Welding Tips and Tricks

Paint the legs in a rustproof paint, if your earh point is on the legs leave that bit unpainted and coat with lanolin.
Regarding the top, get some lanolin, rub into both sides.
Have a local canvas place make up a canvas or herculite cover, canvas breaths better, herculite is more waterproof and uv resistant.
Lanolin is not toxic to you or the environment, will prevent spatter from sticking to the table and has been used for thousands of years to prevent rust on ferrous metals, also cheap.
Wax on, wax off, grass hopper.
That and the cover should solve your issue.

I blacksmith as a hobby and I usually take a rag, shoot some wd40 on it and wipe down my anvil and post vise with it. This would allow you to still get a good ground if you want to weld on it occasionally, something clear coat could take away- the wd40 works like a charm

I finally put up some pictures of the outdoor work/weld table (4 X 5 X 1/4" thick top).
BradK

I wipe mine down with a little mineral spirits with paste wax dissolved in it.A pint bag of paste wax and about 1/2 pint of varsol. I use the same thing on my shop floors every several weeks. I had a gallon can leak a big glob of John Deere green on the floor the other night. Peeled it right off the next morning. Same with the welding tables. Treat the steel with some Ospho after wire wheeling and put a floor wax(or my mix) on it.Like a car hood it'll bead up in the rain for many weeks if not in use.
In all reality a "full time" table never gets a chance to rust.
315 am......out to the shop.1100 feet of 1x1 fence panels to build.Good thing I have no neighbors. That Metal Devil will wake the dead