Advice needed re table top

[flh801978]

My wife wants a cutting table for cloth making

whats the best material for stability for the top?
I was going to make a X legged frame to hold the top up and perhaps a drop leaf at one end
total size 4ft x 3ft plus 18 inch drop leaf
do I need to make a full supporting frame to support such a top?

I was thinking 25mm mdf

I'm going to cover with formica and lip the edges with beech

does it need covering on the back side?

do I glue the formica with evostick or other and a vacuum bag?

Ian

 

[Chrispy]

If it where me I'd make it from 18mm MDF and varnish / Lacquer it, formica seems a bit over kill for a work table, but what do I know.

You could even mark out a few grid lines under the varnish to help lay ups etc.

 

[flh801978]

Well she wants it like the cutting tables in the shops like John lewis use
I've ordered a 10ft x 4ft sheet of the right colour formica

 

[AndyT]

If she's cutting out big pieces of cloth to make clothes, on what would be a fairly small domestic room sized table, would there be times when the excess cloth (and most of the weight) was hanging down over the edge? (Like a big table cloth.) If so, then I suspect that nice slippery formica could be a real nuisance!

Something like plain mdf with a snag-free rounded edge and some matt or satin varnish on it could be much more suitable. And I agree with Chris that 25mm would be too thick and heavy for something that size.

 

[bugbear]

http://www.notmartha.org/tomake/cuttingtable/

BugBear

 

[Chrispy]

Well if you have settled on laminate it is best practice to do both sides to stop it pulling the top, and contact glue is fine but needs thinking through well, spreading a lot of glue evenly and quickly without dust and shavings falling on to it, and then turning over the laminate and putting it down in the right place, and then doing it all again! if you have a vacuum bag then I'd use that with pva do both sides at the same time. (you will still need a roller to spread the glue)