Siegmund Table Talk #1: Why Ben Steel Is Quitting His Dream Job After 14 Years at Stageco – and What's Next for Him with Siegmund

Right on time for International Podcast Day, the Siegmund Table Talk celebrates its premiere! In our new video podcast, we sit down at the table with the people behind the steel – and for the very first episode, Ben Peeters has taken a seat.

Most people in the community know him as Ben Steel. The 34-year-old Belgian has spent the last 14 years at Stageco – a specialist in temporary stage structures. Whether Rammstein, Metallica, AC/DC, Beyoncé or Tomorrowland Festival: whenever a world tour or major event is happening somewhere, chances are high that the load-bearing steel structure underneath went through Ben's workshop. He started out as a welder, worked his way up to head of the welding shop and, along the way, became one of the best-known faces of the welding community on Instagram.

In conversation with host Leo, Siegmund Ambassador Ben explains how a complete touring stage comes together from the first sketch to the finished truss, why you should never ask him for concert tickets, and how, in his mid-twenties, he took over a workshop full of older colleagues who initially wanted absolutely nothing to do with welding tables.

The two also talk about the decision he made just a few months ago: after 14 successful years at Stageco, Ben handed in his notice. In his own words: "Extremely exciting and damn scary."

Why a podcast?

As the world market leader in welding tables, Siegmund stands for quality and precision in metalworking. But the most important thing behind every workpiece are the people: the welders, fabricators and shop managers who work on our welding tables every day. Starting now, the new Siegmund Table Talk gives these heroes of the craft a stage.

The name says it all: in the Siegmund studio, host Leo and his guest sit right on U-squares and talk unfiltered about welding tables, accessories, the craft – and all the real challenges of everyday workshop life.

It's no coincidence that Ben Steel kicks off the premiere. The two have known each other for years. “It feels more like family and friends than work.” — Ben Peeters on Table Talk

It all started with a spontaneous road trip: about six years ago, Ben got in his car in Belgium and drove to Germany for the EuroBlech trade fair to find out who the people behind the well-known welding tables actually are.

Who is Ben Steel?

Ben Peeters started as an intern at Stageco and, over 14 years, worked his way up from trained welder to workshop manager. Among other things, Ben documented his work on Instagram as a digital memory aid: “If I have to build the same part again in ten years, I want to know exactly how I solved it back then.”

After just three months, his first reels on the Instagram account The Steelhouse went viral. The reason, according to Ben: setups on Siegmund welding tables that didn't stay flat but went three-dimensional, upwards and out to the side – a way of working the social media welding community had never seen in this form before.

The night Ben saved a festival in an old company van

One of the strongest anecdotes of the episode: four base frames for tower structures are delivered for the Airbeat One Festival in Germany – but on arrival, the crucial connection points (“forks”) are missing.

On Friday morning, the technical director is standing in Ben's workshop in a panic. Ben doesn't hesitate for long: he cancels all his private weekend plans, gets into an old company van and drives eight hours to Germany. The next morning, he's standing on the festival grounds in 35 °C heat. The German crew on site is skeptical at first – a 28-year-old workshop manager first has to earn the trust on site.

“They wanted to do it their way. I said: we're doing it my way.” — Ben Peeters

Frame one, frame two, frame three – thanks to precise emergency welding, everything fits to the millimeter in the end. “I came home and felt a little bit like a hero,” Ben recalls with a smile.

From a team of skeptics to a Siegmund workshop: how Ben won over his team

When Stageco first bought a Siegmund welding table with a few U-squares for testing, the older generation of welders initially didn't want to work with it. For decades, they had been used to fixed, rigid welding jigs – good for the same standard parts every time, but cumbersome and inflexible.

When Ben took over the workshop in his mid-twenties, at first nobody wanted to explain the old jigs to him. Instead of giving up, he found his own way: during the Covid period, he redrew every U-square and every table from Siegmund by hand in a CAD program so he could plan complex assemblies virtually in advance. Out of this pragmatic necessity, a completely new production process emerged – one that ultimately convinced even his experienced colleagues of Siegmund.

What still fascinates Ben about the Siegmund system today

• Reusability: “You build the fixture, make ten towers or twenty trusses – and then simply rebuild it for the next project.”
• Space savings: Fixed jigs used to block valuable floor space. Today, everything is cleared away once a project is finished, and the work area is free again immediately.
• Durability: Five System 28 welding tables are in constant use at Stageco. The oldest is around ten years old – and according to Ben “still like new.” Despite heavy loads from forklifts and heavy components, they don't warp.
• Efficiency for one-offs: Ben calls the prejudice “It's only worth it from 50 pieces upwards” a myth. Even for a single component, setting up on a Siegmund welding table is faster, more accurate and more economical than knocking together a makeshift fixture.

Host Leo confirms this from countless conversations at trade fairs: companies that switch from the workshop floor or fixed jigs to a hole grid system usually buy a second table soon after. Right angles no longer have to be painstakingly measured – they are built in from the start by the hole grid.

The big leap: Ben's own chapter with “The Steelhouse”

After 14 years, the day had come: one Monday morning, Ben went to his supervisor and handed in his resignation. His bosses' first reaction: “No.” Ben's answer: “Yes.”

He had been thinking this step through for three years: “It never felt like the perfect time. But at some point you just have to jump.” In the podcast, he explicitly emphasizes how much he owes Stageco – the opportunities to grow, the freedom for his social media content and the commitment to future collaborations. At the same time, he speaks very openly about what this step means for him: “Incredibly exciting – and pretty scary.”

He is starting out as a one-man business and is deliberately preparing to produce smaller, finer components on the Siegmund welding table in the future, rather than the gigantic festival stages of recent years.

The plan for his 200 m² workshop in Belgium:

• Custom fabrication: Customer-specific steel structures built to the highest standards of craftsmanship.
• Demo area: A showroom for products Ben stands behind 100% – first and foremost Siegmund welding tables with accessories.
• Laser welding: His own Siegmund laser welding cell, which will also serve as a safe training space for apprentices and schools.
• Real content: Continuing to build knowledge for the community – not as a show influencer, but as a hands-on practitioner who passes on real craftsmanship.

The one tool Ben would never lend out

Ben answers the episode's final question without a split second of hesitation: his Siegmund welding table.

“If you take good care of your welding table, it will stay with you for a lifetime.” — Ben Peeters

A quality and appreciation you can feel in every sentence of the conversation. Thank you, Ben, for this great conversation!

Curious? Discover the whole story, all the details about Ben's new project and the best anecdotes from 14 years of stage building:

▶ Listen to the full first episode of Siegmund Table Talk on YouTube now!