What Kind Of Paint To Use On A Welding Table?

If you have just bought or built a welding table you might be less than satisfied with how it looks.

Welding tables are notoriously ugly because they are prone to rust and wear through exposure to heat and current.

You may want to spruce up your welding table with a lick of paint, but what paint should you use?

What Kind Of Paint To Use On A Welding Table?

The first thing you must know is that you should never paint the work surface on a welding table.

For most welding applications, you will need to ground the welding table with a work lead. This work lead could clamp directly onto the workpiece, but it is often much easier to simply clamp it to the table.

A layer of paint on the surface will insulate the table and prevent grounding. If you then perform a weld, you will damage the workpiece and perhaps even the welding machine itself.

However, you can paint the legs and frame of the welding table if you wish.

Benefits of Painting The Welding Table

There are two main benefits of painting the frame and legs of your welding table.

The first is purely cosmetic. It is nice to work in a nice environment, so you may want to paint your welding table so that it is nicer to look at in the shop.

The other is to prevent rust on the frame and legs of the table. This might be an issue for you if you have a frame made of materials that rust quickly.

The problem can be compounded if you live in a particularly humid climate.

What Kind Of Paint Can Be Used?

In short, you can use any type of paint that you want for the frames and legs. However, some paints are better than others for this particular use.

Rustoleum paint can help to prevent rust if the welding table will be exposed to high humidity.

Some of their paints, such as NeverWet, have hydrophobic properties that can prevent your welding table frame from rusting.

Fire-resistant paints are also a good choice if you are looking for maximum safety.

Paints are generally flammable, which is one of the reasons that they should not be used on the work surface of the welding table. With fire-resistant paint, you can be sure that no sparks can ignite the paint and cause a safety issue.

However, setting fire to the frame because it is painted would be a freak occurrence, so fire-resistant paints are not strictly necessary.

What may be more necessary, if you want to maintain a nice-looking welding table, is heat-resistant paint.

Paint can peel off quite easily when regularly exposed to heat, but heat-resistant paint has properties that allow it to resist peeling under high temperatures.

In any case, you can use almost any type of paint that will adhere to the material your welding table frame is made of.

With the use of primers and proper preparation of the surface, you can apply an even wider range of paints.

Summary

We hope this guide has helped you understand what kind of paint to use on a welding table.

If you have any questions or comments about this guide or welding tables in general, please feel free to leave them in the comments section below.