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[BTDT]

Sounds like a good start. I lucked out several years ago and got a table from a gravel pit that had gone out of business. 1" thick 4x8 plate steel top, 4"x6" H beam legs, and it has some dragline bucket teeth welded on one end on the top that makes an awsome anvil, bending jig. Had to load it on trailer with backhoe, this thing is plenty heavy. I mounted a vise near one end. Works great.

Went out today and took some pics of my welding table, it was bigger than I thought. Still has a lot of junk piled on from winter, but you can see it is 10' long, 4' wide, and about 3'6" tall (didn't measure height ). It is about 7/8" thick, and you can see the dragline teeth welded on (to the side of pipe) laying on top. Legs ended up being 8x8 channel iron.

 

[Mith]

An idea for those of you who dont want to spash out a couple 100 dollars on a thick sheet of plate is to put a sheet of 3/4" ply under the sheet of steel. I havent had a problem.

My bench is just 2x2 box with 3/4" ply on it. I have a bit of stainless to weld on though, its magnetic so I can stick metal to it, but the weld spatter doesnt stick. Its only thin, hence the need for the ply. I wouldnt want to buy a bit of stainless steel 1/2" thick, 10 foot long by 3 foot wide!
Its still flat, even with my 250lb vise in the middle, and all the other junk on it.