Our own TP Weld Tables range is designed and manufactured in-house in Yorkshire, cut on a fibre laser for tight tolerances, which is the kind of detail worth asking about wherever you're sourcing a table, and you can see the full range via arc welding equipment specialist Yorkshire machines.

Surface flatness and tolerance are the starting point, but fixturing is what turns a flat plate into a genuinely useful tool. Tables with a grid of holes or T-slots let you bolt down clamps, stops and jigs in repeatable positions, which speeds up repetitive fabrication and makes it far easier to hold parts square while tacking. A table without any fixturing options usually ends up needing extra clamps, magnets or improvised supports to achieve the same result.

Plasma cutting uses a jet of ionised gas, usually compressed air, forced through a nozzle at high speed and heated by an electric arc to a temperature hot enough to melt through electrically conductive metal. The molten material is then blown clear by the same jet, leaving a narrow, clean cut. Unlike oxy-fuel cutting, plasma works on any conductive metal, including stainless steel and aluminium, not just carbon steel. Hypertherm is the plasma cutting brand we get asked about most, and it's worth understanding the basics before comparing specific units.

Getting the right disc for the material and finish you're after saves both abrasives and time, and it's worth checking your current selection against the job list with a supplier who stocks a full abrasives range, such as welding equipment supplier.

Portability and power supply matter as much as the process itself. A stick welder will run from a generator or a domestic supply in places a gas bottle can't easily follow, while MIG and TIG set-ups need a gas cylinder and, for anything beyond light-gauge work, a heavier electrical supply. Workshop layout, the materials you weld most often, and how frequently the machine needs to travel are all worth weighing up before settling on one process.

TIG welding relies on a handful of small consumable parts inside the torch that have an outsized effect on how the arc behaves. The tungsten electrode itself doesn't melt into the weld; it simply carries the arc, and different tungsten types, distinguished by their alloying elements, suit different current types and materials. Getting the wrong tungsten for the job typically shows up as arc wander or poor arc starts long before it shows up anywhere else.