Sorry for the blurry pic and the ugly guy taking up most of it...
I can't remember the name of the company that made our table top, I'll try to get it for you later. They make smaller one's as well.
This would probably be way out of your price range (no insult intended, it's way out of mine too, University funds are nice), but just to show you what you could do with a thicker piece of steel if you wanted to spend a lot of time doing this sort of thing yourself. The holes you see in the table are 1/4 coarse threaded, in a 1x1x1 pattern (The larger holes hold stands, like the one's in chemistry lab). Our table really becomes it's own jig many times. When that's not an option, it's really easy to make plates and extrusions to hold parts (See the jig coming up, to the far right. That took about 10 minutes to make, so simple.)
Plus, if you did it yourself, you could do just a small section, or whatever size grid pattern you wished. All it would take is some patience and a good bullet tap.
Cons about Ours: Under each hole is a nylon cup, the bottom is not open. To clean them out, you have to use high velocity air blowing across the hole to "suck" everything out. To clean the whole table, it takes about 5-6 hours to do it right. Needless to say, we don't do it that often.
It's also incredably heavy, with the network of 2x2x.125 holding it up. It takes 6-7 guys to just slid it across the shop floor (which is smooth)
Good welding bench plans
