On 29-Jul-2004, (WoodChuck34) wrote:

Yes, almost exactly like that except I wouldn't pay $200 for a piece
of steel I could probably get for $20.

That's $20 for the steel, but $180 for the finishing. If you don't care about
the quality of the surface, then save the $180. When I worked as a welding
inspector many years ago, I don't remember seeing too many sheets of steel
that were actually flat. Flat was something you had to work on. LV went a
step further and shaped it into a convex curve so that the table doesn't go
concave under the weight of the router. It would take a _long_ time to do
that by hand yourself and probably about $180 to have it done to your
$20 slab of steel.

Mike