when I need it.



But if I only had the fold-down bench, I'd be fine.

You do not need very thick steel for a welding bench. You do benefit from thicker steel if you're doing precision layup (and need a very flat surface), or if you're doing a lot of 'blunt persuasion,' and the surface needs to withstand some impacts. But for putting two pieces of metal together, it's just helpful to have something that conducts electricity and doesn't catch on fire when it gets hot.My fold-down bench is made of 1/8" thick steel with a frame that's 2"x2" L stock that is 1/4" thick. The frame makes the bench strong enough to do just about anything on. I can jump up and down on it, and it doesn't burp. But I wouldn't count on it being perfectly flat.That said, it takes up zero floor space when it's not in use and also makes for an okay place to store a lot of my welding clamps.Here it is up and out of the way:Here it is down:The trick with any kind of folding bench is that it's tricky to incorporate a vise. I put a trailer hitch receiver into the adjacent wall space, so I can have a vise nearby when I need it. This is an older picture, from when the walls were yellow, but it also shows how I covered the plywood walls with aluminum sheet to reduce the chance of an accidental fire.I'm lucky, in that I've also got a thicker bench for when I need it.But if I only had the fold-down bench, I'd be fine.