Question for Metalworkers

I realize this is a woodworking community so don’t kill me, but I’m in the process of upgrading my tablesaw with a new fence so it’s somewhat related. Plus there’s no metalworking community that I could find on Lemmy.

To the point: I’ve got a piece of steel angle I want to use for the back rail on my table saw (where the end of the fence rests), buts its Swiss cheese full of holes and some holes are in awkward locations where I need to drill new holes to mount to the table saw to. Anybody dabble in welding know if I could fill in the holes with a mig welder and grind it flat? If so, any tips? I’ve got a flux core mig machine.

I bought the Delta T3 fence kit for my rigid saw because people online said “super easy to install. You only need to drill and tap a hole or two”. That turned out to be bullshit. 😅

_t_o_,

Much easier to find a new piece of steel to use.

Like someone said above- the amount of heat required to fill those holes will most definitely warp your steel.

You could grind down any burr on the holes and let it be with the holes. Not sure if that would still suffice for your requirements though.

Yankee_Self_Loader,

Calling me a metalworker would be an insult to real metalworkers everywhere. That said, depending on the size of the piece of steel, it’s probably not worth your time to fill in then grind flat when local big box hardware stores sell common sizes of “welding steel” for relatively cheap and as the other poster wrote, McMaster-Carr has just about any size piece of angle you can think of.

Source: was a kid with no money scrounging in what was left of grandpa’s (tool maker) machine shop who is now an adult and now buys the parts I need rather than trying to make do

Bridger,

Welding will distort the steel. It’ll no longer be straight. Steel is pretty cheap. Find a metal supplier near you (not a big box store) and buy the angle you need.

HootinNHollerin,

Agreed. You could even get tighter tolerance pieces off McMaster-carr

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